Renowned bird biologist Les Beletsky provides a succinct description of each of the 250 birds profiled, with an emphasis on their distinctive songs. Lavish full-color illustrations accompany each account, while a sleek, built-in digital audio player holds 250 corresponding songs and calls. In his foreword, North American bird expert and distinguished natural historian Jon L. Dunn shares insights gained from a lifetime of passionate study. Complete with the most up-to-date and scientifically accurate information, Bird Songs is the first book to capture the enchantment of these beautiful birds in words, pictures, and song. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, located in Ithaca, New York, is a nonprofit institution focused on birds and whose mission is to interpret and conserve the earth's biological diversity through research. The Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab is the major source of sound recordings of birds for research, education, conservation, the media, and commercial products.Listen hereTrumpeter SwanLaughing GullEastern Bluebird

    Join him as he travels across five continents for an up-close view of the astonishing variety and fascinating behavior of rainforest plants and trees, reptiles, birds, amphibians, insects, and mammals.

    The distressing decline of sea turtles in Pacific waters and their surprising recovery in the Atlantic illuminate what can go both wrong and right from our interventions, and teach us the lessons that can be applied to restore health to the world's oceans and its creatures. As Carl Safina's compelling natural history adventure makes clear, the fate of the astonishing leatherback turtle, whose ancestry can be traced back 125 million years, is in our hands.Writing with verve and color, Safina describes how he and his colleagues track giant pelagic turtles across the world's oceans and onto remote beaches of every continent. As scientists apply lessons learned in the Atlantic and Caribbean to other endangered seas, Safina follows leatherback migrations, including a thrilling journey from Monterey, California, to nesting grounds on the most remote beaches of Papua, New Guinea. The only surviving species of its genus, family, and suborder, the leatherback is an evolutionary marvel: a "reptile" that behaves like a warm-blooded dinosaur, an ocean animal able to withstand colder water than most fishes and dive deeper than any whale.In his peerless prose, Safina captures the delicate interaction between these gentle giants and the humans who are finally playing a significant role in their survival.

    The result is a major enterprise comprising over 850 descriptions, 100 line drawings, and 70 quotations from works by Willa Cather, Truman Capote, John Updike, Cormac McCarthy, and others. Carefully researched and exquisitely written by talents such as Barbara Kingsolver, Lan Samantha Chang, Robert Hass, Terry Tempest Williams, Jon Krakauer, Gretel Ehrlich, Luis Alberto Urrea, Antonya Nelson, Charles Frazier, Linda Hogan, and Bill McKibben, Home Ground is a striking composite portrait of the landscape. At the heart of this expansive work is a community of writers in service to their country, emphasizing a language that suggests the vastness and mystery that lie beyond our everyday words.

    This volume contains over 1250 photographs of mushrooms and fungi, often showing the specimens in various stages of growth, and including all the latest botanical and common names as well as current ecological information on endangered species.

    The skull--the collection of bones that house and protect a creature's brain and sensory organs--is the key anatomical feature used to identify an animal and understand many of its behaviors. This book describes in words and pictures the bones and regions of the skull important to identification, including illustrations of all the bones in the cranium, leading to a greater understanding of a creature's place in the natural world. Life-size drawings and detailed measurements make this guide an invaluable reference for wildlife professionals, trackers, and animal-lovers alike.

    To enhance exact identification of insects, the photographs in this encyclopedic reference were taken in the field -- and are not pinned specimens.Insects enables readers to identify most insects quickly and accurately. The more than 50 pages of picture keys lead to the appropriate chapter and specific photos to confirm identification. The keys are surprisingly comprehensive and easy for non-specialists to use.Insects features:Detailed chapters covering all insect orders and the insect families of eastern North America A brief examination of common families of related terrestrial arthropods 4,000 color photographs illustrating typical behaviors and key characteristics 28 picture keys for quick and accurate insect identification Three indexes -- common family names, photographs, general index Expert guidance on observing, collecting and photographing insects. Almost 80 percent of all named animal species are insects and closely related arthropods. This book is required reading for anyone interested in entomology.

