Tim Caro

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Timothy M. Caro (born 1951) is a British

anti-predator defences in animals, and the function of zebra
stripes. He is the author of several textbooks on these subjects.

Life

Caro was born in 1951 to artists

conservation of fragments of forest, and the function of coloration in mammals, especially zebra stripes.[3][4][5]

How the zebra got its stripes

Caro investigated some 18 hypotheses to explain why zebras are striped, excluding all but one of them through experimental studies.

Caro's team found evidence that zebra stripes help to reduce biting by

predator avoidance, heat management, or social interaction.[6] He evaluated 18 different proposed explanations for the stripes, devising and carrying out quantitative tests to compare them. The evolutionary ecologist Tim Birkhead, writing in the Times Higher Education, praised Caro's 2006 book Zebra Stripes as "an exemplary study", calling it "one long argument", a phrase used by Darwin of his On the Origin of Species, summarizing it as "in essence a 300-page scientific paper".[7] Karin Brulliard, writing in The Washington Post under the headline "To figure out why the zebra got its stripes, this researcher dressed up like one", portrays Caro in a zebra costume "not used in his fieldwork", but also in a tailor-made striped suit in the Tanzanian bush, as well as in pelts of zebra and the unstriped wildebeest. The newspaper reports Caro as "absolutely convinced" that he has found the right explanation.[8] Matthew Cobb, writing in New Scientist, recalls Rudyard Kipling's children's book, Just So Stories, in which the zebra got his stripes by standing half-in, half-out of the shadows "with the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees" on his body. Cobb calls Zebra Stripes a marvellous book and predicts it will encourage a generation to "tackle evolutionary biology's remaining enigmas, with or without the help of Kipling."[9]
Michael Lemonick, writing in The New Yorker echoed the just-so-story theme.[10]

Works

  • Caro, Tim (1994). Cheetahs of the Serengeti Plains: Group Living in an Asocial Species. University of Chicago Press.
  • Caro, Tim (1998). Behavioral Ecology and Conservation Biology. Oxford University Press.
  • Caro, Tim (2005). Antipredator Defenses in Birds and Mammals. University of Chicago Press.
  • Caro, Tim (2010). Conservation by Proxy: Indicator, Umbrella, Keystone, Flagship, and Other Surrogate Species. Island Press.
  • Caro, Tim (2016). Zebra Stripes. University of Chicago Press.

References

  1. ^ Kerlin, Kat (2016-12-14). "Biologist earns his 'Zebra Stripes' with new book". University of California. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  2. ^ Lynton, Norbert (2013-10-24). "Sir Anthony Caro obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  3. ^ "Tim Caro". University of California Davis. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  4. ^ "Tim Caro Profile". University of California Davis. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  5. ^ "Dr. Tim Caro: Unraveling the Mysteries of Animal Coloration and Why Zebras Have Stripes". People Behind the Science Podcast. 7 June 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2018.
  6. PMID 24691390
    .
  7. ^ Birkhead, Tim (8 December 2016). "Zebra Stripes, by Tim Caro". Times Higher Education.
  8. ^ Brulliard, Karin (4 January 2017). "To figure out why the zebra got its stripes, this researcher dressed up like one". The Washington Post.
  9. ^ Cobb, Matthew. "How did the zebra get its stripes?". New Scientist.
  10. ^ Lemonick, Michael (11 April 2014). "How Zebras Got Their Stripes". The New Yorker.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tim_Caro&oldid=1147674324"