Showing results by publisher "Audible studios" in Animals

Drawing on the author’s personal experiences with both tame and wild moose, this handbook contains a wealth of information about this unique animal from all corners of the world. An overview of moose biology is featured, including their specialized diet and the relationship between sex and antlers, where size really does matter. Covering the history of moose on earth and the marked fluctuations in populations that have occurred over time, this guide also contains accessible chapters exploring moose diseases, moose and traffic, moose as a resource, and the uses of live moose in several ways, ranging from transport and clothing to dairy animals and pets.

While we joke that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, our gender differences can't compare to those of other animals. For instance: the male garden spider spontaneously dies after mating with a female more than fifty times his size. Female cichlids must guard their eggs and larvae--even from the hungry appetites of their own partners. And male blanket octopuses employ a copulatory arm longer than their own bodies to mate with females that outweigh them by four orders of magnitude. Why do these gender gulfs exist?

What's the connection between a platter of jumbo shrimp at your local restaurant and murdered fishermen in Honduras, impoverished women in Ecuador, and disastrous hurricanes along America's Gulf coast? Mangroves. Many people have never heard of these salt-water forests, but for those who depend on their riches, mangroves are indispensable. In Let Them Eat Shrimp, Kennedy Warne takes listeners into the muddy battle zone that is the mangrove forest.

With his distinctively witty, anecdotal, and disarming voice, John Yow now journeys to the shore and shares his encounters with some of the most familiar and beloved coastal birds. Out of his travels—from North Carolina's Outer Banks, down the Atlantic coast, and westward along the Gulf of Mexico—come colorful accounts of twenty-eight species, from ubiquitous beach birds like sanderlings and laughing gulls to wonders of nature like roseate spoonbills and the American avocets.

We share our lives, for better or worse, with a multitude of animals: white-tailed deer and white-tailed eagles, hens and wrens, frogs and guppies, and, last but hardly least, bugs and bacteria. For the most part, we drift along separately, with neither man nor animal affecting the other's way of life. Sometimes, however, we fall in love - as in the case of the cat in the title - or otherwise encounter our animal neighbors in ways that change both of us.

A New York Times Notable Book of 1994! Highly respected author, philosopher, and animal trainer Vicki Hearne offers a treasure trove of animal anecdotes, all written in her unique and poetic style. Through entertaining stories about cats, horses, an ornamental carp, a scorpion, and tortoises, Hearne focuses on how each of these various creatures experiences happiness in its own special way. She takes issue with Ludwig Wittgenstein on lions and language, discusses the naming of pets, and considers the process of mourning a loved dog’s death.

In the 2012 edition of its flagship report, Worldwatch celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the 1992 Earth Summit with a far-reaching analysis of progress toward building sustainable economies. Written and read in clear language, State of the World 2012 offers a new perspective on what changes and policies will be necessary to make sustainability a permanent feature of the world's economies.

As a young boy, the author took part in collecting specimens for his father. Fifty years later, he was asked to join a team from the same institution studying the state of sea life in the Bahamian waters where he grew up, as measured against his father’s benchmark. The first of the sea changes presented in this eloquent book stems from climate change and is the drastic transformation of ocean life due to global warming - but there are more.

Few books have captured the haunting world of music and rivers and of the sport they provide as well as A River Never Sleeps. Roderick L. Haig-Brown writes of fishing not just as a sport, but also as an art. He knows moving water and the life within it - its subtlest mysteries and perpetual delights. He is a man who knows fish lore as few people ever will, and the legends and history of a great sport. Month by month, he takes you from river to river, down at last to the saltwater and the sea.

Did you know that bats compose their own songs? That mice giggle when tickled? Or that lizards do push-ups to seduce a mate, that elephants ‘hear’ through their feet, or that rats laugh? Drawing upon the latest scientific research, we see how animals build, create, and entertain themselves and others; how animal ‘friends’ keep in touch; and how some animals problem-solve more effectively than humans. The result is a thrilling scientific exploration that unlocks the secret lives of the animal world.

Jim Harrison, Pam Houston, Ted Leeson, Nick Lyons, Thomas McGuane, and more, share stories of fly fishing and life on the river. This marvelous collection features stories from some of America’s finest and most respected writers about one of the world’s most solitary and satisfying sports: fly fishing. For the first time, the stories of thirty-one acclaimed writers including Kim Barnes, Walter Bennett, Russell Chatham, Guy de la Valdne, Robert DeMott, Chris Dombrowski, Ron Ellis, Jim Fergus, Kate Fox, Charles Gaines, Bruce Guernsey, Jim Harrison, Pam Houston, Michael Keaton, Greg Keeler, Sydney Lea, Ted Leeson, Nick Lyons, Craig Mathews, Thomas McGuane, Joseph Monninger, Howard Frank Mosher, Jake Mosher, Craig Nova, Margot Page, Datus Proper, Le Anne Schreiber, Paul Schullery, W. D. Wetherell, and Robert Wrigley come together in one collection. Fly fishers and non-fly fishers alike will recognize in these poignant tales the universal aspects of the appreciation of nature, the necessity of conservation, and the joy and knowledge that come from time spent on fresh and salt water. This is a delightful, handsome volume that captures the allure and spirit of fly fishing and those that love it.