    Its dioramas-a dazzling mixture of nature, science, and art-have inspired young and old alike, and are world-renowned examples of the unique diorama craft: art in the service of science. Now, in the only book of its kind, readers get an insider's view of these "windows on nature," witnessing their creation step by meticulous step.More than forty of the museum's finest dioramas are featured here, depicting the fauna and flora of myriad ecological environments. Stephen Quinn, a diorama artist at the museum, introduces the explorers, naturalists, painters, sculptors, taxidermists, and conservationists behind these three-dimensional marvels, and explains how their collaborations make the displays so lifelike. This enchanting book is the perfect gift for nature lovers, art enthusiasts, and museum goers everywhere.

    The book provides an arsenal of additional hints and helpful clues to guide a birder when, even after a review of a field guide, the identification still hangs in the balance.This supplement to field guides shares the knowledge and skills that expert birders bring to identification challenges. Birding should be an enjoyable pursuit for beginners and experts alike, and Pete Dunne combines a unique playfulness with the work of identification. Readers will delight in his nicknames for birds, from the Grinning Loon and Clearly the Bathtub Duck to Bronx Petrel and Chicken Garnished with a Slice of Mango and a Dollop of Raspberry Sherbet.

    If you would like to look closer at these marvelous creations - and understand their patterns - this handy, pocket-sized book will serve as your introduction to the art and science of the snowflake. As entertaining as it is informative, this comprehensive field guide describes the many different types of snowflakes, where and how to find them, and what can be learned from their intricate structures and patterns. Also included are handy tips for intrepid snowflake hunters, including what type of snowflakes to expect during certain weather conditions, opportune ways for capturing them (the author prefers the brightly-lit tops of parking garages at night, for example). Illustrated with Libbrecht's own remarkable microphotographs of real snowflakes, the book is itself a work of art, as delightful to look at as it is to learn from, and as full of wonder as it is rich with answers. An excellent guide for snowflake lovers, classrooms, family fun, as well as the serious or amateur scientist.

    A poetic consideration of the tender connection between human society and the wild, the book is by turns passionate, political, funny, and harrowing. It is also a journey into that greatest of uncharted lands-the wilderness of the mind-and Griffiths beautifully explores the language and symbolism that shape our experience of our own wildness. Part travelogue, part manifesto for wildness as an essential character of life, Wild is a one-of-a-kind book from a one-of-a-kind author.

    Our sense of its age was vague and vastly off the mark, and much of the knowledge of our own species’ history was a set of fantastic myths and fairy tales. In the tradition of The Microbe Hunters and Gods, Graves, and Scholars, Sean Carroll leads a rousing voyage that recounts the most important discoveries in two centuries of natural history: from Darwin’s trip around the world to Charles Walcott’s discovery of pre-Cambrian life in the Grand Canyon; from Louis and Mary Leakey’s investigation of our deepest past in East Africa to the trailblazers in modern laboratories who have located a time clock in our DNA.

     Where do clouds come from? Why do they look the way they do? And why have they captured the imagination of timeless artists, Romantic poets, and every kid who's ever held a crayon? Journalist and lifelong sky watcher Gavin Pretor-Pinney reveals everything there is to know about clouds, from history and science to art and pop culture. Cumulus, nimbostratus, and the dramatic and seemingly surfable Morning Glory cloud are just a few of the varieties explored in this smart, witty, and eclectic tour through the skies. Generously illustrated with striking photographs and line drawings featuring everything from classical paintings to lava lamps, children's drawings, and Roman coins, The Cloudspotter's Guide will have science and history buffs, weather watchers, and the just plain curious floating on cloud nine.

    Each account includes a full-color and detailed illustration, along with information about habitat, nesting, feeding, voice, similar species, as well as a range map. A Quick Reference Guide organizes all species into color-coded family groupings. Also included are a glossary of terms, a birder's checklist and separate indexes for scientific and common names. A map features the state's best birding sites and describes Washington's most notable viewing locations.

