A Desert Calling: Life in a Forbidding Landscape

by Mares, Michael A.

• ISBN13: 9780674007475
• ISBN10: 0674007476
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-01
• Publisher: HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Summary

For most of us the word "desert" conjures up images of barren wasteland, vast, dry stretches inimical to life. But for a great array of creatures, perhaps even more plentiful than those who inhabit tropical rainforests, the desert is a haven and a home. Travel with Michael Mares into the deserts of Argentina, Iran, Egypt, and the American Southwest and you will encounter a rich and memorable variety of these small, tenacious animals, many of them first discovered by Mares in areas never before studied. Accompanying Mares on his forays into these hostile habitats, we observe the remarkable behavioral, physiological, and ecological adaptations that have allowed such little-known species of rodents, bats, and other small mammals to persist in an arid world. At the same time, we see firsthand the perils and pitfalls that await biologists who venture into the field to investigate new habitats, discover new species, and add to our knowledge of the diversity of life. Filled with the seductions and trials that such adventures entail, A Desert Calling affords an intimate understanding of the biologist's vocation. As he astonishes us with the range and variety of knowledge to be acquired through the determined investigation of little-known habitats, Mares opens a window on his own uncommon life, as well as on the uncommon life of the remote and mysterious corners of our planet.

Author Biography

Michael A. Mares is Curator of Mammals and Director of the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History at the University of Oklahoma.

Table of Contents

Foreword	ix
Stephen Jay Gould
Prologue	1	(4)
The Search for Undiscovered Life	5	(6)
The Immortal Animals	11	(11)
Elfin Farmers and Cactophylic Carpenters	22	(22)
Darkness and the Cave of the Jaguar	44	(10)
The Winding Path to Field Biology	54	(16)
The Desert at the Bottom of the World	70	(21)
Different Actors, Different Scripts	91	(37)
Desert in the Sky	128	(8)
The Vampire and the Phantoms of All Hallows' Eve	136	(6)
Land of the Shah	142	(15)
Impenetrable Land of Thorns	157	(30)
The Devil's Town	187	(18)
In the Shadow of the Pyramids	205	(16)
Naming the Anonymous	221	(17)
From Howling Wolf Mice to Fairy Armadillos	238	(8)
Aridity's Cornucopia	246	(6)
Life in the Desert of Salt	252	(19)
Land of Diamonds	271	(5)
Epilogue	276	(11)
Appendix. Scientific and Common Names of Species Mentioned in the Text, by Region and Major Category	287	(6)
Selected Readings	293	(14)
Acknowledgments	307	(4)
Index	311