Ungulates / Ongulés 91

From the introduction:

"This volume of scientific papers is a reflection of our times, of our concerns and anxieties, but also of our hopes. No scientific conference today can be a happening inspired purely by the unfettered pursuit of abstract truths, but is an expression of our collective concerns for the future. In our case it is a concern for the wildlife we study.

There is a groping in Ungulates / Ongulés 91 which speaks of the collective concern by a brother and sisterhood of scholars and managers, united for various reasons around man's ancient prey, the large herbivorous mammals. They were fellow-travelers we so desperately depended on for so many millions of years in our complex and long formative period.

Throughout this volume there is a deep desire and committment to communicate, to put aside national pride and to make the findings available to as many colleagues as possible, world wide. I applaud the organizers and editors for that. A charm of this determined effort at reaching out to others is the creative English that appears here and there. It does not impede communication, and I have a much better appreciation of what my colleagues world-wide do and think than before reading this volume. It is also a fine place for reference on a remarkable diversity of subjects.

There is a wide coverage of issues, species and disciplines in Ungulates / Ongulés 91. It will be used frequently by those who study and manage ungulates, as is the just fate of any proceedings of a symposium well conceived and edited. May it be light to those that follow."