From tales of vegetarian piranha fish and voiceless dogs to the scientific search for the genes that threaten to destroy the cheetah, Quammen captures the natural world with precision. A distinguished natural science essayist, Quammen’s reporting is masterful and thought provoking and his curiosity and fascination with the world of living things is infectious.

    This book is, like its author, a unique achievement. Weaving a vivid portrait of her own life and her bees' lives through the seasons, Hubbell writes "about bees to be sure, but also about other things: the important difference between loneliness and solitude . . . the accommodating of oneself to nature" (Philadelphia Inquirer).

    The Birder's Handbook is the first of its kind: a portable library of fascinating information not included in your identification guide. For each of the 646 species of birds that breed in North America, The Birder's Handbook will tell you at a glance: * Where the bird nests, and which sex(es) build(s) the nest;* How many eggs the bird lays, what they look like, which patent incubates and for how long, and how the young are cared for;* Food preferences and foraging habits.You will also find information about displays and mating, wintering, conservation status, and much more. In addition, The Birder's Handbook contains some 250 short essays covering all aspects of avian natural history.

    

    Wally Johnson spent half a century in Mozambique hunting white gold--ivory. Most men died at this hazardous trade. He's the last one able to tell his story.In hours of conversations by mopane fired in the African bush, Wally described his career--how he survived the massive bite of a Gaboon viper, buffalo gorings, floods, disease, and most dangerous of all, gold fever. He bluffed down 200 armed poachers almost single-handedly, and survived rocket attacks from communist revolutionaries during Mozambique's plunge into chaos in 1975. In Botswana, at age 63, Wally continued his career. Though the great tuskers have largely gone and most of Wally's colleagues are dead, Wally has survived. His words are rugged testimony to an Africa that is now a distant dream.

    This latest edition contains information on 482 of the most common species found in the state’s major vegetation zones. Each entry includes a full-color photograph of the flower on the page facing the entry, bloom period, range and habitat, and botanical description. A special note in each entry explains the plant’s therapeutic, culinary, and other traditional uses, such as landscaping value. A color map of Texas shows the state’s major vegetation zones, corresponding to the range codes used in the text. Other supplementary material includes a glossary of botanical terms, an illustrated glossary of plant parts, and a selected bibliography for future reading.

    Creatures that fear little, bears compete for survival with the only other animals that can threaten their existence: Humans. Bear Attacks is a thorough and unflinching study of attacks made on humans. This is the sometimes horrific, yet always instructive, story of Bear and Human, written by the leading scientific authority in the field. This book is for everyone who camps, hikes, or visits bear country -and for anyone who wants to learn more about these fearsome but always fascinating wild creatures.

    The Arctic wolf, a powerful and compelling predator, has been captured ever so gently in the pages of White Wolf.Share the adventure of living with a pack of wolves on Ellesmere Island, a pure wilderness in the High Arctic where man is only an infrequent visitor. Experience the drama of a musk ox hunt, the innocent joy of wolf pups playing at the den and the serenity of Ellesmere. The insightful text and the 160 stunning photographs will bring the inspiring world of the Arctic to anyone willing to turn these pages. It will be a memorable experience.

    One of the Best Books ever published on Florida's Seashells. Fantastic Color Photographs.

    We've heard stories of flocks of passenger pigeons once darkening the skies over North America, only to be reduced to a single bird, Martha, who perished in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1914. Errol Fuller's gloriously illustrated Extinct Birds provides details of the natural history and fates of more than 80 species of birds now believed to be gone forever. In a lively, compelling style, Fuller conveys accurate scientific and historical information about the lives, times, and disappearances of bird species since 1600. Fuller's species accounts are vivid reminders of what birds, precisely, the world has already lost. The physical evidence provided by preserved specimens is given narrative texture with Fuller's use of eyewitness accounts of the lives (and, in many cases, the last days) of bird species from all over the world. Nearly all the accounts in Extinct Birds are illustrated with breathtaking color plates, many by artists, including Audubon, Keulemans, and Lear, who had the advantage of working from fresh specimens or even from living birds. These paintings, beautiful in their own right, are also primary sources of scientific knowledge. Birds for which appropriate illustrations did not already exist are shown in new paintings produced especially for this book.The revised edition of Extinct Birds includes several species among them three from North America not covered in the original 1987 edition. More happily, two species have been rediscovered in the intervening years, and several others in danger of being declared extinct have been located again. By describing in words and pictures the beauty and diversity of those birds already lost to extinction, Fuller inspires us to do what we can to prevent future editions of Extinct Birds from drawing new chapters from the field guides of today."

    

    Dr Ian Stirling, the best known polar bear scientist in the world, compresses the major new discoveries of the last 40 years of research on this iconic mammal into a new easily readable and scientifically comprehensive book about the ecology and natural history of polar bears.  He explains how polar bears evolved, how they were researched, aspects of their behaviour and how the threat of global warming is jeopardizing the survival of this magnificent hunter.

    Based on field research, the book brings the amateur naturalist the latest information on animal gaits and the interpretation of scat.

    Now an international bestseller, these are the fascinating adventures of a leading wolf expert on a National Geographic expedition, as he tracks the rare white Arctic wolf to its den and lives with the wolf pack.

    Offering broad coverage and more than 620 outstanding illustrations, this new edition offers up-to-date coverage on all aspects of this specialized field, from illustrating molecules and 3D modeling to important material and advice on copyright and contractual concerns, as well as establishing a freelance business. With step-by-step instructions, in-depth coverage of illustrative techniques and related tools, and helpful advice on the day-to-day business of scientific illustrating, it is easy to see why scientific illustrators refer to this book as their bible.

