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New Zealand’s Native Mammals

The list of native mammals of the New Zealand Region (including a slice of Antarctica) is completely different from that of any other country in the world.

There are no indigenous four-legged land mammals at all. Instead, there are just two living bats of unique and ancient descent, plus 57 species of seals, dolphins and whales.

New Zealand’s Native Mammals describes this vast array, and celebrates their extraordinary history and diversity; their influence on Māori culture; their ruthless exploitation by 19th century sealers and whalers; and their contemporary recovery.

Professor Carolyn King explains how long isolation in a remote corner of the prehuman South Pacific has nurtured the evolution of a native mammal fauna like no other.

$34.99 incl. GST

2 in stock

Description

Reviews

The New Zealand Listener, 50 Best Kids’ Books of 2024 ~ “We’re so used to thinking a couple of bat species are our only native mammals that we forget about the wealth of marine mammals in our region, which includes Antarctica. There are, in fact, 57 species. A comprehensive round-up of native mammal fauna, plus historical, cultural and geographical backgrounds.”

Waiheke Weekender ~ “Emeritus Professor Carolyn M. King has written a portable guide on when and where to see these creatures, how to identify them, and a brief guide to their behaviors.”

About the Kiwi author

English-born Carolyn King (known to friends as Kim) came to New Zealand in 1971, taking a post with DSIR Ecology Division as a scientist specialising in introduced carnivores. Her two best-known books, The Natural History of Weasels and Stoats (1989) and The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals (1990), both recently went into second editions with Oxford University Press. In 1983 she was appointed Scientific Editor to the Royal Society of New Zealand, and edited The Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand until 2001 and The New Zealand Journal of Zoology from 1991 to now. In 1995 she joined the Department of Biological Sciences at Waikato University, where she is now a senior lecturer.

 

Additional information

Weight320 g
Dimensions21 × 15 cm
ISBN

9781776940691

First published

2024

Format

Paperback edition

Page count

128

Published by

White Cloud Books (an imprint of Upstart Press)

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