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Today, even if you live in a major city and seldom get a chance to visit national parks or wildlife reserves, you encounter wild mammals. On the inside and the outside of these animals exist an amazing diversity of living things: parasites. These parasites play crucial roles in the ecology, behaviour, and evolution of their wild mammal hosts.
In Fur, Fleas, and Flukes, parasitologist Michael Stock tells the stories of wild mammals – from armadillos to zebras – and the fascinating unseen organisms – such as tapeworms, flukes, and roundworms – that live in and on them. Stock examines how parasites can modify mammal behaviour, shape their appearance, determine where they live, and even influence how they survive. He details how parasites can transfer to our pets and, disturbingly, lead to disease and fatalities in humans.
Fur, Fleas, and Flukes also takes into account the potential impact of unprecedented environmental changes on our planet, highlighting how these shifts may alter the ecological balance between mammals and their parasites – ultimately affecting human beings and our health.
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Of Wolves and Worms
1. Pinworms, Primates, and Porcupines: How Parasites Travelled the World
2. Stone Cold Killers: Trichinella in the Arctic
3. Who's Your Daddy? Lice on Great Apes
4. Giants Crawl among Us: Giant Liver Flukes
5. Of Beetles and Beavers
6. Stranded Whales: A Fluke Accident?
7. How the Zebra Got Its Stripes
8. Ornaments and Parasites
9. The Night of the Vampire
10. Your Brain on Worms: Nature's Biological Weapon
11. The Tale of the Tape: The World's Longest Parasite
12. Death by Raccoon
13. Blood, Moths, and Tears
14. The Manchurian Parasite
15. A Ghost of a Chance
16. Sex and the Single Schistosome
17. The Trickster: Coyotes and Their Parasites
18. Fleas: The Inside Story
Conclusion: The Greatest Show on Earth
Index
Michael Stock is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at MacEwan University. His research focuses on the study of organisms that live inside and on other living things: parasites. He is the author of The Flying Zoo: Birds, Parasites, and the World They Share.
"This splendid book takes an enthusiastic, detail-rich, and easily digestible approach to describing the wonders of the parasitic lifestyle. The author applies his lifetime of experience studying and teaching the phenomenon of parasitism to convince even the most skeptical reader that the 'loathsome and disgusting' are, in fact, spectacularly biodiverse, wildly complex in their intimate ecological and evolutionary interactions with their hosts, and endlessly fascinating."
– Cameron P. Goater, Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge
"This book is fascinating – I couldn't put it down! A tale of ecology, evolution, and threats such as climate change, woven together into stories about parasites and their ecosystems that are both riveting and informative. This will be one of my top-recommended books to help others learn about the natural world from an engaging author."
– Jessica Haines, Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences, MacEwan University
"Michael Stock is a great storyteller and an artisanal writer. In Fur, Fleas, and Flukes, he leads readers along a path to heightened understanding and appreciation of hidden aspects of the visible world around us. His fresh look at very common things will leave you astounded at the roles of a wide range of parasites in shaping the world that they, and we, live in. Stock creates an integrated fabric woven with science, natural history, keen observation, and astute interpretation that illuminates hidden corners of nature that seldom see the light of day. His grasp of the subject matter and insights into the interconnected nature of wildlife will answer questions few others have even asked."
– Margo Pybus, Wildlife Parasitologist and Provincial Wildlife Disease Specialist, Alberta Fish and Wildlife
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