Natural History Kids
We're on an adventure with 1,001 ants! Come visit the ants in their home, meet their queen, and discover how they look after their colony. Then join them on a walk through the countryside, discovering plants, insects, mushrooms, and animals that live outside and in our yards. Spot the ant with red socks hidden on every double page, and enjoy a pleasant stroll through the undergrowth--seeing things that humans are usually too big to notice!
1,001 Ants is an engaging nonfiction storybook for children full of fascinating facts about nature. With lively and appealing illustrations, it's a must-have for children who are curious about bugs and the animal kingdom.
'A magical book: an inimitable fusion of ornithology, literary anthology and autobiography' Tom Holland
'Delightful . . . an original look at the literature inspired by Britain's birdlife' the Guardian, Best Nature Books of 2017
When Alex Preston was 15, he stopped being a birdwatcher. Adolescence and the scorn of his peers made him put away his binoculars, leave behind the hides and the nature reserves and the quiet companionship of his fellow birders. His love of birds didn't disappear though. Rather, it went underground, and he began birdwatching in the books that he read, creating his own personal anthology of nature writing that brought the birds of his childhood back to brilliant life.
Looking for moments 'when heart and bird are one', Preston weaves the very best writing about birds into a personal and eccentric narrative that is as much about the joy of reading and writing as it is about the thrill of wildlife. Moving from the 'high requiem' of Keats's nightingale to the crow-strewn sky at the end of Alan Garner's The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, from Ted Hughes's brooding 'Hawk in the Rain' to the giddy anthropomorphism of Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, this is a book that will make you look at birds, at the world, in a newer, richer light.
Beautifully illustrated and illuminated by the celebrated graphic artist Neil Gower, As Kingfishers Catch Fire is a book to love and to hold, to return to again and again, to marvel at the way that authors across the centuries have captured the endless grace and variety of birds.
'As Kingfishers Catch Fire is a memoir/gallimaufry of ornithological obsession by Alex Preston. He watches birds in the sky and on the page darting between myths, stories and memoir like a swift. The characterful illustrations by Neil Gower add a whole new dimension to this gorgeous book' Damian Barr, Guardian Best Books of 2017
A vibrant journey through the Earth's oceans and a timely, important treatise on what must be done to save them
A tragedy is playing out beneath the surface of the world's bodies of marine waters, one that began long before the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Although many books have explored the environmental problems being faced on land, Atlas of Oceans is the first book for a general audience that examines how creatures of the marine environment are if anything more vulnerable than their land-based counterparts.
Readers are introduced to the dazzling, diverse array of creatures that inhabit the oceans and seas, and to the nature of the problems they face. Special features focus on the threats to particular animals, plants, and habitats, as well as on specific issues like overfishing, global warming, and pollution. The book also includes success stories, recommendations for what can be done to preserve ocean ecosystems, and a complete rundown of the most endangered species of marine life.
Beautifully illustrated, packed with maps and diagrams, and containing up-to-the-minute data on the status of endangered marine species, Atlas of Oceans is a celebration of Earth's vibrant and awe-inspiring oceans and seas and an urgent call to action to protect one of our planet's most vital resources.
"Watch Me Grow," a groundbreaking series from DK, brings readers ages 5 and up into the fascinating world of animal development. Close-up photographs give children an animal's eye-view of growing up, while simple, first-person text and fact boxes explain what is happening at each stage in the lives of animals."Watch Me Grow" introduces beginner's to the cycle of life with gorgeous photography and accessible information. It's the next big thing in first natural history books.
For centuries scientists have written off cannibalism as a bizarre phenomenon with little biological significance. Its presence in nature was dismissed as a desperate response to starvation or other life-threatening circumstances, and few spent time studying it. A taboo subject in our culture, the behavior was portrayed mostly through horror movies or tabloids sensationalizing the crimes of real-life flesh-eaters. But the true nature of cannibalism--the role it plays in evolution as well as human history--is even more intriguing (and more normal) than the misconceptions we've come to accept as fact.
In Cannibalism: A Perfectly Natural History, zoologist Bill Schutt sets the record straight, debunking common myths and investigating our new understanding of cannibalism's role in biology, anthropology, and history in the most fascinating account yet written on this complex topic. Schutt takes readers from Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains, where he wades through ponds full of tadpoles devouring their siblings, to the Sierra Nevadas, where he joins researchers who are shedding new light on what happened to the Donner Party--the most infamous episode of cannibalism in American history. He even meets with an expert on the preparation and consumption of human placenta (and, yes, it goes well with Chianti).
