To love and loathe the fox is a British condition."The fox is our apex predator, our most beautiful and clever killer. We have witnessed its wild touch, watched it slink by bins at night and been chilled by its high-pitched scream. And yet we long to stroke the tumbling cubs outside their tunnel homes and watch the vixen stalk the cornfield.There is something about foxes. They captivate us like no other species.Exploring a long and sometimes complicated relationship, The Wild Life of the Fox captures our love – and sometimes loathing – of this magnificent creature in vivid detail and lyrical prose.

    Packed with photographs and details on characteristics, distinguishing features, and more, Smithsonian Handbooks: Rocks and Minerals makes identification easy.Designed for beginning and experienced collectors alike, this guide explains what rocks and minerals are, how they are classified, and how to start a collection. Look up different rocks and minerals, and find clear, annotated photography to pick out the key distinguishing features. Learn the differences between igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks, and reference the glossary for many more technical and scientific terms.Smithsonian Handbooks: Rocks and Minerals is filled with information about characteristics, colors, unique attributes, and more, making it one of the clearest identification guides for rock and mineral enthusiasts.

    For those who want to join the "hive" of keepers, Ashley English has the lowdown on the key issues, from space and time considerations to local ordinances to the basics of acquiring, housing, maintaining, and caring for bees year round. Plus, get 10 tested honey-centric recipes!

    To that end, he shares the basics of treehouse construction with his own recent projects as case studies. Using photographs taken especially for this project along with diagrams, he covers the selection and care of trees, and explains the fundamentals of building treehouse platforms. To ignite the imagination, Nelson presents 27 treehouses in the United States, Europe, and Africa. The book will be indispensible to anyone who aspires to have a treehouse, from the armchair dreamer, to the amateur builder, to the professional contractor.

    This work is a collection of 50 of Monty's best columns, that will provide a practical guide and a poetic record of the garden's changing seasons.

    Practical Algebra is an easy andfun-to-use workout program that quickly puts you in command of allthe basic concepts and tools of algebra. With the aid of practical, real-life examples and applications, you'll learn: * The basic approach and application of algebra to problemsolving * The number system (in a much broader way than you have known itfrom arithmetic) * Monomials and polynomials; factoring algebraic expressions; howto handle algebraic fractions; exponents, roots, and radicals;linear and fractional equations * Functions and graphs; quadratic equations; inequalities; ratio, proportion, and variation; how to solve word problems, andmore Authors Peter Selby and Steve Slavin emphasize practical algebrathroughout by providing you with techniques for solving problems ina wide range of disciplines--from engineering, biology, chemistry, and the physical sciences, to psychology and even sociology andbusiness administration. Step by step, Practical Algebra shows youhow to solve algebraic problems in each of these areas, then allowsyou to tackle similar problems on your own, at your own pace.Self-tests are provided at the end of each chapter so you canmeasure your mastery.

    Equally remarkable, she did it solo, on a bike cobbled together from used parts. Her panniers were recycled buckets. In Bicycling with Butterflies, Dykman recounts her incredible journey and the dramatic ups and downs of the nearly nine-month odyssey. We’re beside her as she navigates unmapped roads in foreign countries, checks roadside milkweed for monarch eggs, and shares her passion with eager schoolchildren, skeptical bar patrons, and unimpressed border officials. We also meet some of the ardent monarch stewards who supported her efforts, from citizen scientists and researchers to farmers and high-rise city dwellers. With both humor and humility, Dykman offers a compelling story, confirming the urgency of saving the threatened monarch migration—and the other threatened systems of nature that affect the survival of us all.

    Even with today's high-tech science, many events and ancient mysteries remain unexplained and surrounded by theories that stir the imagination and challenge scientific fact. This book systematically explores all aspects of the human fascination with the unknowable, from hauntings and the power of the mind to physical mysteries such as lost civilizations, ancient superstitions and symbols, and the persistent ideas about life from other planets. Evocative illustrations and intriguing photographs, combined with spine-tingling text by an award-winning author, shed light on the world's greatest mysteries.

    Like the previous editions, this one tells you how you can make maple syrup right in your own backyard without having to build a sap house or buy buckets, holding tanks, evaporators and other expensive paraphernalia. Provides detailed "how-to" information, and makes some new and noteworthy revelations-including tips sugarers across the country have shared with the author.

