E-Book Overview
Reproductive mechanisms are well understood in only a handful of vertebrate species, mostly domestic livestock and laboratory animals. This means that attempts to develop and implement management policies for wildlife conservation of endangered species are often based on poor data or no data at all. In Reproductive Sciences and Integrated Conservation, leading authorities examine reproductive diversity in fishes, amphibia, reptiles, birds and mammals. They review the many factors that influence reproduction--including genetics, behavior and nutrition--and assess the potential conservation relevance of the recent rapid advances in reproductive technology and medicine.
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Reproductive Science and Integrated Conservation Reproduction is essential to the continuation and evolution of life on this planet and is therefore a centrally important process in the conservation of wildlife. However, reproductive mechanisms are well understood in only a handful of vertebrate species, mostly the human, domestic livestock and laboratory animals. This means that attempts to develop and implement management policies for wildlife conservation, and especially for endangered species that, by definition, are difficult to study, are often based on poor data or no data at all. In Reproductive Science and Integrated Conservation leading authorities provide glimpses of reproductive diversity in fishes, amphibia, reptiles, birds and mammals. Conservation plans are founded on the assumption that reproduction will be successful, but what if it fails? This book reviews the many factors that influence reproduction, including genetics, behaviour and nutrition, and experts assess the potential conservation relevance of the recent rapid advances in reproductive technology and medicine. This book is based on a symposium that the editors convened at the Zoological Society of London in November 2000 to make the New Millennium. Here, the speakers have the opportunity to present their vision of Reproductive Sciences and Integrated Conservation to a wider audience. william v. holt is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, and heads the Reproductive Biology Group. amanda pickard is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London. john rodger is Director of the Australian Government’s multi-organisation Cooperative Research Centre for Conservation and Management of Marsupials. david wildt is Senior Scientist and Head, Department of Reproductive Sciences, Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Washington, USA.
Conservation Biology Conservation biology is a flourishing field, but there is still enormous potential for making further use of the science that underpins it. This series aims to present internationally significant contributions from leading researchers in particularly active areas of conservation biology. It focuses on topics where basic theory is strong and where there are pressing problems for practical conservation. The series includes both single-authored and edited volumes and adopts a direct and accessible style targeted at interested undergraduates, postgraduates, researchers and university teachers. Books and chapters should be rounded, authoritative accounts of particular areas with the emphasis on review rather than original data papers. The series is the result of a collaboration between the Zoological Society of London and Cambridge University Press. The series editors are Professor Morris Gosling, Professor of Animal Behaviour at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Professor John Gittleman, Professor of Biology at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Dr Rosie Woodroffe of the University of California, Davis and Dr Guy Cowlishaw of the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London. The series ethos is