Bringing together the latest cutting-edge science, Schutt answers questions such as why some amphibians consume their mother's skin; why certain insects bite the heads off their partners after sex; why, up until the end of the twentieth century, Europeans regularly ate human body parts as medical curatives; and how cannibalism might be linked to the extinction of the Neanderthals. He takes us into the future as well, investigating whether, as climate change causes famine, disease, and overcrowding, we may see more outbreaks of cannibalism in many more species--including our own.
Cannibalism places a perfectly natural occurrence into a vital new context and invites us to explore why it both enthralls and repels us.
-- Simple diagrams illustrate concepts like photosynthesis, plant anatomy, and reproduction
-- Introduces the classification of the plant kingdom into families
-- Brilliant close-up color photos
Gerald and Loretta Hausman retell thirteen tales that capture the spirit of our beloved friend, the many-faceted dog. Here are trickster dogs, like the well-meaning but forgetful husky who accidentally brought Death to the world. Here are guardian dogs, like the wolfhound who was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect his master's baby. Here are super dogs, like the poodle who could speak four languages, catch bullets with his teeth, and change shape. Here, too, is the story of that first man and dog and the promises they made -- and many more.
The Hausmans beautifully evoke the varied cultures that nourished each tale -- from that of the Nyanga people of Africa to that of the Ainu of Japan and the Siberian Eskimos of Unisak -- and their rich storytelling style makes each an irresistible read-aloud. Barry Moser's brilliant watercolors gracefully pay homage to thirteen different breeds. So, dip into these pages and enjoy finding your own best friend -- in the mythic proportions every dog deserves.
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."--Genesis 1:24-26
In this crucial passage from the Old Testament, God grants mankind power over animals. But with this privilege comes the grave responsibility to respect life, to treat animals with simple dignity and compassion.
Somewhere along the way, something has gone wrong.
In Dominion, we witness the annual convention of Safari Club International, an organization whose wealthier members will pay up to $20,000 to hunt an elephant, a lion or another animal, either abroad or in American "safari ranches," where the animals are fenced in pens. We attend the annual International Whaling Commission conference, where the skewed politics of the whaling industry come to light, and the focus is on developing more lethal, but not more merciful, methods of harvesting "living marine resources." And we visit a gargantuan American "factory farm," where animals are treated as mere product and raised in conditions of mass confinement, bred for passivity and bulk, inseminated and fed with machines, kept in tightly confined stalls for the entirety of their lives, and slaughtered in a way that maximizes profits and minimizes decency.
Throughout Dominion, Scully counters the hypocritical arguments that attempt to excuse animal abuse: from those who argue that the Bible's message permits mankind to use animals as it pleases, to the hunter's argument that through hunting animal populations are controlled, to the popular and "scientifically proven" notions that animals cannot feel pain, experience no emotions, and are not conscious of their own lives.
The result is eye opening, painful and infuriating, insightful and rewarding. Dominion is a plea for human benevolence and mercy, a scathing attack on those who would dismiss animal activists as mere sentimentalists, and a demand for reform from the government down to the individual. Matthew Scully has created a groundbreaking work, a book of lasting power and importance for all of us.
Seventy million years ago, deep in the ocean, a bluish fish hovers in a cave. Like the dinosaurs, the fish's kind is about to become extinct. Or is it? Millions of years later, a bizarre blue fish is caught near East London, South Africa. To the museum curator who first studies it, it looks like an ancient fossil fish. But it can't be. The fossil fishes have all been extinct for eons... So begins the story of the coelacanth, a fish that survived the wave of extinction that killed the dinosaurs. From underwater quests for hidden populations to the dissection of the coelacanth's unique organs, this gripping scientific drama brings to life the thrill of discovery.
Natural disasters, climate change, resource exploitation, and human development are all changing our planet at a relentless pace.
Turn on the television, read any newspaper--one cannot avoid stories of the major changes that are taking place on Earth. Hurricanes and tornados in the Midwest, flooding along the coasts, melting of polar ice caps. What's going on?
This book is an attempt to answer some of those questions. Written by leading experts, and using unique before-and-after satellite imagery to document what's taking place, Fragile Earth presents all of the changes that are occurring and what the likely outcomes for our planet will be.
Different phenomena pose different risks. Natural phenomena, like earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, landslides, and avalanches, and wild weather, like tropical storms, tornadoes, and massive dust storms, pose risks to local populations who cannot safely escape these sudden cataclysms. But there are also more subtle changes happening that can be just as destructive in the long run.
Take, for instance, the parched earth--places where desertification, shrinking lakes and drying rivers, and drought are becoming prevalent. What are the long-term effects of these phenomena on human populations? Or the so-called "Big Thaw"--dwindling glaciers, polar ice cap changes, rising sea levels: what are the effects of these ever-increasing conditions?