    Using photography as well as the author's own illustrations, Explore Your Nature invites readers to start at home, using all of their senses to notice the colors, sounds, smells, and textures of the trees, plants, animals, birds, insects, clouds, and other features that can be observed right outside their doorstep, no matter where they live. Prompts range from suggestions to note one daily exceptional nature image to learning to identify cloud types and the weather they bring, or creating a record of nature spottings on daily walks with the dog.

    Now they get their due in this delightfully illustrated, fact-filled book, courtesy of a professional beekeeper and nature writer who explores: • Why honey bees are disappearing-and what we can do about it • Who's who in the hive-the queen bee, the workers, and the drones • The role of bees in our food system • Swarming behavior-what it is, what it means, and how it's controlled • Bees by the numbers-number of bees per hive, number of wing beats per second, and other fascinating facts • Bees in folklore, literature, and pop culture • And much more

    While most are perfectly harmless, it's the magnificent exceptions that populate The Book of Deadly Animals. Award-winning writer Gordon Grice takes readers on a tour of the animal kingdom--from grizzly bears to great white sharks, big cats to crocodiles. Every page overflows with astonishing facts about Earth's great predators and unforgettable stories of their encounters with humans, all delivered in Grice's signature dark comic style. Illustrated with awe-inspiring photographs of beasts and bugs, this wondrous work will horrify, delight, and amaze.

    If you want to kill off characters with something poisonous, you need to know how a villain would gain access to such a poison, how it would be administered, and what the effects on the victim would be. "Book of Poisons" can help you figure out all of the details of proper poisoning.This thorough guide catalogs the classic poisons, household poisons, poisonous animals and plants, poisons used in wars, and more. With information on toxicity, reaction time, effects and symptoms, and antidotes and treatments, you'll know exactly what your villain needs to succeed and exactly what could foil his plans. You'll also find: information about how real toxicologists uncover poisoning crimesa history of famous poisonersadvice on how you can create your own fictional poisoncase histories that give examples of when the poisons listed were used in literature, movies, and real lifeWith alphabetical organization and appendices that cross-reference by symptoms, form, administration, and other methods, you'll be able to find the perfect poisons to fit your plot. Plus, a glossary of medical terms makes decoding symptoms and treatments easy for the writer with no medical background."Book of Poisons" is the comprehensive reference you need to create deaths by poison without stopping readers dead in their tracks over misguided facts."

    Highly intelligent and adaptable, they hunt and play together in close-knit packs, sometimes roaming over hundreds of square miles in search of food. Once teetering on the brink of extinction across much of the United States and Europe, wolves have made a tremendous comeback in recent years, thanks to legal protection, changing human attitudes, and efforts to reintroduce them to suitable habitats in North America.As wolf populations have rebounded, scientific studies of them have also flourished. But there hasn't been a systematic, comprehensive overview of wolf biology since 1970. In Wolves, many of the world's leading wolf experts provide state-of-the-art coverage of just about everything you could want to know about these fascinating creatures. Individual chapters cover wolf social ecology, behavior, communication, feeding habits and hunting techniques, population dynamics, physiology and pathology, molecular genetics, evolution and taxonomy, interactions with nonhuman animals such as bears and coyotes, reintroduction, interactions with humans, and conservation and recovery efforts. The book discusses both gray and red wolves in detail and includes information about wolves around the world, from the United States and Canada to Italy, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Israel, India, and Mongolia. Wolves is also extensively illustrated with black and white photos, line drawings, maps, and fifty color plates.Unrivalled in scope and comprehensiveness, Wolves will become the definitive resource on these extraordinary animals for scientists and amateurs alike. “An excellent compilation of current knowledge, with contributions from all the main players in wolf research. . . . It is designed for a wide readership, and certainly the language and style will appeal to both scientists and lucophiles alike. . . . This is an excellent summary of current knowledge and will remain the standard reference work for a long time to come.”—Stephen Harris, New Scientist “This is the place to find almost any fact you want about wolves.”—Stephen Mills, BBC Wildlife Magazine

    The forests, meadows, streambanks, and even the weedy margins of neighborhoods are home to an abundance of delicious wild edible plants. Discover wild lilies with their peppery flowers, buds, and seeds and use them in your spring salads. Select sweet, succulent thistles or the shoots of invasive Himalayan blackberries and Japanese knotweed to add wonderful flavor to hearty soups. Douglas Deur, a lifetime Northwest forager and specialist in Native American plant traditions, shares his insights and experiences, showing you what to look for, when and where to look, and how to gather in a responsible way. For foragers in Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Southeast Alaska.