Barn owls : evolution and ecology / Alexandre Roulin ; artwork by Laurent Willenegger.
With heart-shaped face, buff back and wings, and pure white underparts, the barn owl is a distinctive and much-loved bird which has fascinated people from many cultures throughout history. How did the barn owl colonise the world? What adaptations have made this bird so successful? How is the increasing impact of human disturbance affecting these animals? Answering these questions and more, Roulin brings together the main global perspectives on the evolution, ecology and behaviour of the barn owl and its relatives, discussing topics such as the high reproductive potential, physiology, social and family interaction, pronounced colour variation and global distribution. Accessible and beautifully illustrated, this definitive volume on the barn owl is for researchers, professionals and graduate students in ornithology, animal behaviour, ecology, conservation biology and evolutionary biology, and will also appeal to amateur ornithologists and nature lovers.
| 1. Verfasser:in | |
|---|---|
| Ort, Verlag, Jahr |
Cambridge
: Cambridge University Press
, 2020
|
| Umfang | 1 online resource (xvii, 297 pages) : : digital, PDF file(s). |
| ISBN | 1-316-73100-6 1-316-69411-9 |
| Sprache | Englisch |
| Zusatzinfo | Cover -- Half-title -- Dedication -- Title page -- Copyright information -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Why this Book? -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Why is the barn owl so interesting? -- 1.2 Why study barn owls instead of laboratory mice? -- 1.3 The raw data -- 1.4 Evolution of the Tytonidae -- 1.5 Why cosmopolitan? -- 1.6 Why do barn owls live so close to humans? -- 2 Conservation -- 2.1 Why protect barn owls? -- 2.2 Ethics -- 2.3 Decreases in barn owl populations -- 2.4 Pollution -- 2.5 What can we do to protect barn owls? -- 3 Parasites and predators -- 3.1 Endoparasites -- 3.2 Ectoparasites -- 3.3 Predators and anti-predator behaviour -- 4 Physiology in an ecological context -- 4.1 Hearing capacity -- 4.2 Visual capacity -- 4.3 Daily food requirements -- 4.4 Pellet production -- 4.5 Capacity to withstand cold weather -- 5 Morphology in an ecological context -- 5.1 Body size -- 5.2 Reversed sexual size dimorphism -- 6 Daily life: hunting, feeding and sleeping -- 6.1 A nocturnal hunter -- 6.2 Roosting -- 6.3 Home range -- 6.4 Flight mechanics -- 6.5 Hunting methods -- 6.6 Prey selection -- 6.7 Diet -- 7 Sexual behaviour -- 7.1 Courtship and copulation -- 7.2 Mating system -- 7.3 Fidelity and divorce -- 8 Reproduction -- 8.1 Nest sites -- 8.2 Interspecific competition over nest sites -- 8.3 Reproductive season -- 8.4 Egg formation -- 8.5 Clutch size -- 8.6 Incubation -- 8.7 Hatching -- 8.8 Brood size -- 8.9 Nestling growth -- 8.10 Second and third annual broods -- 8.11 Offspring desertion -- 9 Parental care -- 9.1 Parental foraging -- 9.2 Parental behaviour at the nest -- 9.3 Adult body mass -- 9.4 Food stores -- 9.5 Adoption -- 10 Sibling interactions -- 10.1 Timing of nestling activities -- 10.2 Sibling negotiation -- 10.3 Begging behaviour -- 10.4 Stealing food from siblings -- 10.5 Food sharing among siblings. 10.6 Mutual preening -- 10.7 Social huddling -- 11 Demography -- 11.1 Natal dispersal -- 11.2 Breeding dispersal and migration -- 11.3 Survival prospects -- 11.4 Population dynamics -- 12 Plumage polymorphism -- 12.1 Colour polymorphism -- 12.2 Genetics of plumage polymorphism -- 12.3 Sexual dimorphism in plumage traits -- 12.4 Age-related changes in plumage traits -- 12.5 Mate choice -- 12.6 Sexually antagonistic selection -- 12.7 Adaptive functions of whitish and reddish colouration -- 12.8 Adaptive functions of small and large black spots -- 12.9 Adaptive functions of few and many black spots -- 12.10 Geographic variation in plumage traits -- Conclusion -- To the future -- Species names -- Index. |
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