    They live on every continent except Antarctica, ranging from deserts to tropical forests to mountains, and their activities have a profound effect on the ecosystems in which they live. Despite their ubiquity and importance, bats are challenging to study. This volume provides researchers, conservationists, and consultants with the ecological background and specific information essential for studying bats in the wild and in captivity. Chapters detail many of the newest and most commonly used field and laboratory techniques needed to advance the study of bats, describe how these methods are applied to the study of the ecology and behavior of bats, and offer advice on how to interpret the results of research. The book includes forty-three chapters, fourteen of which are new to the second edition, with information on molecular ecology and evolution, bioacoustics, chemical communication, flight dynamics, population models, and methods for assessing postnatal growth and development.Fully illustrated and featuring contributions from the world’s leading experts in bat biology, this reference contains everything bat researchers and natural resource managers need to know for the study and conservation of this wide-ranging, ecologically vital, and diverse taxon.

    Here Am I--Where Are You?, all about geese, is ultimately a very human book and a fitting conclusion to a brilliant thinker's career.

    Woodcuts capture the beauty of the California coast from Mendocino, Point Reyes, and the San Francisco Bay down through Carmel, Big Sur, Santa Barbara, and Santa Monica.

    Yet Mike Tomkies called him a "gentle giant". For eight years this remarkable dog was Mike's constant companion as they roamed 300 square miles of the Scottish Highlands.

    Amy Liptrot, the author of The Outrun, has written the introduction.

    Will he speak soft words unto thee?' Job 41 Whale Nation is a hymn to the beauty, intelligence and majesty of the largest mammal on earth. A 'green classic' read with natural resonance by its author, it rarely fails to strike a chord in the heart of those concerned with the abuse of our planet. It is joined by additional content devoted to a fascinating account of whale history.Music: Mendelssohn, Holst, Bach, Mozart, Brahms, Debussy, Ciurlionis, The Song of the Humpback Whale

    Portraying a world both visceral and majestic, Deep Enough for Ivorybills establishes Kilgo not only in the sporting lineage of Robert Ruark and William Faulkner but also in the naturalist tradition of Annie Dillard and Loren Eisley.

    These are some of the things that catch Merrill Gilfillan’s eye and ear in this radiant collection of essays. Written with a poetic economy that often attains grandeur, Magpie Rising is an exhilarating tour of the Great Plains—its geography, wildlife, history, mythology, and food, its vast spaces and weirdly synchronous time. This is nature writing at its most evocative and insightful.

    

    

    But the pursuit of the unusual sea creatures and the answers to puzzling biological questions take biologists Jack and Anne Rudloe elsewhere, too. They have travelled to Surinam to catch giant toadfish for the New York Aquarium, to the Florida Keys to study immature spiny lobsters, and to Port Canaveral's ship channel to rescue endangered sea turtles from the crushing jaws of the dredge. They have plumbed the depths of the Gulf of Mexico to find prehistoric-looking giant sea roaches, and explored the life histories--and mysteries--of electric rays, octopuses, horseshoe crabs, and other fascinating marine animals in the course of their daily business. Like any profession, specimen collecting has its attendant hazards: for instance, being slashed by a sawfish, zapped by an electric ray, nipped by a sawfish, zapped by an electric ray, nipped by an annoyed sea turtle, or attacked by an alligator. More perilous yet is being caught offshore in violent storm in a less-than-seaworthy boat. Jack Rudloe's knowledge of marine biology and ability to tell a good story have made this entertaining and informative book a natural history classic.

    This award-winning account of the author's experience as a mayordomo, or ditch boss, is the first record of the life of an acequia by a community participant.

    Think of the author as a sort of jujitsu gardener; in her hands the very strengths of weeds are turned to her advantage."—New York Times Book Review"In this manual cum philosophical treatise, Stein discloses an amazing amount of information, from anatomy to propagation, about more than 100 species of North American weeds."—Washington Post Book WorldFrom the author of the native gardening classic Noah’s Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyard comes My Weeds, a foray into the secret and fascinating lives of the world’s most hated plants. By asking of the common weed, "What kind of plant is this? How does it behave? What is it up to in my garden? Can I thwart its plans?" Stein shows how a thorough understanding of the enemy is the gardener’s best defense. Incredibly adaptive, weeds are also good teachers, and Stein shows us what they tell us about our gardens and the lives of all plants. She entertains with tales of famous—and notorious—weeds of the world, compares weeding tools and methods, and discusses the uses of weeds. Along the way, Stein also explains the intricate workings of photosynthesis, plant anatomy and reproduction, evolution, and the laws of succession by which nature tries to reclaim the land a gardener has disturbed. First published in 1988, My Weeds was among the first generation of books to advocate the use of native plants, and Stein’s discussions of backyard ecology, pesticides, and the threat of exotic species were as groundbreaking then as they are relevant today.  A biography of the plant world’s most maligned members and a fascinating primer of the most useful aspects of plant biology and ecology, My Weeds is essential reading even for the gardener who never leaves the armchair!Sara Stein is the author of Noah’s Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards and Planting Noah’s Garden: Further Adventures in Backyard Ecology.

    Containing a fascinating array of facts, explanations and diagrams, it divulges all the secrets of taming, controlling and "educating" unbroken and vicious horses, their abuses, diseases and remedies. Learn how to tell a horse's age by its teeth; how to break a horse of its kicking habit, teach a colt to follow with a whip, and much more.