Sexual Segregation in Ungulates: Ecology, Behavior, and Conservation

Sexual segregation, where male and female animals live separately, has significant ecological, behavioral, and conservation implications for hooved mammals, known as ungulates. Award-winning researcher R. Terry Bowyer's book explores the causes and consequences of this phenomenon, providing insights into ungulate mating systems, sexual dimorphism, paternal behavior, and population dynamics. His research spans ecosystems and involves most species of ungulates in North America. The book offers valuable information for scientists, conservationists, and anyone interested in species management and conservation.

Format: Hardback
Length: 200 pages
Publication date: 10 January 2023
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Sexual segregation, where the sexes of a species live apart for long periods of time, has far-reaching consequences for the ecology, behavior, and conservation of hooved mammals, which are called ungulates. Award-winning researcher R. Terry Bowyer has spent the past four decades unraveling the causes and consequences of this perplexing phenomenon by studying ungulates and the large carnivores that prey upon them.

In Sexual Segregation in Ungulates, Bowyer's critical, thought-provoking approach helps resolve long-standing disagreements concerning sexual segregation and offers future pathways for species and habitat conservation. He highlights important elements of the natural history of wild ungulate species, including bighorn sheep and elk. He then uses this perspective to frame and test hypotheses illuminating the motivations behind sexual segregation. He investigates the role of sexual segregation in mechanisms underpinning ungulate mating systems, sexual dimorphism, paternal behavior, and population dynamics.

Bowyer's research spans ecosystems from deserts to the Arctic and involves most species of ungulates inhabiting the North American continent. He also provides a timely review of sexual segregation for species of plants and other animals, including humans. Covering definitions, theory, findings, and practical applications of related study, Bowyer describes the behavioral patterns related to sexual segregation, explains how to detect these patterns, and considers the implications of sexual segregation for new approaches to conservation and management of ungulates and other species of wildlife.

This book is essential reading for scientists and all those interested in the conservation and management of ungulate species and other wildlife.

Weight: 590g
Dimension: 254 x 178 x 18 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781421445069