Animal Migration

E.J. Milner-Gulland studied Pure and Applied Biology at Oxford University, and then did a PhD in resource management at Imperial College London, modelling the harvesting of elephants, rhinos and saiga antelopes. She held a Junior Research Fellowship at New College Oxford, was a visiting post-doctoral research at the University of British Columbia and then a Lecturer in Mathematical Ecology at the University of Warwick. After that she held a Lecturership in Resource Economics at Imperial College London, and became a Reader and then Professor in Conservation Science, also at Imperial College London. Her current research interests concern the interaction between human decision-making and the dynamics of exploited populations, as well as the ecology and conservation of the migratory saiga antelope in Central Asia.John Fryxell obtained both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of British Columbia. His PhD research was on the ecology of the white-eared kob - a migratory antelope in the southern Sudan. He held a lectureship at the University of British Columbia and briefly worked with the Government of Newfoundland before assuming a faculty position at the University of Guelph, where he is currently a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology.Anthony Sinclair has conducted research in Serengeti, Tanzania, since 1965, mainly on the problem of what determines the size of animal populations, particularly vertebrates, and the mechanisms of regulation. This work has expanded to look at the whole ecosystem, documenting how the different components of soils, plants, herbivores and predators interact. In particular, he is interested in how to provide scientific advice for conservation. In Canada he was part of the Kluane Boreal Forest Ecosystem project in the Yukon. This large-scale experiment examined the workings of the northern spruce forests, in particular what caused the 10-year cycle of snowshoe hare numbers. Between 1992 and 2002 Dr. Sinclair collaborated with colleagues in the CSIRO, Sustainable Ecosystems division, Commonwealth Government of Australia in experiments on the conservation of endangered marsupial prey and their exotic predators, the red fox and feral cats.

Overall, I found this book to be interesting, well written, and a valuable resource for anyone working with migratory species or just curious about animal migration. The text would be informative for a wide range of biologists, whether they work in academia, governmental organizations, the private sector, or non-governmental organizations.

• THEME 1: THE EVOLUTION OF MIGRATION ; THEME 2: HOW TO MIGRATE ; THEME 3: MIGRATION IN TIME AND SPACE ; THEME 4: BROADER CONTEXTS