    Twelve years in the making, this joyous celebration features elephants from the wildest reaches of Botswana to the teeming cities of India. With aerial shots of the herds in motion, dramatic interactions between angry males, and tender moments between mothers and their calves, this collection features an intimate look at these animals who, though seemingly as distinct from humans as a creature could be, share surprisingly similar characteristics: They have family structures like our own, they show loyalty and allegiance to those closest to them, they grieve as well as express joy, andas these photographs showthey have strongly individual personalities. Outdoor Photography magazine called Steve Blooms photos, "the best case yet for the defense of the earth." See for yourself why these creaturesonce found in nearly fifty countries and now on the endangered species listare, according to Bloom himself, "the true kings of the jungle."

    

    Growing Carnivorous Plants is a comprehensive guide to identifying and cultivating these remarkable plants. From the well-known Venus flytrap to obscure African sundews, from the giant pitcher plant vines of Borneo the microscopic bladderworts of Florida, more than 200 species, hybrids and cultivars from all genera of carnivorous plants are described. Included are explanations of the fascinating and diverse mechanisms the plants use to trap their victims. Imitating a plant's natural environment is the key to success in growing carnivorous plants, and this book will help readers select the best plants to grow on a windowsill, in a terrarium or greenhouse. Information on how to feed carnivorous plants will enable even the most squeamish grower to ensure that plants receive the nutrients they require. The book's 400 photographs include both spectacular images from the wild and lovely plants in cultivation.

    

    Each is awe-inspiring in its division of labor--collective defense, foraging, and nestbuilding. Yet E. O. Wilson cautioned back in 1971 that sociality should be defined more broadly, "in order to prevent the arbitrary exclusion of many interesting phenomena." Thirty-five years later, James T. Costa gives those interesting phenomena their due. He argues that, in trying to solve the puzzle of how highly eusocial behaviors evolved in a few insect orders, evolutionary biologists have neglected the more diverse social arrangements in the remaining twenty-eight orders--insect societies that don't fit the eusocial schema. Costa synthesizes here for the first time the scattered literature about social phenomena across the arthropod phylum: beetles and bugs, caterpillars and cockroaches, mantids and membracids, sawflies and spiders. This wide-ranging tour takes a rich narrative approach that interweaves theory and data analysis with the behavior and ecology of these remarkable groups. This comprehensive treatment is likely to inspire a new generation of naturalists to take a closer look.

    Compiled by some of the country's leading experts in their fields, this book offers a detailed introduction to the natural and man-made environment of Scotland's mountains, written by hillwalkers for hillwalkers.

    The most comprehensive and assiduous chronicle of human-grizzly bear interactions ever written.

    With Connemara, he creates an indelible portrait of a small corner of the world. From the unmarked graves of unbaptized infants to the shimmering peaks of the Twelve Pins, Robinson brings his close attention and dazzling prose to describe the mountains, bogs, shorelines, and landscape of his home and, at the same time, make a great statement about the world at large.

    This guide divides the attractions into sections—the North Rim, South Rim, Colorado River, and Havasu Falls—with lodging, dining, and camping information given for each. Outfitters for hiking, backpacking, mule rides, and rafting adventures are listed, and carefully researched chapters about the park's history, geology, and wildlife encourage leisurely study of the area's unmatched natural beauty. This book is the winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award for best full-color travel guide and the Independent Publisher Award for best travel guide. About The Complete Guides:With a large number of beautiful, high-quality color photographs, these guides are as browsable as the best coffee table books but also supply travelers with maps, travel tips, and extensive listings for lodging, camping, and sightseeing.

    This must-have field guide is perfect for hikers, fishers, and naturalists.More than 600 superb color photographsHelpful keys for identificationClear coded layoutCovers Oregon, Washington, northern California, and British Columbia

