A Desert Calling: Life in a Forbidding Landscape

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 336 pages
• Published by: Harvard University Press May 14, 2002
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0674007476
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0674007475
• Book Dimensions: 8.5 x 6.7 x 1.1 inches
• Weighs: 1.3 pounds

From Booklist
The word desert, from the Latin deserare ("abandoned"), evokes a hot, dry wasteland. This view could not be further from the truth, as field biologist Mares shows in this marvelous examination of the lives of desert animals. Drawing on more than thirty years of studying the less charismatic animals of the deserts--the rodents, bats, and other small mammals--the author writes of his search for insights into how these animals adapt to the harsh desert environment. Mares takes the reader along as he researches small mammals in the deserts of North America, South America, Egypt, and Iran. The author mixes precise explanations of how specimens are collected (and why it is necessary to collect them) with tales of petty bureaucracy in Tehran and the joy of removing ticks and fleas while ensconced in a provincial hotel in Argentina; and the wonder of field research and of the discoveries that result shines through his matter-of-fact tone. Author photographs illustrate the little-known creatures and habitats he discusses. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Review
Mares [is] a world authority on desert mammals -- Jonathan Beard, New Scientist [UK], May 4, 2002

Maresdisputes the common belief that desert regions are inhospitable to life. -- Science News, June 22, 2002

This is smart reading for those who dream of doing science in the field. -- Scott LaFee, San Diego Union-Tribune, June 16, 2002

[A] thoroughly good read for armchair biologists, but it can be especially recommended for anyone planning to do fieldwork. -- John A. Lee, Biologist [UK], October 1, 2002

Reader Reviews
We are quite used to hearing about the rainforest and the worries about its loss. We hear less about the loss of deserts. Let the military test there, let off-track entertainment vehicles bounce there, let toxic wastes accumulate there; they are not good for much else, goes the common view. They are uncomfortable places to visit, and they can't be turned to agriculture. Michael A. Mares, in _A Desert Calling: Life in a Forbidding Landscape_ (Harvard), has a completely different view. Mares has spent his professional life studying the deserts of the United States, Argentina, Iran, and Egypt. He undoubtedly knows plenty about plants, insects, birds, and snakes of these areas, but he is a specialist in the mammals that have evolved to live in such harsh conditions. Desert rats, mice, armadillos, and gerbils have been his study, and he has here (note the double meaning of the title) assembled a description of his life's work, as well as an attempted explanation of just why he has spent so much time in places the rest of us could not stand. His thoughtful and funny stories are a sort of autobiography, and he has much to tell us about the exotic animals that he wants better appreciated. There are some peculiar beasts out there. The kangaroo rat has a nose exquisitely tuned to find buried seeds, and can filter sixty seeds from sand in a second. There are penguins in the desert in Patagonia. There are a few rodents on different continents who can live on the leaves of the saltbush, leaves that have a protective outer layer of cells full of salt. They have special teeth, or in one case, special dental hairs, that strip away the inedible layer to get to the green below. There are deadly assassin bugs. Mares describes staying in some of the most unpleasant regions of the world, and admits that when he is busy with academia and home, he longs to get to the desert, but it works vice versa, too. He is almost killed by fungus infesting his lungs after climbing through guano deposits in a New Mexico cave. He is nearly crushed by trees falling during a storm on a bat hunt in Costa Rica. Some of the most surprising specimens described here are humans, and Mares has plenty of funny stories. _A Desert Calling_ is full of light moments, and near-disasters that are pleasant to recall because they are over. However, Mares has a good deal serious to say about the study of desert animals, and in the larger view, about taxonomy in general. "If you do not know the taxonomy and systematics of the organisms you study - if you cannot identify them correctly and understand how they are related - then you cannot study them in any meaningful manner." Research in "bigger" topics such as ecology is only possible when taxonomists have gone to the field beforehand and identified one creature from another and settled their ranges and evolutionary relationships. Mares has found and been responsible for the first scientific descriptions of many mammals, and knows that there are still plenty out there which have yet to be properly catalogued and studied. Over and over, he comes across specimens about which no one has basic answers: Are they diurnal or nocturnal? Do they live in colonies? Do they hibernate? What do they eat? There is an enormous amount of basic science brightly reported here, and an enormous amount that is yet to be done.