How the zebra got its stripes
Subtitle: and other Darwinian just so stories
By: Léo Grasset ; translated by Barbara Mellor
Contributors: Mellor, Barbara, translator
Publisher: Profile Books Ltd
Published: 2016
Place of publication: London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 154
ISBN-13: 9781781256282; 9781782832430
Subjects: Savanna animals; Miscellanea
Work titles: Coup de la giraffe
Description: Why do giraffes have such long necks? Why are zebras striped? Why are buffalo herds broadly democratic while elephants prefer dictatorships? What explains the architectural brilliance of the termite mound or the complications of the hyena's sex life? And why have honey-badgers evolved to be one of nature's most efficient agents of mass destruction? Deploying the latest scientific research and his own extensive observations on the African savannah, Léo Grasset offers some answers to these and many other intriguing questions. Having shown that natural phenomena are rarely simple and that often they get more complex the more you look at them, he brings to bear a mix of evolutionary biology and lateral thinking to explain the mysteries of animal behaviour in terms that are simple but never simplifying. He ends by considering how our origins in the savannah and evolution as the hybrid of several species can shapes our habits. Léo Grasset is one of France's brightest young natural scientists. Prepare to be fascinated, delighted, surprised, shocked and, above all, entertained by his brilliantly original Darwinian Just So stories.
Notes: Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Pt. I; title: Evolution in its Guises -- -- 1.; title: Female Hyena's Penis -- -- 2.; title: Giraffe's Long Neck -- -- 3.; title: Random Flight of the Gazelle -- -- 4.; title: How the Zebra Got its Stripes -- -- pt. II; title: Mysteries of Animal Behaviour -- -- 5.; title: Air-Conditioning of the Termite Mound -- -- 6.; title: Impala's Mexican Waves -- -- 7.; title: Elephant Dictatorship vs Buffalo Democracy -- -- 8.; title: Antelope Art of Sexual Manipulation -- -- pt. III; title: Extraordinary Creatures -- -- 9.; title: Dung Beetle Navigation -- -- 10.; title: Seismic Signalling in the Elephants' Sound-World -- -- 11.; title: Honey Badger -- Weapon of Mass Destruction -- -- 12.; title: Truth about the Lion King -- -- pt. IV; title: Human Factor -- -- 13.; title: How to Turn a Lion into a Cub-Killer -- -- 14.; title: Catastrophic Change -- -- 15.; title: Human Evolution and its Impact.