Mammals of Alabama
520 pages, 6 x 9
223 color & 81 B&W illustrations, includin
Paperback
Release Date:15 Apr 2014
ISBN:9780817357498
Mammals of Alabama
By Troy L. Best and Julian L. Dusi
SERIES:
Gosse Nature Guides
University of Alabama Press
Beautifully designed and sturdily bound for rugged field use, Mammals of Alabama is the first and only exhaustive guidebook to Alabama’s diverse and fascinating mammalian fauna.
European and American naturalists visited the territory that would become Alabama as early as the late eighteenth century and marveled at the breadth and variety of its flora and fauna. Yet until today scientists, scholars, and nature enthusiasts had no systematic guide to the state’s mammals. Mammals of Alabama fills the gap.
Naturally occurring in the state are nine orders, twenty-two families, fifty-one genera, and seventy-two species of living mammals. Best and Dusi offer an engaging entry for each as well as additional species that have become extinct through natural processes or human extirpation.
Illustrated with maps and photos, each entry includes:
• Identification notes • Dental formula
• Size and weight • Distribution
• Ecology • Life History
• Behavior • Parasites and Diseases
• Conservation Status • Notes and References
Ideal for backyards, hikes, libraries, and classrooms, Mammals of Alabama includes hundreds of professional, close-up color specimen photographs of both living animals in their natural habitats and skull plates, making identification of animals easy.
Best also offers fascinating and fun facts about Alabama mammals that will delight nature lovers of all ages, such as the surprising and excellent tree-climbing skills of the gray fox, the use in the past of mole skins to apply cosmetics, and the litters of identical quadruplets common to the nine-banded armadillo.
Published in cooperation with the Alabama Wildlife Federation
European and American naturalists visited the territory that would become Alabama as early as the late eighteenth century and marveled at the breadth and variety of its flora and fauna. Yet until today scientists, scholars, and nature enthusiasts had no systematic guide to the state’s mammals. Mammals of Alabama fills the gap.
Naturally occurring in the state are nine orders, twenty-two families, fifty-one genera, and seventy-two species of living mammals. Best and Dusi offer an engaging entry for each as well as additional species that have become extinct through natural processes or human extirpation.
Illustrated with maps and photos, each entry includes:
• Identification notes • Dental formula
• Size and weight • Distribution
• Ecology • Life History
• Behavior • Parasites and Diseases
• Conservation Status • Notes and References
Ideal for backyards, hikes, libraries, and classrooms, Mammals of Alabama includes hundreds of professional, close-up color specimen photographs of both living animals in their natural habitats and skull plates, making identification of animals easy.
Best also offers fascinating and fun facts about Alabama mammals that will delight nature lovers of all ages, such as the surprising and excellent tree-climbing skills of the gray fox, the use in the past of mole skins to apply cosmetics, and the litters of identical quadruplets common to the nine-banded armadillo.
Published in cooperation with the Alabama Wildlife Federation
This book will find a wide audience of professional workers in natural history, as well as interested amateurs. With nothing comparable for Alabama, there is a definite need for this book. . . .The detailed information on parasites of each species is a valuable compilation for the scientific readership.’— Don E. Wilson, curator emeritus of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, and coeditor of Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference
What a beautiful book Mammals of Alabama is! The layout, images, distribution maps, skull plates, and accompanying information on the respective species are outstanding! This exceptional volume is a fitting tribute to Julian Dusi, to the very concept of the Gosse Nature Guides, and to the quality and standards of this series. I cannot say enough in praise of Troy Best and his spearheading this whole effort. I can hardly wait to get my copy!’
— Gary R. Mullen, co-author of Philip Henry Gosse: Science and Art in ‘Letters from Alabama’ and ‘Entomologia Alabamensis’ and co-editor of Medical and Veterinary Entomology
Troy L. Best is Professor of Zoology and Curator of Mammals at Auburn University. He is coauthor, with Michael J. Harvey and J. Scott Altenbach, of Bats of the United States and Canada.
Julian L. Dusi was a P-38 high-altitude reconnaissance pilot in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. After 45 years of teaching, he retired from Auburn University as Professor of Zoology in 1993, continuing his interests in bird banding, bird counts, and scientific reading. He died in 2012 at the age of 92.
