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SERENGETI. DYNAMICS OF AN ECOSYSTEM [R1]
Originally published in 1979, Dynamics of an Ecosystem was immediately recognized as the first synthesis of the patterns and processes of a major ecosystem. A prototype for initial studies, Serengeti contains baseline data for further and comparative studies of ecosystems. The new Serengeti II builds on the information presented originally in Serengeti; both books together offer essential information and insights for ecology and conservation biology.
Hardcover
First published February 1, 1980
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May 24, 2022
Full list of authors who contributed chapters to this book (included because that's information I would have most wanted to have in advance):
Anthony R.E. Sinclair
S.J. McNaughton
Linda Maddock
P.J. Jarman & M.V. Jarman
C.J. Pennycuick
Brian Bertram
J.P Hanby & J.D. Bygott
D.C. Houston
Ray Hilborn
M. Norton-Griffiths
I'm glad I didn't spend more than 5 bucks on a used copy of this book, and there's a couple of reasons why.
Firstly and most generously, it's a bit dated. Several chapters of the book detail math and computer simulations that were knowingly and admittedly based on incomplete data, and much of the book's content had to do with the specific shift in the environment after rinderpest was virtually eliminated from the area, making the information exceedingly dated. There is, perhaps, some historical relevance or interest to these chapters, but they'll hardly give you a clear or broad idea of the Serengeti except as it was perceived to be at the time.
Secondly and far more harshly, most of the information in the book has been presented elsewhere, and far better. A huge percentage of the book is about wildebeest, and my favorite book concerning them is by FAR Gnu's World by Richard Estes. Gnu's World admittedly hadn't been published yet, but Estes was nonetheless a recognized name by researchers of the time, yet Sinclair stubbornly refuses to cite Estes. I have never encountered anyone speaking so long about wildebeest without mentioning Estes. I don't know if they were in competition or what, but I do know that Estes came to conclusions in Gnu's World which I felt were much clearer, better expressed and overall more soundly reasoned. Sinclair actually seems to fully contradict his own information at times, laying out the study and its results and then giving you a conclusion that appears to be completely incompatible with the information he just gave you. And that's whenever he can tear himself away from repeating the word "heterogeneous" for long enough to say anything at all. I found the chapters written by McNaughton and Pennycuick little more compelling, if less self-contradictory, although Pennycuick did cite van-Lawick incorrectly.
To my intense relief, there were some redeeming chapters such as the ones written by Hanby and Bygott, Jarman and Jarman and (grudgingly) D.C. Houston. Bertram was his usual self, and I find him a little irritating. Maddock was fine, but not remarkable in any way, and again her information is much more extensively and interestingly covered in Gnu's World, since her chapter is about the migration. There was a little bit of information in these middle chapters of the book that dealt with some of the less popular subjects, such as Houston's chapter on scavengers (specifically the avian ones, more particularly two kinds of vulture), and in that beggars can't be choosers, so the book is worth reading if you want a few pages about vultures, or a bit more about the social and breeding habits of impala or a few of the less popularly acknowledged herbivores like the dik-dik which can be found in Jarman & Jarman's chapter on their social organization. There's little or nothing worthwhile about the major predators that isn't just citing Schaller, Kruuk or Frame & Frame, and you'd be better off reading their books.
In all, aside from some very time specific information about rinderpest and a few precious pages about species that aren't as easy to find information on, I'd count this book a disappointing waste of space for the most part, and certainly not worth the 60$ asking price on Amazon.
I also looked up Serengeti II, and was unsurprised to find even more obscure authors whose names I wasn't familiar with, alongside others I have learned to actively despise such as Caro (and now Sinclair). Names I don't know in this field is becoming an increasing warning sign as I read more books, because if nobody's citing their work, there's usually a good reason for it. However, I imagine I will eventually read Serengeti II, III and even IV, simply for the sake of having done it, and hoping to find a few more scraps of information I haven't collected elsewhere.
One further warning about this book, I hope you like math equations interspersed with the text instead of separately in figures, because more than one author does that, and more than one chapter is weighted by math symbols, equations, and explanations of computer models with very little else going for it. Personally, I find it irritating to have that sort of thing when it's not nicely isolated in the figures and tables where it belongs, where I can easily refer back to it... or totally ignore it, depending on what I'm reading the book for. But I DO appreciate thorough explanations about methods used for conducting the research, which this book mostly has... however poorly explained on the part of several of the authors involved. It's citations are also mostly in order and there's plenty of them, so that's something.
