The largest member of the dolphin family was then considered too dangerous to approach in the wild. That all changed when Erich Hoyt and his colleagues spent seven summers in the 1970s following these intelligent, playful creatures in the waters off northern Vancouver Island. Working alongside other researchers keen to understand the life history of the killer whale, Hoyt's group helped to dispel the negative mythology about orcas while uncovering the intimate details of their social behavior.This revised fifth edition includes Hoyt's original account, plus exciting new chapters that bring readers up to date on the revolution in public awareness and orca research that has taken place. Hoyt's youthful adventures turned into his life's work. Now a world-renowned expert on whales and dolphins, he shares orca wisdom along with stories gleaned from decades of additional field study in the Russian Far East as well as return trips to Canada's West Coast to visit with the descendants of the killer whales he encountered 45 years ago.

    Robert's exquisitely-rendered paintings and drawings, accompanied by the artist's recollections and observations, are gathered for art and nature lovers to enjoy.

    

    A heart-warming story of animal psychology, The Zoo That Never Was describes the adventures of the wild menagerie when RD Lawrence and his wife Joan became keepers of orphaned and abandoned animals, including bear, otters, skunk, raccoons, lynx, Canada geese, ducks, turtles, porcupines and more.

    The chaos they bring forces Strongbeak and his friends to seek a brave new world beyond the mountains.

    He watched a tribe making stone axes and met a pygmy people who wore extraordinary bulbous hats made from their hair clippings and woven to their scalps. On the island of Pentecost he marvelled at the courage of the sensational land-divers who jumped head first from a tower over eighty feet high with vines tied round their ankles. On Tanna he observed a cargo cult and talked to its leader, and on Tonga he filmed the Royal Kava ceremony, the most important and sacred of all the surviving ancient rituals.David Attenborough describes Madagascar as "one of Nature's lumber rooms, a place where antique outmoded forms of life that have long since disappeared from the rest of the world still survive in isolation". Here he observed many species of lemur, including the enchanting snow-white sifakas and the 'dog-headed man', the indris, about whom there are many legends; he collected fragments of the largest eggs in the world laid by the now extinct Aepyornis, and saw the ritual of the turning the dead.Finally, in the Northern Territory of Australia he filmed the aborigines' way of life, examined the remarkable rock paintings which parallel the first drawings made by mankind, learnt about the legends in which they describe their myths of the creation of the world, and met an old man who lived a hermit's life in a remote part of the outback in an upturned water tank.Vivid descriptions, hilarious incidents, and extraordinary encounters makes this book superb family reading.

    Each entry is stunningly complemented by one or more color photographs and contains information about the habitat, distribution, length, recognition marks, and other pertinent details concerning the particular species. A three-part visual key provides instantaneous identification of the insect's primary activity, its habitat, and its ecological significance. This is an indispensable reference tool for anyone fascinated by the insect world.

    Midwest and Northeast, and eastern Canada. Like other plant guides in the "Finders" series, "Fern Finder" is a dichotomous key, which leads the user step-by-step through a series of choices to the species being identified. Heavily illustrated with line drawings.

    Presents the winning and commended images from the 1997 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Competition, organized by BBC Wildlife Magazine and The Natural History Museum, London.