Nonfiction Ecology

Simple science text gives a close-up account of the fascinating world of the dung beetle. When an animal lightens its load, dung beetles race to the scene. They battle over, devour, hoard, and lay their eggs in the precious poop. Dung is food, drink, and fuel for new life - as crucial to these beetles as the beetles are to many habitats, including our own.

This audiobook reveals the secret lives of salt marshes. Along the coasts, where ocean tides mix salt water with fresh water, nature has created salt marshes - soggy places full of natural wonders. For years, salt marshes were maligned, drained, or filled in. Now salt marshes are valued as the home of fascinating wildlife, including more than twenty different species of birds. Ornithologist and photographer Doug Wechsler takes the reader on a down-and-muddy tour of the year-round activity in these wonderlands.

Welcome to Frozen Planet II. Dive under the ice ceiling and learn to swim with the seal pups, take to the skies with frozen flamingos, and settle in for a snooze with a windy walrus. Watch orcas sneak up on bowhead whales while they're relaxing in the spa, meet a Greenland shark that is easily 250 years old, and witness the polar bears who are finding their food closer and closer to humans. Hold your breath in the frozen forest where wolves play hide-and-seek with bison, and meet the lemmings that outwit an arctic fox by building their home right under her feet, buried deep beneath the snow.

Wildlife expert and YouTube phenomenon, Coyote Peterson, is back with the sequel to the best-selling Brave Adventures: Wild Animals in a Wild World. Once again, Coyote and his crew voyage to new environments and encounter an even more eclectic ensemble of the planets' animals. From a slimy octopus to elusive tree climbing lizards to nomadic wolverines - this book promises to be another fast-paced, wild experience.

Learn how to call for owls, walk like a fox and expand your sensory perceptions. Wild Nights Out is a wonderful new hands-on guide for those who wish to take kids (of all ages) outdoors for fun, thrilling nighttime nature adventures. 

Inside every loggerhead turtle is genius: the ability to find their first home, no matter how far away. Follow one, from her birth on a beach in Australia...to her trip across an ocean filled with sharks and seahorses and much more...to her rescue from a net by a fisherman, who names her Yoshi...to her rehabilitation at an aquarium...to her record-breaking swim across the Indian Ocean to the beach on which she hatched, to lay her eggs.

A tiny honeybee emerges through the wax cap of her cell. Driven to protect and take care of her hive, she cleans the nursery and feeds the larvae and the queen. But is she strong enough to fly? Not yet!  Apis builds wax comb to store honey and transfers pollen from other bees into the storage. She defends the hive from invaders. And finally, she begins her new life as an adventurer.  The confining walls of the hive fall away as Apis takes to the air, finally free, into a clear blue sky full of promise.

Critically acclaimed children’s author Jonah Winter reimagines a true story from 1987. The small Long Island town of Islip has a big problem - 3,168 tons of garbage and no place to put it! So workers pile the smelly refuse on a large barge, hire a tug boat, and send the stuff south to find a final resting place. But as the barge travels from North Carolina to New Orleans and from Mexico to Belize - nobody wants Islip’s rotting mountain of garbage.

Spend a day and night in the savanna! Learn about this grassy habitat through the interesting animals that call it home. Nibble a breakfast of sky-high leaves with a giraffe. Then construct towering mounds with termites. At sunset, shriek and prowl for prey with a pack of hyenas. After dark, go on a high-speed hunt with a cheetah.

Spend a day and night in the rain forest! Learn about this lush habitat through the diverse animals that call it home. Start the morning suspended high in the canopy with a colorful toucan. Curl around a branch and bask in the afternoon sun with an emerald boa. At sunset, pace the forest floor for prey alongside a sleek jaguar.

Spend a day and night in the prairie! Learn about this grassy habitat through the exciting animals that call it home. Spot prairie dogs popping aboveground as morning sun floods a field. Join giant bison as they graze on grass. Stir up dust on a sunset sprint with antelope. After dark, stake out prey with a coyote in dense grass.

Spend a day and night in the tundra! Learn about this cold habitat through the intriguing animals that call it home. Catch breakfast mid-flight with a peregrine falcon. Spend the afternoon snoozing with an Arctic fox. Take an evening trek with a herd of caribou.

Spend a day and night in the desert! Learn about this dry habitat through the unique animals that call it home. Stand with meerkats during a watchful hunt for insects. Spot a jackrabbit taking a shaded midday nap. Join a desert tortoise as it dines on colorful cactus fruit. After dark, follow a snake as it slithers in cool, moonlit sand.

Anacondas are the heaviest snakes in the world! These big snakes use their bodies to squeeze their prey. Anacondas can be as long as a bus, and can stay underwater for a long time while hunting. Slither towards facts about these powerful snakes.

I bet you've seen a furry gray animal scurrying across the highway late at night—you know, the one with the pink snout and long tail? That's an opossum, and it is a marsupial. Did you know that it is related to all sorts of different animals, including the kangaroo and the Tasmanian devil? Welcome to the wild, wonderful world of marsupials, a group of mammals found around the globe, though mostly in Australia and Southern Asia.

From slowing wildfires to planting seeds, one animal is the true superhero that keeps the African savanna in balance. Elephants dig to find salt that other animals lick, their deep footprints collect water for small creatures to drink, and they eat young trees to keep the forest from overtaking the grasslands. In every season, the elephants are there to protect the savanna and its residents - but what would happen if the elephants were only "once upon a time"?

Did you know that a lion can eat hundreds of pounds of meat at a time, as much as is found in four hundred hamburgers? How about that lions are the only kind of cat that lives, hunts, and eats in a group? Or that a lion's roar can be heard up to five miles away? Perfect for all animal lovers—and lion fans in particular—this audiobook is filled with all the facts you need to know to become a lion expert!

Did you know that a polar bear's fur looks white only because it reflects the light around it, and that its skin is jet-black underneath? How about that a polar bear can swim constantly for days at a time? Or that male polar bears can weigh as much as ten men? Perfect for all animal lovers—and polar bear fans in particular—this audiobook is filled with all the facts you need to know to become a polar bear expert!

Did you know that gorillas’ massive arms are strong enough to tear down trees and bend iron bars? How about that, even so, gorillas can be tender friends and gentle, loving parents? Or that gorillas are ticklish? Perfect for all animal lovers—and gorilla fans in particular—this book is filled with all the facts you need to know to become a gorilla expert!

In Nerdy Babies: Ocean, follow our intrepid infants into the watery depths. Check out animals, plants, and fish that live in the ocean. Plus, learn about the unique ecosystem in this simple text written in question-and-answer format.