Showing titles in Animals

Atop a hill in the rainforest of Belize, next to the ruins of a fallen civilization, a butterfly farm raises the brilliant blue morpho. What starts out as the worst vacation ever turns into a quest to learn more about the first-of-its-kind farm when journalist Diana Marcum inadvertently discovers this wildlife sanctuary, which is supported by an international live-butterfly trade.

The fascinating and heartbreaking account of the first publicly exhibited captive killer whale a story that forever changed the way we see orcas and sparked the movement to save them. Killer whales had always been seen as bloodthirsty sea monsters. That all changed when a young killer whale was captured off the west coast of North America and displayed to the public in 1964. Moby Doll, as the whale became known, was an instant celebrity, drawing 20,000 visitors on the one and only day he was exhibited.

An engrossing and revealing study of why we deem certain animals “pests” and others not—from cats to rats, elephants to pigeons—and what this tells us about our own perceptions, beliefs, and actions, as well as our place in the natural world A squirrel in the garden. A rat in the wall. A...

When Stephen Bodio was a young boy in the early '50s, he saw an image in National Geographic that became forever etched in his mind: It was a photograph of a Kazakh nomad, dressed in a long coat and wearing a fur hat, holding a huge tame eagle on his fist. And a lifelong fascination with Central Asia was born.

The Thinking Horse Breeder discusses the selection of foundation stock, planning matings, breeding methods, genetic diseases, conformation and temperament, foaling down, young horse training, common problems, financials, marketing, promotion, photography, and ethical considerations in an easy-to-listen, authentic style.

As the oft-repeated and invariably accurate pearl of wisdom goes, a dog truly is man's best friend. For a long time, people have almost universally loved dogs, and it seems to have been that way for at least tens of thousands of years. When affection is abundantly and consistently expressed, this pure, unspoken, wholesome love is one that is very much requited, and then some. This bond can be demonstrated by the mere existence of pet keepers who unironically refer to themselves as “dog parents,” not merely “dog owners”.

When we see a bird flying from branch to branch happily chirping, it is easy to imagine they lead a simple life of freedom, flight, and feathers. What we don't see is the arduous, life-threatening challenges they face at every moment. Beaks, Bones and Bird Songs guides the listener through the myriad, and often almost miraculous, things that birds do every day to merely stay alive. Like the goldfinch, which manages extreme weather changes by doubling the density of its plumage in winter.

We can all agree—birds are terrible. They're stupid and won't shut up. Featuring fifty of the absolute worst birds to fly the earth, Kracht identifies each of their most terrible qualities, details exactly why they suck, and shows you why. Including all-new, all-worst fowl, such as: the absolute waste of feathers Cruddy Turdstone (Ruddy Turnstone), the utter a-hole Blank Staring-Eyes Flycrapper (Black Paradise Flycatcher), the outright loser Dowdy Woodfucker (Downy Woodpecker), and many more!

Brigit Strawbridge Howard was shocked the day she realized she knew more about the French Revolution than she did about her native trees. And birds. And wildflowers. And bees. The thought stopped her — quite literally — in her tracks. But that day was also the start of a journey, one filled with silver birches and hairy-footed flower bees, skylarks, and rosebay willow herb, and the joy that comes with deepening one’s relationship with place.

In today’s world, voices of the marginalized are in the spotlight and people across the globe are recognizing animal rights as a social justice movement. During a time of historic actions and victorious campaigns, Voices for Animal Liberation depicts the full spectrum of animal rights activism that is currently at work to create change. This book offers the words of both new and highly influential voices in the movement today, with the intention of inspiring and educating those who are sparked by the vision of a more ethical world.

Expert beekeeper and swarm-catcher Hilary Kearney offers a unique window into the social lives and biology of these remarkable creatures Readers will be awestruck by the hive as superorganism and how the individual bee lives and behaves within it, perfectly suited to each specific job it...

Früher schickte Douglas Adams seine Hörer per Anhalter durch die Galaxis. Ende der 80er-Jahre macht er sich selbst in eine für ihn unbekannte Welt auf: in das Universum der vom Aussterben bedrohten Tierarten. Gemeinsam mit dem Zoologen Mark Carwardine besucht er Riesenechsen auf Komodo, den dicksten Papagei der Welt in Neuseeland und hörgeschädigte Delfine im Yangtse. Für ihre sechs Reisen nehmen sie die schwierigsten Bedingungen in Kauf und machen dabei die skurrilsten Bekanntschaften.

Yellowstone National Park was once home to an abundance of wild wolves - but park rangers killed the last of their kind in the 1920s. Decades later, the rangers brought them back, with the first wolves arriving from Canada in 1995. This is the incredible true story of one of those wolves.

As dawn breaks across your back garden, if you were paying attention, you would notice that the robin and the blackbird are always the first birds to arrive. These ground hunters have large eyes, so don’t mind the dim light of the early morning. And that’s just the beginning of what you can learn watching your own back garden. Ornithologist Mike Toms has spent a year avidly observing his own garden and the result is a comprehensive picture of the lives of garden birds.

Ever since Jurassic Park we thought we knew how dinosaurs lived their lives. In this remarkable new book, Brian J. Ford reveals that dinosaurs were, in fact, profoundly different from what we believe, and their environment was unlike anything we have previously thought. In this meticulous and...

In this Very Short Introduction audiobook, David Norman discusses how dinosaurs were first discovered and interpreted and how our understanding of them has changed over the past 200 years. He looks at some of the amazing discoveries that have enabled us to gain new and unexpected insights into dinosaurs as animals with natural histories and behaviors and considers some of the biggest questions in dinosaur biology, such as the implications of them having warm blood.

Now in audio - a fascinating work of popular science from a world-renowned expert on mosquitoes and a prize-winning reporter. In this lively and comprehensive portrait of the mosquito, its role in history, and its threat to mankind, Spielman and D'Antonio take a mosquito's-eye view of nature and man. They show us how mosquitoes breed, live, mate, and die and introduce us to their enemies, both natural and man-made.

This Very Short Introduction audiobook explores amphibians' evolution, adaptations, and biology, from the first emergence of tetrapods onto land 370 million years ago, to how their permeable skin enables them to thrive in their habitat today. T. S. Kemp describes how different amphibians go about their lives, looking in particular at their complex courtship behavior and their extraordinary means of providing care for their eggs and larvae.

Mossy greens, conker browns, cream, chocolate and deepest black; add stripes, swirls and splotches and you have some of the most striking wildlife Britain has to offer. In Meetings with Moths ecologist Katty Baird roams Scotland seeking out, documenting and observing moths. Green Longhorns...

Two highly respected outdoor journalists, Kirk Deeter of Field and Stream and Charlie Meyers of the Denver Post, have cracked open their notebooks and shared straight-shot advice on the sport of fly fishing, based on a range of new and old experiences—from interviews with the late Lee Wulff to travels with maverick guides in Tierra del Fuego. The mission of The Little Red Book of Fly Fishing is to demystify and un-complicate the tricks and tips that make a great trout fisher.