Showing titles in Animals

In Of Orcas and Men, a marvelously compelling mix of cultural history, environmental reporting, and scientific research, David Neiwert explores an extraordinary species and its occasionally fraught relationship with human beings. Beginning with their role in myth and contemporary culture, Neiwert shows how killer whales came to capture our imaginations and brings to life the often-catastrophic environmental consequences of that appeal.

Entomologist Justin O. Schmidt is on a mission. Some say it's a brave exploration, others shake their heads in disbelief. His goal? To compare the impacts of stinging insects on humans, mainly using himself as the gauge. In The Sting of the Wild, the colorful Dr. Schmidt takes us on a journey inside the lives of stinging insects, seeing the world through their eyes as well as his own.

The spinosaurs – the controversial group that includes the largest land predator of all time, the awe-inspiring Spinosaurus – are brought to life in this cutting-edge review. The giant sail-backed carnivorous dinosaur Spinosaurus is one of the most famous of all dinosaurs; a staple of documentaries, books and video games, and the species that bested the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex in Jurassic Park III. The spinosaurs were some of the strangest predatory dinosaurs, combining a long low skull with powerfully clawed hands. Some species had huge sails over their backs, as well as fin-like tails.

The writer and broadcaster Paul Heiney set sail from the east coast of England bound for Iceland, propelled by a desire to breathe the cool, clear air of the high latitudes, and to follow in the wake of generations of sailors who have made this often treacherous journey since the 13th century. In almost every harbour he tripped over maritime history and anecdote, and came face to face with his own past as he sailed north along his childhood coastline of east Yorkshire towards the Arctic Circle. But there was one major thing missing from this voyage - the sight of puffins.

Author of At Play in the Fields of the Lord, national Book Award-winner Peter Matthiessen is an accomplished naturalist and one of the most acclaimed writers in the world. This book is a stirring look at the tiger, a magnificent animal that has long fueled human fascination. In critical danger of extinction, only a few thousand of these giant cats remain. Matthiessen's exquisite prose stunningly captures the tigers' dramatic fight to survive.

When Susan Richards adopted an abused horse rescued by the local SPCA, she didn't know that the memoir she would write about the experience would become a best seller - or that she would fall in love.

In 2004, an enigmatic charter captain named Al Anderson caught and marked one Atlantic bluefin tuna off New England’s coast with a plastic fish tag. Fourteen years later that fish – dubbed Amelia for her ocean-spanning journeys – died in a Mediterranean fish trap, sparking Karen Pinchin’s riveting investigation into the marvels, struggles, and prehistoric legacy of this remarkable species.

Meet Mya-Rose—otherwise known as 'Birdgirl'. Birder, environmentalist, diversity activist. To date she has seen over 5,000 different types of bird: half the world's species. Every single bird a treasure. Each sighting a small step in her family journey—a collective moment of joy and stillness amidst her mother's deepening mental health crisis. And each helping her to find her voice. Since she was young, she has visited every continent to pursue her passion, seeing first-hand the inequality and reckless destruction we are inflicting on our fragile planet.

Have you ever observed a bee up close and wondered what was going on inside its head? Like ours, insects' brains take up most of the space in their heads, but their brains are smaller than a grain of rice, only 0.0002% as large as ours. But what purpose does the insect brain serve, and how does that drive their creativity, morality, and emotions?

Scientists have long attempted to understand Earth’s past, and in service to that effort, they have divided the world’s history into eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. For example, the current eon is called the Phanerozoic Eon, which means “visible life”. This is the eon in which multicellular life has evolved and thrived. Before this, life was microscopic (single cells).

A dog's guide to life - how to be a kinder, compassionate, more mindful and wiser human. Anyone who has ever fallen hopelessly in love with a dog will know dogs have the capacity to love us back unconditionally, welcome us home with unbridled excitement, forgive us endlessly for our impatience, comfort us when we're feeling low - and then play games with wholehearted contentment, bringing endless joy to our lives.

A stunningly lyrical firsthand account of a life spent hunting, studying, and living alongside caribou, A Thousand Trails Home encompasses the historical past and present day, revealing the fragile intertwined lives of people and animals surviving on an uncertain landscape of cultural and climatic change sweeping the Alaskan Arctic. Author Seth Kantner vividly illuminates this critical story about the interconnectedness of the Iñupiat of Northwest Alaska, the Western Arctic caribou herd, and the larger Arctic region.

Develop a deeper, more positive relationship with the animals in your life and become a better person using Animal Lessons. All around you, animals are acting as therapists, trainers, mentors, and gurus - if you pay attention. They want to guide you toward the next step in your personal evolution, and this first-of-its-kind audiobook shows you how to understand and benefit from them. With an open heart and mind, you'll develop a new awareness and stronger love of yourself as well as the wise creatures in your life.

A lover, not a fighter. That was wolf 302. A renegade with an eye for the ladies, 302 was anything but Yellowstone’s perfect alpha male. For starters, he fled from danger. He begged for food from other wolves, ditched females he’d gotten pregnant, and even napped during a heated battle with a rival pack! But this is not the story of 302’s failures. This is the story of his dramatic transformation. And legendary wolf writer Rick McIntyre witnessed it all from the sidelines.

Following the natural cycle of the year, The Land of Maybe captures the essence of 'slow life' on the 18 remote, mysterious islands which make up the Faroes in the North Atlantic. Closer to the UK than Denmark, this fast disappearing world is home to a close-knit society where just 50,000 people share Viking roots and a language that is unlike any other in Scandinavia. We follow the arrival of the migratory birds, the over-wintering of the sheep and the way food is gathered and eaten in tune with the seasons.

Ever since he was given a copy of Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World for his ninth birthday, Dom has been obsessed with the world of cryptozoology—monster hunting—and in Scary Monsters and Super Creeps, he heads to six completely different destinations to investigate local monster sightings. Are the monsters all the product of fevered minds, or is there a sliver of truth somewhere in the madness? Either way, the search gives Dom an excuse to dive into six fascinating destinations on a gloriously nutty adventure.

The first book to reveal the hidden world of sharks, Emperors of the Deep draws upon the latest scientific research to examine four species in detail - mako, tiger, hammerhead and great white - as never before. An eye-opening tour of shark habitats ranges from the coral reefs of the Central Pacific where great whites mysteriously congregate every autumn, to tropical mangrove forests where baby lemon sharks play in social groups and to the frigid waters of the North Atlantic, home to 400-year-old Greenland sharks, the world’s longest-lived vertebrates.

All his life, Philip Hoare has been obsessed by whales, from the gigantic skeletons in London’s Natural History Museum to adult encounters with the wild animals themselves. Whales have a mythical quality - they seem to elide with dark fantasies of sea-serpents and antediluvian monsters that swim in our collective unconscious. In Leviathan, Philip Hoare seeks to locate and identify this obsession.

Known as the original "Snakemaster" from his various television shows, Austin Stevens is one of the most famous herpetologists in the world. From his show Austin Stevens: Snakemaster on Animal Planet to his many appearances in the media, Stevens is known as an incredibly smart, yet incredibly insane animal lover.

Emmy Award - winning filmmaker, writer, and naturalist Joe Hutto has done it again. Touching the Wild is the enchanting story about one man who has lived with a herd of mule deer in the Wind River mountains of Wyoming for almost seven years. Why, you may ask, would a person choose to do such a thing? His response: how could you not? For Joe Hutto, close proximity to wild things is irresistible. In Illumination in the Flatwoods he unveiled the secret lives of the wild turkey to great critical acclaim.