Mammals of Victoria: Distribution Ecology

Book info: Mammals of Victoria: Distribution Ecology (Hardcover, 0 pages) – Oxford University Press, 2002. Language: English.

This is the first book comprehensively to describe Victoria's mammal fauna and one of the most detailed books yet produced on any portion of Australia's mammal fauna. It provides concise summaries of current knowledge about the ecology, distribution, abundance and conservation needs of 137 species of mammals found in Victoria since the earliest explorations by Europeans. It also includes accounts of marine species recorded from Victorian waters - 7 species of seals and 22 of whales and dolphins - and introduced species which have established feral populations. Mammals of Victoria is written by eight mammal specialists from the Flora and Fauna Branch of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and draws upon more than thirty years of research and survey into Victoria's mammals. A major feature of the book are the detailed maps showing the distribution of each species. These maps were generated from a comprehensive computer database - the Atlas of Victorian Wildlife - containing over 120,000 mammal records. Thus the maps show actual distributions, not someone's predictions of a species' range. Introductory sections define the major groups of mammals, summarize the evolutionary history of mammals in Australia, describe the history of European discovery of Victoria's mammals and their plight since settlement, and describe the environmental features of sixteen natural regions used to explain the distribution of each species.