The New Neotropical Companion

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The New Neotropical Companion ...

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The New Neotropical Companion John Kricher PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD ...

Copyright © 2017 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey ...

To my parents, who introduced me to the world we live in and to the wonders of life on Earth. ...

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Contents Preface Acknowledgments How to Use This Book Chapter 1. Welcome to the Torrid Zone Chapter 2. Why It Is Hot, Humid, an ...

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Why a New Neotropical Companion? It was first published in 1989 and it soon became known to travelers, both literal and armchair ...

Why a New Edition Now, and Why Call It “New”? In the 1997 edition coverage expanded and, as in the 1989 edition, I really did st ...

The list grows. In the previous two editions of A Neotropical Companion I have acknowledged many folks who have in various ways ...

Readers already familiar with previous editions of A Neotropical Companion will immediately understand the tone and objectives o ...

How to Use This Book This example, called a latitudinal diversity gradient, will be discussed in much greater detail later in th ...

Plate 1- 1. Sunrise in the Torrid Zone. Photo by John Kricher. Plate 1- 2. The face of a Jaguar (Panthera onca). Photo by John K ...

Into the Torrid Zone The lure of the tropics, the desire to visit a land of relentless heat and humidity, of scorching sun and t ...

Hornbills, large birds with colorful, elongate, banana- like bills, are found only in Africa and Asia. However, an anatomically ...

The names Cancer and Capricorn refer, of course, to constellations of the zodiac through which the sun appears to trace its annu ...

mountain ranges) in climate, but the lowland eastern slope of Mexico adjacent to the warm Caribbean Sea (Veracruz, for example) ...

It’s Not All “Tropical” Even in the Torrid Zone Imagine that you are exiting your hotel in Guayaquil, Ecuador, a sea- level port ...