Zoogeography:

Ecological Perspective
The Subdivision of Zoogeography

Zoogeography Descriptive Zoogeography

Causal Zoogeography

Experimental Zoogeography
Descriptive Zoogeography
• Describe and arrange in order the diversity of living phenomena in space.
• Purposes:
1) Chorology → to understand the geographical ranges of organisms
2) Faunistics → to write an inventory of species on the earth
3) Systematic zoogeography → the spatial distribution of the larger
groups of animals such as birds or carnivores
4) Biocoenotic zoogeography → studies the distribution and dynamics of
life-communities
Causal Zoogeography
• Can be divided:
1) Ecological zoogeography → investigates the ecological connection
of the animal with the place where it lives
2) Historical zoogeography → explain the present-day areas of
distribution of animals in the light of what is known of the origin
and evolution of organisms and landscapes
3) Experimental zoogeography
Experimental Zoogeography
• Develops experimental approaches to throw light on particular
facts of distribution.
• The elucidation of the possibilities of passive dispersal of
organisms and of their ecological valency.
Applied Zoogeography
• The most neglected part of zoogeography.
• In it the results of causal zoogeography are made useful to
man.
• Its importance is immediately obvious where the subjects of
research are parasitic, disease-carrying or economically
important animal species.
• It’s also plays a decisive role in the biological control of pests.
Definition #1
• Zoogeography is a science that studies the animal world with
the conditions and circumstances that exist on the earth’s
surface, including its spreading and the aspects that affect its.
(Philip J. Darlington, 1966)
Definition #2
• Zoogeography is the subdivision of biogeography that studies
the faunal makeup of landscapes and regions, the evolution
and present-day dynamics of the geographical ranges of
animals and the mutual relations of these ranges with mankind
(Muller, 1972)
Definition #1
• Zoogeography is the branch of biogeography dealing with
distributional patterns of animals.
(Danilo Russo)
Another Perspective
• Classically, biogeography is split into two main branches,
historical biogeography and ecological biogeography.
(Cox and Moore, 2010)
• Ecological and historical zoogeography are coherent units.
(De Lattin, 1967)
Ecogeographical Rule
• One of the most intriguing aspects of biogeography is represented
by the recurrence of patterns concerning animal distribution or
morphology which may be linked with factors such as latitude,
altitude or climate.
• Several rules:
1) Bergmann’s Rule
2) Allen’s Rule
3) Rapoport’s Rule
Bergmann’s Rule (1847)
• In cold climates, endhotermic species
with a large body size are more
frequent than in warmer areas.

• Figure. a comparison between skuls

of white tailed deer - Odocoileus
virginianus - respectively from
Mexico (up) and Canada (bottom)
Endhotermic Species
• Endotherm, so-called warm-blooded
animals; that is, those that maintain
a constant body temperature
independent of the environment.
• The endotherms primarily include
the birds and mammals; however,
some fish are also endothermic.
• More recent research showed the existence of non-linear
relationships between body size and temperature.
• In mammals, for instance, gradients of body size are more
influenced by temperature in colder climates than those in
warmer because the selective pressure posed by conserving
heat is only significant in the former.
(Rodríguez et al, 2006; 2008)
• In the warmer areas of southern Nearctic and the Neotropics, both
local and broad-scale patterns of variation in the body size of
mammals are influenced by climatic gradients occurring in
mountainous areas, possibly because the extent of habitat in
mountains is limited and counters the occurrence of species of a
larger size.
(Rodríguez et al. 2008)
Allen’s Rule
• Endotherms protruding body parts, such as tail, ears, bill,
extremities, and so forth, are relatively shorter in the cooler parts
of the range of a species than in the warmer parts.
• There is scientific evidence (Serrat et al. 2008) that mammal limbs
and ears may grow longer under warmer ambient temperature, as
seen in mice in lab conditions, because the latter would prompt
cartilage proliferation.
Rapoport’s Rule
• Organism living at lower latitudes show narrower latitudinal
ranges than those occurring at higher latitudes; the rule would
also apply to elevation (organisms at higher elevation would
have narrower altitudinal ranges).