Extreme conservation : life at the edges of the world /
"On the Tibetan Plateau, there are wild yaks with blood cells thinner than those of horses' by half, enabling the endangered yaks to survive at 40 below zero and in the lowest oxygen levels of the mountaintops. But climate change is causing the snow patterns here to shift, and with the sno...
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Main Authors: | |
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Published: |
The University of Chicago Press,
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Publisher Address: | Chicago, IL : |
Publication Dates: | 2018. |
Literature type: | Book |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Summary: |
"On the Tibetan Plateau, there are wild yaks with blood cells thinner than those of horses' by half, enabling the endangered yaks to survive at 40 below zero and in the lowest oxygen levels of the mountaintops. But climate change is causing the snow patterns here to shift, and with the snows, the entire ecosystem. Food and water are vaporizing in this warming environment, and these beasts of ice and thin air are extraordinarily ill-equipped for the change. A journey into some of the most forbidding landscapes on earth, [this book] is an eye-opening, steely look at what it takes for animals like these to live at the edges of existence. But more than this, it is a revealing exploration of how climate change and people are affecting even the most far-flung niches of our planet."--Amazon.com summary. |
Carrier Form: | xxi, 376 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), maps ; 24 cm |
Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
ISBN: |
9780226366265 022636626X 9781108453196 1108453198 |
Index Number: | GF75 |
CLC: | X24 |
Call Number: | X24/B496 |
Contents: | Foreword -- Prologue -- Part I. The intersection of continents : Beringia's silent bestiary. Motherless children in black and white ; Before now ; Beyond Arctic wind ; Where worlds collide ; Muskoxen in ice ; When the snow turns to rain -- Part II. Sentinels of Tibetan Plateau. Below the margins of glaciers ; The ethereal yak ; Birthplace of angry gods -- Part III. Gobi ghosts, Himalayan shadows. Counting for conservation ; To kill a saiga ; Victims of fashion ; In the valley of takin ; Pavilions where snow dragons hide -- Part IV. Adapt, move, or die?. The struggle for existence ; A postapocalyptic world : Vrangel ; Nyima -- Postscript. |