    Big, strong, beautiful, and fierce, their ancestors were the mounts of the famous lawmen, hardy cowboys, and notorious outlaws who had once ruled the Wild West. Over the years, these far-flung herds of the Land of Enchantment had inspired many myths, and were said to be guarded by an implacable band of enormous, ghostly stallions that kept them from harm. But in 1994, after decades of suffering through droughts, food shortages, and all the dangers that go with living on a military-weapons testing site, scores of horses suddenly died. And almost two thousand were in such dire straits that they were unlikely to survive. In a race to prevent more tragic deaths, large-animal veterinarian Don Hoglund was called in to organize and lead a team of dedicated cowboys, soldiers, and other professionals in removing the surviving horses and their babies to safety. Then would come the challenge of rehabilitating them, and eventually placing them in loving homes with people who could meet the needs of the highly spirited wild animals.For the first time in book form, "Nobody's Horses" tells the dramatic story of these noble horses' celebrated history, their defiant survival, and their incredible rescue.During the complex rescue, stampedes, escapes, and injuries ensued as well as struggles with animal rights activists and army officials. Everyone was in constant danger from unspent munitions on the ground and missile testing in the air. Cowboys, Native Americans, and ranchers -- all of whom cared deeply about the fate of the horses -- clashed in a battle of wills. And, of course, there were the horses themselves -- wild, extraordinarily powerful animals, not easily managed or moved, who would become known to their rescuers as fascinating, individual characters -- the wily old mares who evaded capture and led their bands to water and food, the beautiful colts and their amazing resilience and ability to bond with humans and each other, and the magnificent, powerful stallions who protected their harems and young against humans and predators. Luckily Hoglund's team was also extraordinary, and their mission a celebrated success for all the people involved, the horses that were rescued, and the grateful families who adopted these living pieces of an American legacy.Filled with history and heroism, adventure and rivalry, and, ultimately, the heartwarming alliances between horses and people, which made the whole endeavor worthwhile, "Nobody's Horses" will stir the emotions and imaginations of horse lovers, humanitarians, and anyone who loves an uplifting tale of second chances. It's a story of how Nobody's Horses became Everybody's Horses.

    Hurricanes and tornados in the Midwest, flooding along the coasts, melting of polar ice caps. What's going on?This book is an attempt to answer some of those questions. Written by leading experts, and using unique before-and-after satellite imagery to document what's taking place, Fragile Earth presents all of the changes that are occurring and what the likely outcomes for our planet will be.Different phenomena pose different risks. Natural phenomena, like earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, landslides, and avalanches, and wild weather, like tropical storms, tornadoes, and massive dust storms, pose risks to local populations who cannot safely escape these sudden cataclysms. But there are also more subtle changes happening that can be just as destructive in the long run.Take, for instance, the parched earth—places where desertification, shrinking lakes and drying rivers, and drought are becoming prevalent. What are the long-term effects of these phenomena on human populations? Or the so-called "Big Thaw"—dwindling glaciers, polar ice cap changes, rising sea levels: what are the effects of these ever-increasing conditions?The question this book poses is simple: What is to be done? There are answers to these problems, if we become more focused on solving them. The expert contributors give some of those answers, including conservation of current resources as just one of many.

    It covers all of Europe, from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean Basin, including western Turkey, Cyprus, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and the Azones, Canaries and Madeira. It also contains an introduction to studying and identifying dragonflies, and more.

    This book shows how easy it is to fill our gardens with everything from foxes, frogs and mice, to butterflies, ladybirds and thousands of fascinating creepy-crawlies.

    Hyde acts as a guide to the natural history, behavior, and future chances of the wild horses that survive across the U.S.—from the mustangs of the West to the ponies of Assoteague and Chincoteague islands; he writes as well of his personal experiences with wild horses around the globe, from the ghostly white horses of the French Camargue to zebras in Africa.  Beautifully illustrated with the work of Rita and Charles Summers, renowned photographers of the world’s wild horses, this arresting book truly conveys the nature, and the plight, of these splendid animals.

    Written by the pre-eminent authority in the field, this book builds on the reputation of the author's landmark monograph of the European otter, Wild Otters (OUP, 1995). Furthermore, its broader scope to include all species of otter in North America as well as Europe and elsewhere leads to a deeper synthesis that greatly expands the book's overall relevance and potential readership.Aimed at naturalists, scientists and conservationists, its personal style and generously illustrated text will appeal to amateurs and professionals alike. It emphasizes recent research and conservation management initiatives for all 13 species of otter worldwide, incorporates recent molecular research on taxonomy and population genetics, and discusses the wider implications of otter studies for ecology and conservation biology.As well as enchanting direct observations of the animals, there is guidance about how and where to watch and study them. From otters in the British and American lakes and rivers, to sea otters in the Pacific Ocean, giant otters in the Amazon and other species in Africa and Asia, this book provides an engaging approach to their fascinating existence, to the science needed to understand it, and to the very real threats to their survival.

