Contents: Foreword. Preface. 1. Bamboo, the wonder grass. 2. Gregarious flowering of bamboo. 3. Mechanisms of seed masting. 4. Vertebrate predators of mast seeds. 5. Seed masting and community dynamics of terrestrial vertebrates. 6. Rodent response to bamboo flowering and seed masting. 7. Ecological disturbances and rodent borne diseases. 8. Socio-economic impact of gregarious flowering of bamboo in Northeast India. References. Author index. Subject index.

From the Preface: “Bamboo is crucial to the economy and livelihood of people in several parts of the world especially China, Japan, Thailand, Philippines and North-east India. Any large disruption in bamboo yield due to either natural causes as in gregarious flowering followed by seed masting and mass death or manmade such as fire drastically affects the lives of people depending on bamboo. The phenomenon of gregarious of flowering is an extremely enthralling ecological event and at the same time bewildering as its evolutionary role is not understood completely till to day.
 
This book is an attempt to explain the different theories put forward by specialists on some of the aspects of gregarious flowering of bamboos and community response to it especially those of vertebrates (birds and rodents). It is the first ever attempt of consolidating plant ecology and animal response, both of which affect drastically the livelihood of people depending on bamboo.

This book is a synthesis of many established facts, theories and hypotheses of plant and animal ecology with which lives of bamboo dependent human population is intricately interwoven.”