The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 10 (of 10)Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Science
The Cambridge natural history, Vol. 10 (of 10)
Beddard, Frank E. (Frank Evers)
Animals; Mammals
It is clear that tracts of country eminently suitable for the housing of a
particular mammal do not always possess that kind, or even an allied form.
Africa, for example, possesses no arboreal Anteaters; there are no
Anteaters at all (of the order Edentata) in Australia, though there are
plenty of ants for them to feed upon, and tropical conditions of climate
prevail. But as in these cases the inference may be denied on the grounds
that no experiments exist to prove or to disprove the assertion, the matter
may be better emphasised by such cases as the introduction of the Rabbit
into Australia, and various mammals, such as Goats, into oceanic islands.
The plague caused by the former is a matter of notoriety. But although
climate and conditions and animal inhabitants do not march accurately
together, there is certainly some connexion between temperature and the
range of animals. Mr. Lydekker writes on this point as follows: "The
llama-like animals, respectively known as vicunas and guanacos, are met
with in {80} company on the highlands of the Cordillera in Peru and
Ecuador, but as we go farther south the latter are found on the plains of
southern Argentina and Patagonia, as well as on the island of Tierra del
Fuego at the sea level. Here then is a clear proof of the intimate
connexion existing between temperature and station; the guanaco being an
animal which can only live in cold or temperate climates, finds suitable
conditions for its existence in tropical latitudes solely at a height of so
many thousands of feet, although farther south it is able to thrive at the
sea level." This, however, cannot be pushed too far--the world cannot be
mapped out into areas bounded by parallels of temperature as was once
attempted--since there are plenty of cases like that of the Tiger, which is
as much at home in a tropical jungle as on the icy plains of Northern Asia.
Seeing that there are in many cases no climatic barriers to the spreading
of a given race of animals over a larger area of distribution than it
actually occupies, it becomes important to inquire why there are so many
cases of restriction in range.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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