Few people know bears as intimately as Else Poulsen. She has raised bears, comforted bears, taught bears, learned from bears, had bears communicate their needs to her, and nursed bears back to health. This remarkable book reveals the many insights about bears and their lives that she has gained through her work with them. In the eighties, Poulsen became a zookeeper in Calgary, where she rehabilitated bears in crisis. She has shared in the joy of a polar bear discovering soil under her paws for the first time in twenty years, felt the pride of a cub learning to crack nuts with her molars, and grieved at the horror of captivity for Asian black bears in China.Smiling Bears provides an enlightening and moving portrait of bears in all their richness and complexity and of Poulsen's exhilarating work with them. Also available in paperback.

    But was it a savage sheep killer or a shy, fussy, nocturnal feeder? And did it really drink its victims' blood? Once reviled, feared and slaughtered by government decree, the myth of the Tasmanian Tiger continues to grow. So treasured is it now, the Tasmanian Tiger has become the official logo of the island that wiped it out and a symbol of the conservation movement world-wide.A number of Australian species have miraculously reappeared after being labelled as extinct. Perhaps the Tiger is still with us. And if it's not, can it be brought back by cloning?

    There is the record-holding husband and wife who cross continents to "twitch" (spot rare birds); the disgraced "stringer" who takes desperate measures to falsify a spotting of the coveted black lark, leading hundreds on a fruitless search; and a group of friends who go birding in America only to be plagued by car trouble, drunk drivers, robbery, and an encounter with the border police.Birders is also an inspiring and heartwarming account of the author's lifelong love for his hobby, and the way it transforms him -- from his fetishistic love affair with his notebook and "bins" (binoculars) to his deep mourning for a friend who went missing when he followed the call of an elusive pheasant in the Himalayan mountains. Informative, touching, and astoundingly funny, here is the layman's invitation to share in an unlikely obsession.

    Illustrated throughout, this handbook of birds covers the most common British and European birds in detail.

    He made pilgrimages to true time capsules like a remote lagoon in Western Australia, spent time in research collections photographing forms of microscopic life, and even found ways to create visual parallels between the growth of organs in the human body and the patterns seen on the surface of the earth. The resulting volume is a glorious picture book of planet earth depicting the amazing biodiversity that surrounds us all. Lanting's true gift lies beyond his technical mastery: it is his eye for geometry in the beautiful chaos of nature that allows him to show us the world as it has never been seen before. From crabs to jellyfish, diatoms to vast geological formations, jungles to flowers, monkeys to human embryos, LIFE is a testament to the magical beauty of life in all its forms and is Lanting's most remarkable achievement to date. The photographer: Dutch-born Frans Lanting has been hailed as one of the great nature photographers of our time. For the past two decades he has documented wildlife and our relationship with nature in environments from the Amazon to Antarctica. Exhibits of his photographs have been shown at major museums in Paris, Milan, Tokyo, New York, Madrid, and Amsterdam. Lanting's previous TASCHEN titles include Eye to Eye, Jungles, and Penguin. The editor: Christine Eckstrom is a writer and editor specializing in natural history. She collaborates with Lanting on fieldwork, books, and other publishing projects from their home base in California.

    Yet we take supplies of clean water and secure food for granted, rarely considering the free work nature does for Britain. In fact for years we have damaged the systems that sustain us under the illusion that we are keeping prices down, through intensive farming, drainage of bogs, clearing forests and turning rivers into canals. As Tony Juniper's new analysis shows, however, the ways in which we meet our needs often doesn't make economic sense. Through vivid first hand accounts and inspirational examples of how the damage is being repaired, Juniper takes readers on a journey to a different Britain from the one many assume we inhabit, not a country where nature is worthless or an impediment to progress, but the real Britain, the one where we are supported by nature, wildlife and natural systems at almost every turn.

    In the tradition of "Marley & Me" comes an unforgettable memoir about the mysteries of the animal kingdom, the power of family, and the triumph of hope over tragedy in this chronicle of the Mee family's purchase of the Dartmoor Wildlife Park, a dilapidated zoo in the English countryside.Weinstein Books

    Teresa O'Kane had always longed to see the world. She owned scads of travel books and maps to prove it and was about to buy yet another bookcase to hold the many Lonely Planet guides and travel essays that she had accumulated over the years when she turned to her husband and said, "I'm tired of storing our dreams. Let's live them!" Within a month, they bought one-way tickets to Morocco, leased out their home, and set out on a journey of the African Continent top to bottom, from Casablanca to Cape Town. Transiting seventeen countries in 10 months, mostly by public transport, they explored wild, exotic, and historic locations they had only dreamed of and some they had never heard of. From sandy Timbuktu, to a tiny lemur populated island in Madagascar, the author embraces Africa. She strokes the manes of lions, contracts malaria, flies a micro light over Victoria Falls, earns a level one certification as a South African safari guide, discovers that an insect has turned her foot into a nursery for hundreds of eggs, grapples with the negative effects of foreign aid, and rubs elbows with European royalty deep within the Dogon in Mali. O'Kane offers an entertaining and enlightening look into overland travel on the African continent. Filled with helpful budget minded travel tips, this hilarious and inspiring book may find you yearning to take a career break of your own. Awards: The Indie Book Award for Best Memoir of 2012. San Francisco Book Festival Honorable Mention Award for Non-Fiction. Travelers Tales SOLAS for My Gambian Husband.