The question this book poses is simple: What is to be done? There are answers to these problems, if we become more focused on solving them. The expert contributors give some of those answers, including conservation of current resources as just one of many.
A lavish photographic celebration that captures the fascinating behaviors of land and sea animals in the Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands are home to an amazing variety of iconic creatures, from Giant Tortoises, Galápagos Sea Lions, Galápagos Penguins, and Ghost Crabs to Darwin's finches, the Blue-footed Booby, and Hummingbird Moths. But how precisely do these animals manage to survive on--and in the waters around--their desert-like volcanic islands, where fresh water is always scarce, food is often hard to come by, and finding a good mate is a challenge because animal populations are so small? In this stunning large-format book, Galápagos experts Walter Perez and Michael Weisberg present an unprecedented photographic account of the remarkable survival behaviors of these beautiful and unique animals. With more than 200 detailed, close-up photographs, the book captures Galápagos animals in action as they feed, play, fight, court, mate, build nests, give birth, raise their young, and cooperate and clash with other species.
Watch male Marine Iguanas fight over territory and females; see frigatebirds steal food and nesting materials from other birds; witness the courtship dance of a pair of Blue-footed Boobies; go underwater to glimpse a Galápagos Sea Lion pup playing with its mother; and observe a baby Pacific Green Turtle enter the water for the first time. These and dozens of other unforgettable scenes are all vividly captured here--including many moments that even experienced Galápagos observers may never be lucky enough to see in person.
Complete with a brief text that provides essential context, this book will be cherished by Galápagos visitors and anyone else who wants to see incredible animals on the move.
An alternative guide to New York's beloved elevated park
Presented as an alternative survey of some of the curious aspects of New York's iconic High Line, this Field Guide by American artist Mark Dion (born 1961) provides an account of the wildlife, plants and insects that inhabit the space, as well as essays considering the social context and history of the site.
Full of peculiar observations, rumors, speculations and mostly true facts, the Field Guide encourages viewers to question popular ideologies that define today's "official" history of the elevated park. It includes "thoughts, musings and histories," such as a timeline of events on the High Line, a "concise" guide to the wildlife and illustrated guide to the plants of the area, Facts, Myths, & Rumors and even a Lost & Found section. Facts, Myths & Rumors is particularly illustrative of Dion's characteristic oscillation between fact and fiction. The section consists of a list of uncategorized statements, ranging from serious declarations ("the High Line once extended to Spring Street") to more humorous musings ("the ghost of the West Side Cowboy has been seen and heard around the West 20th Street section of the park"). Dion leaves the viewer to separate truth from myth. Taken as a whole, the text encourages imagination and inquiry rather than dictating fact, asking the viewer to play a role in shaping his or her own version of history. Dion's Field Guide is a colorful introduction offering new perspective on the High Line.
Flowers produce seed pods, and when the seeds are ripe, they are released from the pod. How do they find their way to a place where they will grow? Find the answer by traveling with the seeds.
Frans de Waal has spent four decades at the forefront of animal research. Following up on the best-selling Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, which investigated animal intelligence, Mama's Last Hug delivers a fascinating exploration of the rich emotional lives of animals.
Mama's Last Hug begins with the death of Mama, a chimpanzee matriarch who formed a deep bond with biologist Jan van Hooff. When Mama was dying, van Hooff took the unusual step of visiting her in her night cage for a last hug. Their goodbyes were filmed and went viral. Millions of people were deeply moved by the way Mama embraced the professor, welcoming him with a big smile while reassuring him by patting his neck, in a gesture often considered typically human but that is in fact common to all primates. This story and others like it form the core of de Waal's argument, showing that humans are not the only species with the capacity for love, hate, fear, shame, guilt, joy, disgust, and empathy.
De Waal discusses facial expressions, the emotions behind human politics, the illusion of free will, animal sentience, and, of course, Mama's life and death. The message is one of continuity between us and other species, such as the radical proposal that emotions are like organs: we don't have a single organ that other animals don't have, and the same is true for our emotions. Mama's Last Hug opens our hearts and minds to the many ways in which humans and other animals are connected, transforming how we view the living world around us.
Animals
From fleet-footed cheetahs to howling wolves, and from playful dolphins to earth-shaking elephants, the world of animals is wonderfully diverse. This popular and newly expanded series continues traveling the planet to study these and other fascinating animals. Beautiful photos are paired with accessible text to examine the featured animal's appearance, behaviors, and life cycle. Each book also presents a folk story that helps explain a defining feature or behavior.