    This is the first comprehensive survey of the remarkable work of the19th-century biologist and artist Ernst Haeckel for whom nature and art were inseparable.

    For many years Franck Bonin, Bernard Devaux, and Alain Dupré have traveled the world together to study turtles in their natural habitats. In this complete guide to the world's nearly 300 species of turtles, the authors reveal intimate, little-known details of these intriguing reptiles in their native habitats: what they eat, where they live, how they behave, and when and where they lay their eggs.Originally written in French, the text has been translated by one of the world's leading turtle experts, Peter C. H. Pritchard. The result is a beautifully written and illustrated book that belongs on the shelf of every library, public and private. Written for the millions of turtle lovers and nature enthusiasts who will find answers to their questions within its pages, this book is bound to become the standard reference for years to come.

    They sport the many colors of the rainbow, range in weight from 100 to 1,300 pounds, and figure in the mythology and folklore of cultures around the world. And still, they currently risk extinction. In this book, marine biologist Blair Ernest Witherington, who has devoted decades to these ancient creatures, offers readers an in-depth look into their mysterious world. Accompanied by exquisite photographs, his descriptions comprise a personal introduction to these strangely graceful marine reptiles. Detailed, lively, and up-to-date imagery tells the story of sea turtles’ distant origins, their specialized form and undersea challenges, senses and life cycle, world voyages and navigational talents—and their ecological roles. The most comprehensive overview of sea turtles to date, this book portrays each of the seven species in close-up, offering information on appearance, distribution, movements, life history, reproduction, diet, unique traits, and conservation.

    Reason and logic are strained when they describe mountains that were once seas, or seas where there were once mountains. It is hoped that this book will go some way to alleviating this kind of difficulty.’-- from the IntroductionSouthern Africa is without equal in terms of geology, a treasure trove of valuable minerals with a geological history dating back some 3 600 million years. In addition, the evolution of plants and animals, especially mammals and dinosaurs, is well preserved in the region, which also has among the best records of the origin of modern man. The Story of Earth and Life provides a fascinating insight into this remarkable history – how southern Africa’s mineral deposits were formed, how its life evolved and how its landscape was shaped. Along the way readers will be enthralled by accounts of the Big Bang that marked the beginning of time and matter, by drifting and colliding continents, folding and fracturing rocks, meteors colliding with the Earth, volcanic eruptions, and the start of life. Other topics include why South Africa is so rich in minerals, how glacial deposits came to be found in the Karoo, why dinosaurs became extinct, how mammals developed from reptiles, and how closely humans are related to the apes. The answers to many such questions can be found here. The book is comprehensively illustrated with explanatory diagrams and full color photographs.

    With her distinctive, impassioned voice and familiar felicity of language, Terry Tempest Williams talks about wilderness and wildlife, place and eroticism, art and literature, democracy and politics, family and heritage, Mormonism and religion, writing and creativity, and other subjects that engage her agile mind—in a set of interviews gathered and introduced by Michael Austin to represent the span of her career as a naturalist, author, and activist.

    Between them, they provide an overview of the work that we need to do now to save these and the hundreds of thousands of other similarly placed species before they're gone.

    Ricketts (1897–1948) has reached legendary status in the California mythos. A true polymath and a thinker ahead of his time, Ricketts was a scientist who worked in passionate collaboration with many of his friends—artists, writers, and influential intellectual figures—including, perhaps most famously, John Steinbeck, who once said that Ricketts's mind “had no horizons.” This unprecedented collection, featuring previously unpublished pieces as well as others available for the first time in their original form, reflects the wide scope of Ricketts’s scientific, philosophical, and literary interests during the years he lived and worked on Cannery Row in Monterey, California. These writings, which together illuminate the evolution of Ricketts’s unique, holistic approach to science, include “Verbatim transcription of notes on the Gulf of California trip,” the basic manuscript for Steinbeck’s and Ricketts’s Log from the Sea of Cortez; the essays “The Philosophy of Breaking Through” and “A Spiritual Morphology of Poetry;” several shorter pieces on topics including collecting invertebrates and the impact of modernization on Mexican village life; and more. An engaging critical biography and a number of rare photographs offer a new and richly detailed view of Ricketts’s life.