    Because of those lessons in observation, Stott now carries his binoculars and camera with him everywhere he travels. Of the 9,000 different bird species in the world, Stott estimates he has seen about 2,500! In this unique and intriguing book he takes seriously Jesus' exhortation in the Sermon on the Mount, "Behold the fowls of the air" (Matt. 6:26 KJV). He reveals lessons on faith from the feeding of ravens, on repentance from the migration of storks, on freedom from the flight of the eagle, on joy from the song of the lark, and more. The Birds Our Teachers is lavishly illustrated with full-color photographs taken by the author in his travels around the world. Stott humorously calls his work "an introduction to the science of orni-theology," for he combines information about birds with biblical truths and personal anecdotes in a way that will fascinate bird-lovers and Bible readers everywhere.

    But he's still here with me and knowing that means that I am able to gain strength from him, and harness the same passion and drive that he and I had together. There are so many people who have been inspired and are still being inspired by Steve Irwin and that makes me feel really, really proud.' - Bob IrwinBob Irwin grew up in the Dandenong Ranges where his passion for wildlife was born. A near-death experience while working as a plumber made Bob realise he needed to follow his dreams, so he and his wife Lyn moved their young family to Queensland where they opened a wildlife park on the Sunshine Coast.The Irwin children grew up in and around the Beerwah Reptile & Wildlife Park, learned about the animals there from their dad and cared for orphaned wildlife at home with their mum. Passion for the environment and all animals became a way of life for them. This unique upbringing had a profound impact on Bob's son Steve, who followed in his father's footsteps and became famous around the world as the Crocodile Hunter, educator and wildlife warrior.Bob nearly didn't survive the sudden death of his adored wife Lyn, and it was Steve who helped him face life again. When the world tragically lost Steve to a freak diving accident, it wasn't just the animals that lost the best friend they ever had. Bob did too. Describing it as moving forward without a map, Bob spent many years burying himself in physical work, as a means to cope with the loss of his son. It was the natural world and the animals within it that helped Bob to keep going, and since then he has continued to fight for his beloved Steve's legacy of protecting the wildlife, environment and planet on which our own survival depends.Entertaining, moving, impassioned and inspiring, The Last Crocodile Hunter shows the heart and soul of a great Australian character, father and wildlife campaigner.

    Each day brings a new observation or an unexpected encounter—a fragile spider’s web, an osprey struggling to lift a trout from the water, or a woodcock exquisitely camouflaged on her nest—and every day, on his return home, he records his thoughts in a journal. Drawing on this lifetime of close observation, John Lister-Kaye encourages a second look at nature and discovery of its wildness. He also forges wonderful connections between the most unlikely subjects, from photosynthesis and the energy cycle to Norse mythology, weasels, and the overpopulation of the planet. At the Water’s Edge is a lyrical hymn to wildlife, and a powerful warning to respect and protect it.

    

    This frightening and chilling story immediately captured worldwide media attention and ignited a firestorm of controversy. Death in the Grizzly Maze is the compelling account of Treadwell's intense life and dramatic death. Author Mike Lapinski chronicles Treadwell's rise from self-described alcoholic loser to popular grizzly-bear advocate, and he delves into the troubling issues raised by a new breed of wildlife celebrities.

    Indeed, Flora Britannica is the definitive contemporary flora, an encyclopaedia of living folklore, a register – a sort of Domesday Book.It is unique in that it is not a botanical flora but a cultural one – an account of the role of wild plants in social life, arts, custom and landscape. It is also unique in that information has been supplied by the people themselves. Five years of intensive original research have aroused popular interest and ‘grassroots’ involvement on an exceptional scale. People all over Britain – both rural and urban – have been encouraged to record and celebrate the cultural dimensions of their own flora, and to send their memories and anecdotes, observations and regional knowledge to Flora Britannica.The result is a nationwide record of the popular culture, domestic uses and social meanings of our wild plants. It is both useful and delightful – superbly written by one of the most outstanding English authors on natural history and illustrated with nearly 500 photographs. Including trees and ferns, it covers 1,000 species, many of them in considerable detail. A new flora for the people, Flora Britannica is a testimony to the continuing relationship between nature and human beings, and a celebration that the seasons and the landscape, local character and identity, still matter in Britain.

    The author has wonderfully captured the beauty of wild life and nature. With its theme of bravery and heroism, the book sets a great example for all readers especially young boys. Inspirational