Editor: Natarajan Singaravelan

Rare Animals of India

eBook: US $35 Special Offer (PDF + Printed Copy): US $142
Printed Copy: US $124
Library License: US $140
ISBN: 978-1-60805-629-3 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-60805-485-5 (Online)
Year of Publication: 2013
DOI: 10.2174/97816080548551130101

Introduction

Rare Animals of India is a unique book that presents the biological and ecological accounts of the least known animal species of India in one comprehensive volume. The book gives comprehensive ecological accounts supported with data tables on rare and specific animal species of India and discusses the basis for their rarity for their conservation. It includes information about the Indian Gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) the endangered Forest Owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti), the Bengal Marsh Mongoose, Snow Leopards and many more. Readers are guided through several chapters each detailing a specific kind of animal, some of them being on the list of endangered species. With over 150 color illustrations, this intriguing reference will be of immense interest to zoologists, ecologists, naturalists and conservation biologists as well as general readers across the world interested in studying such rare or least known animals found in the length and breadth of the Indian region.

Indexed in: Book Citation Index, Science Edition, BIOSIS Previews, Zoological Record, EBSCO.

Foreword

India’s biodiversity hotspots and biodiversity-rich ecoregions are well known internationally. The country’s burgeoning human population requires more settlements, and its rapidly growing economy brings with it the pollution often associated with industrialization. All this results in direct and indirect threats to wildlife habitats in many parts of the country, and exacerbates human-wildlife conflict, which in turn diminishes the population size of many species, and the rare get rarer. Governmental and non-governmental organizations are working hard to address this situation.

Indian wildlife biologists have concentrated on the iconic megafauna of lions, tigers, elephant and rhino, for which there is now a huge literature. Although rare species catch the imagination of some wildlife biologists and naturalists and new species continue to be discovered, biological and ecological information about them is often less accessible. This eBook on Rare Animals of India is an important initiative aimed at presenting rare terrestrial vertebrates and condensing the available ecological information on them.

I have known Singaravelan for over a decade, since his doctoral studies. We share an interest in bats and have worked together, during field training workshops conducted by the Chiroptera Conservation Information Network of South Asia. Despite his varied academic and research interests, Singaravelan has keen interests in wildlife and its conservation. He has selected rare species and experts on their biology from throughout India and his eBook showcases rare vertebrates and their habitats. It will be of wide interest to researchers, naturalists, wildlife biologists, conservation/policy planners and students of wildlife. I hope it achieves the wide readership it deserves.

Paul A. Racey, DSc, FRSE, FSB
Regius Professor of Natural History (Emeritus)
University of Aberdeen
Honorary Visiting Professor
University of Exeter in Cornwall
Co-Chair, IUCN’s Bat Specialist Group UK


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