    Chadwick has followed and reported on whales for over a decade, and in this book he offers a fascinating insider's view of modern-day scientific whale observation - from data gathering to weathering storms, and from spirited scientific debate to expedition storytelling.

    But movements that challenged western prosperity and comfort seldom made much progress, and many radical environmentalists have been unabashed utopianists.In this short guide, Peterson del Mar untangles this paradox by showing how prosperity is essential to environmentalism. Industrialisation made conservation sensible, but also drove people to look for meaning in nature even as they consumed its products more relentlessly. Hence Englandled the way in both manufacturing and preserving its countryside, and the United Statescreated a matchless set of national parks as it became the world's pre-eminent economic and military power. Environmentalismconsiders both the conservation and preservation movements and less organized forms of nature loving (from seaside vacations to ecotourism) to argue that these activities have commonly distracted us from the hard work of creating a sustainable and sensible relationship with the environment.

    Based on the detailed daily journals that Dr. Frank Craighead kept during his years living in Grand Teton National Park, this book reveals the patterns of life that revolve around the changing seasons, with beautiful narration and hundreds of color photographs.

    The author of Arabian Sands and The Marsh Arabs and The Life of my Choice, he was a legend in his own lifetime but his character and motivations have remained an intriguing enigma.In this authorized biography - written with Thesiger’s support before he died in 2003 and with unique access to the rich Thesiger archive - Alexander Maitland investigates this fascinating figure’s family influences, his wartime experiences, his philosophy as a hunter and conservationist, his writing and photography, his friendships with Arabs and Africans amongst whom he lived, and his now-acknowledged homosexuality.

    This anthology, compiled from non-fiction sources by tiger scientist and conservationist K. Ullas Karanth, opens up a captivating world of rich descriptions, deeply felt personal experiences and serious reflections by hunters, amateur naturalists and wildlife scientists who encountered this most charismatic of all animal species. The first section of the book explores tiger hunting and old-style natural history, and revives some of the earliest essays on the tiger. Historian Mahesh Rangarajan's overview of the pre-colonial and colonial periods, when ruthless hunting of tigers was the dominant social ethos, sets the stage for English forester C.E.M. Russell's narration of tiger hunting in Mysore, published in 1900. Then follow tales by hunter-naturalists Dunbar Brander, Fred Champion, Kenneth Anderson, William Baz?? and Arthur Locke. The descriptions by more recent and less justifiably bloodthirsty hunters, such as Kesri Singh, a game manager in princely India, and Jack Denton Scott, an American safari hunter, provide grim examples of the slaughter of tigers. The second section covers the post-colonial period. This was the era when a ???new natural history', driven by the sheer joy of watching tigers, emerged??"leading to the first steps to save this magnificent cat from the brink of extinction. Essays by forest managers such as A. Hoogerwerf, Kailash Sankhala and Vladimir Troinin, who were fascinated by the tiger, are complemented by the writings of perceptive amateur naturalists such as E.P. Gee, Arjan Singh and Valmik Thapar. In the last section the reader steps into the world of modern tiger science and conservation. An account of the first-ever scientific study of tigers by George Schaller is followed by the observations of other biologists, such as John Seidensticker, Melvin Sunquist, Dale Miquelle and John Goodrich, who followed in Schaller's footsteps and generated new insights into tiger e

    Because of their beauty, intelligence, playfulness and ability in mimicry, parrots are the most widely kept companion birds. It is estimated that more than half of the psittacine cases presented to clinicians are the result of behavioral problems-problems inherent to captivity. Bringing together a host of international experts on avian behavior, Manual of Parrot Behavior explores the many facets of psittacine behavior, both normal and abnormal. The book not only provides readers with a solid understanding of the basic principles of psittacine behavior but also offers useful techniques of diagnosis and treatment for specific problems. * Covers both normal and abnormal parrot behavior * Offers practical techniques on diagnosis and treatment of behavior problems * Written by a team of international experts on avian behavior * A necessary addition to the library of any practitioner of behaviorist who sees avian companion animals