Soay Sheep: Dynamics and Selection in an Island Population - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521823005 ISBN 13: 9780521823005

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2004

Synopsis

Soay Sheep synthesises one of the most detailed studies of demography and dynamics in a naturally regulated population of mammals. Unlike most other large mammals, the Soay sheep population of Hirta in the St Kilda archipelago show persistent oscillations, sometimes increasing or declining by more than 60% in a year. Soay Sheep explores the causes of these oscillations and their consequences for selection on genetic and phenotypic variation within the population, drawing on studies over nearly twenty years of the life-histories and reproductive careers of many individuals. Covering population dynamics, demography and their effects on selection, energetic and resource limitations on the interaction between sheep and parasites, and the adaptive significance of their reproductive characteristics, it provides unique insights into the regulation of other herbivore populations and the effects of environmental change on selection and adaptation. It will be essential reading for vertebrate ecologists, demographers, evolutionary biologists and behavioural ecologists.

About this title

About the Authors

Tim Clutton-Brock is Professor of Animal Ecology at the University of Cambridge.

Josephine Pemberton is Reader in Molecular Ecology at the University of Edinburgh.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521823005
• ISBN 13: 9780521823005
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 396
• Editor: Clutton-Brock T. H., Pemberton J. M.