Tupai: A Field Study of Bornean Treeshrews

Organisms and Environments

by Louise H. Emmons, Harry W. Greene (Foreword)

Treeshrews suffer from chronic mistaken they are not shrews, and most are not found in trees. These squirrel-sized, brownish mammals with large, dark, lashless eyes were at one time thought to be primates. Even though most scientists now believe them to belong in their own mammalian order, Scandentia, they still are thought to resemble some of the earliest mammals, which lived alongside the dinosaurs. This book describes the results of the first comparative study of the ecology of treeshrews in the wild. Noted tropical mammalogist Louise H. Emmons conducted this pathbreaking study in the rainforests of Borneo as she tracked and observed six species of treeshrews. Emmons meticulously describes their habitat, diet, nesting habits, home range, activity patterns, social behavior, and many other facets of their lives. She also discusses a particularly interesting aspect of their enigmatic parental care system, which is unique among mammals.

280 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2000

About the author

Louise H. Emmons is an American zoologist known for her extensive research on tropical rainforest mammals, especially rodents. She has conducted fieldwork in Gabon, Borneo, Peru, and Bolivia. Emmons earned her PhD from Cornell University, focusing on African rainforest squirrels. She is the author of Neotropical Rainforest Mammals: A Field Guide, a widely used reference. Emmons has described several new taxa, including genera and species of spiny rats, marsupials, and oryzomyine rodents. In recognition of her contributions, two species have been named after her, including Euryoryzomys emmonsae, also known as Emmons’s rice rat.