James Dearsley’s wife thought he had lost his mind when he announced his intention to become a beekeeper. But like many interested in the self-sufficient lifestyle, he loved gardening and growing vegetables on his allotment and the old romantic in him had idealistic notions of teaching his little boy where honey came from, so he set himself what seemed a reasonable goal: to get, in a year’s time, just one jar of honey.

Casey Anderson, the host of National Geographic’s Expedition Grizzly, met a month-old bear cub in a wildlife preserve in 2002, whom he affectionately named Brutus. Little Brutus was destined to remain in captivity or, more likely, even euthanized due to overpopulation at the preserve. Anderson, already an expert in animal rescue and rehabilitation, just could not let that happen to Brutus, who looked like a "fuzzy Twinkie."

Draghi, ciclopi, giganti, unicorni, fenici. Quando gli antichi si imbattevano in resti di animali sconosciuti, subito li attribuivano a creature fantastiche. Poi gli scienziati hanno dimostrato che si trattava solo di fantasie ancestrali: i mostri non esistono, oggi lo sappiamo tutti; eppure la spiegazione che gli studiosi hanno dato di quei reperti è stata addirittura più terrificante: prima di noi, una miriade di altri viventi abitava il nostro pianeta, ma ora non ci sono più. Sulla Terra, infatti, nulla è per sempre.

I lupi stanno tornando. Negli ultimi anni la loro popolazione in tutta Europa è aumentata in modo esponenziale. In Italia è più che decuplicata superando i duemila esemplari. Sempre più spesso vengono avvistati intorno ai centri abitati, nei pascoli, al limitare del bosco. Insieme alle tracce riemergono paure antiche, mai placate del tutto. Nemico da perseguitare, incarnazione del male, pericolo per raccolti e greggi: man mano che avanzava l'urbanizzazione e le foreste lasciavano spazio ai campi, i lupi sono stati cacciati, dagli eserciti o dagli stessi contadini.

Beviamo il loro latte, ci vestiamo con la loro pelle e il loro pelo, mangiamo la loro carne, eppure animali come pecore, mucche e maiali raramente sono considerati esseri viventi capaci di provare emozioni e dolore. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson attinge alla storia, alla letteratura, agli studi scientifici e agli incontri con allevatori e animalisti per dare voce a queste creature e illustrarne la straordinaria e complessa vita emotiva.

Il gatto è un dio. Come un dio, prova un senso di inconfondibile distacco nei confronti dell'uomo, che osserva in un silenzio misterioso. Il gatto è una creatura della notte. Con demoni e spiriti condivide malizie e seduzione, e una crudeltà giocosa che lascia insieme affascinati e turbati. Il gatto è il più antico abitante del nostro immaginario. Altero, solitario, opportunista. Nonostante millenni di convivenza, nessuno di noi può dire di conoscerlo davvero.

La Terra è il pianeta blu. Ma la nostra conoscenza del mare è spesso approssimativa e superficiale. L'autrice ci guida alla scoperta dei suoi abitanti adottando un punto di vista tutto particolare: il loro! Scopriremo così come si muovono, in che modo si corteggiano e riproducono, come percepiscono quanto li circonda e interagiscono tra loro. Nel mare troviamo un gran numero di specie viventi, molte ancora da scoprire. Conoscere la ricchezza e la fragilità del mondo sommerso significa anche porsi il problema di tutelarlo e difenderlo da un uso sconsiderato delle sue risorse.

"Conosciamo meglio i nostri animali da compagnia dei nostri vicini di casa. Quasi sicuramente li amiamo di più, come ha ricordato papa Francesco. " Da quando gli animali domestici sono diventati membri ufficiali delle nostre famiglie, abbiamo dovuto decidere se essere padroni, proprietari, amici o genitori. Nel tempo in cui prendevamo la nostra decisione, i "pets" l'hanno presa per noi. Quando un uomo o una donna sceglie di adottare un "pet", la sua vita cambia per sempre.

Gli etologi hanno a lungo biasimato le interpretazioni del comportamento animale in termini di emozioni umane, avvertendo che l'antropomorfizzazione limita la nostra capacità di comprendere gli animali nella loro vera natura. Cosa dobbiamo pensare, però, di fronte a una femmina di gorilla che piange per giorni la morte del suo piccolo? O di una femmina di elefante che si prende cura di un'altra più giovane, dopo che questa è stata ferita da un maschio violento? Non sono questi chiari esempi del fatto che gli animali possiedono emozioni riconoscibili e un'intelligenza morale?