Anthony R.E. Sinclair
S.J. McNaughton
Linda Maddock
P.J. Jarman & M.V. Jarman
C.J. Pennycuick
Brian Bertram
J.P Hanby & J.D. Bygott
D.C. Houston
Ray Hilborn
M. Norton-Griffiths
I'm glad I didn't spend more than 5 bucks on a used copy of this book, and there's a couple of reasons why.
Firstly and most generously, it's a bit dated. Several chapters of the book detail math and computer simulations that were knowingly and admittedly based on incomplete data, and much of the book's content had to do with the specific shift in the environment after rinderpest was virtually eliminated from the area, making the information exceedingly dated. There is, perhaps, some historical relevance or interest to these chapters, but they'll hardly give you a clear or broad idea of the Serengeti except as it was perceived to be at the time.
Secondly and far more harshly, most of the information in the book has been presented elsewhere, and far better. A huge percentage of the book is about wildebeest, and my favorite book concerning them is by FAR Gnu's World by Richard Estes. Gnu's World admittedly hadn't been published yet, but Estes was nonetheless a recognized name by researchers of the time, yet Sinclair stubbornly refuses to cite Estes. I have never encountered anyone speaking so long about wildebeest without mentioning Estes. I don't know if they were in competition or what, but I do know that Estes came to conclusions in Gnu's World which I felt were much clearer, better expressed and overall more soundly reasoned. Sinclair actually seems to fully contradict his own information at times, laying out the study and its results and then giving you a conclusion that appears to be completely incompatible with the information he just gave you. And that's whenever he can tear himself away from repeating the word "heterogeneous" for long enough to say anything at all. I found the chapters written by McNaughton and Pennycuick little more compelling, if less self-contradictory, although Pennycuick did cite van-Lawick incorrectly.
To my intense relief, there were some redeeming chapters such as the ones written by Hanby and Bygott, Jarman and Jarman and (grudgingly) D.C. Houston. Bertram was his usual self, and I find him a little irritating. Maddock was fine, but not remarkable in any way, and again her information is much more extensively and interestingly covered in Gnu's World, since her chapter is about the migration. There was a little bit of information in these middle chapters of the book that dealt with some of the less popular subjects, such as Houston's chapter on scavengers (specifically the avian ones, more particularly two kinds of vulture), and in that beggars can't be choosers, so the book is worth reading if you want a few pages about vultures, or a bit more about the social and breeding habits of impala or a few of the less popularly acknowledged herbivores like the dik-dik which can be found in Jarman & Jarman's chapter on their social organization. There's little or nothing worthwhile about the major predators that isn't just citing Schaller, Kruuk or Frame & Frame, and you'd be better off reading their books.
In all, aside from some very time specific information about rinderpest and a few precious pages about species that aren't as easy to find information on, I'd count this book a disappointing waste of space for the most part, and certainly not worth the 60$ asking price on Amazon.
I also looked up Serengeti II, and was unsurprised to find even more obscure authors whose names I wasn't familiar with, alongside others I have learned to actively despise such as Caro (and now Sinclair). Names I don't know in this field is becoming an increasing warning sign as I read more books, because if nobody's citing their work, there's usually a good reason for it. However, I imagine I will eventually read Serengeti II, III and even IV, simply for the sake of having done it, and hoping to find a few more scraps of information I haven't collected elsewhere.
One further warning about this book, I hope you like math equations interspersed with the text instead of separately in figures, because more than one author does that, and more than one chapter is weighted by math symbols, equations, and explanations of computer models with very little else going for it. Personally, I find it irritating to have that sort of thing when it's not nicely isolated in the figures and tables where it belongs, where I can easily refer back to it... or totally ignore it, depending on what I'm reading the book for. But I DO appreciate thorough explanations about methods used for conducting the research, which this book mostly has... however poorly explained on the part of several of the authors involved. It's citations are also mostly in order and there's plenty of them, so that's something.
September 2, 2020
Sinclair provides a dramatic first-hand account of the struggle to protect and manage the Serengeti plain. He gives his own numerous adventures and pays tribute to the heroes of Kenyan and Tanzanian wildlife management. In looking to the future, he sees multiplying challenges to open corridors, sustainable land use, and water resources in a drying region. Tanzania’s first president Julius Nyerere had claimed that his nation was protecting the great Serengeti plain migration route on behalf of all humanity, but Sinclair concludes that the battle is never done: “The lesson of the Serengeti is that nothing is ever secure against human greed … If we cannot protect Serengeti, we are unlikely to protect anything else in the natural world …”
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