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A Fish Caught in Time - The Search For The Coelacanth Samantha Weinberg
Perennial 0060932856 / 9780060932855 Softcover New copy.
The coelacanth is no ordinary fish. Five feet long, with luminescent eyes and limb-like fins, this bizarre creature, presumed to be extinct, was discovered in 1938 by an amateur ichthyologist who recognized it from fossils dating back 400 million years. The discovery was immediately dubbed the "greatest scientific find of the century," but the excitement that ensued was even more incredible. This is the entrancing story of that most rare and precious fish - our own great-uncle forty million times removed.
Price:
8.15 USD
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2 |
Gorillas Jill Caravan
New Line Books 2005 1577171330 / 9781577171331 Hardcover New Copy
Gorillas have fascinated humans for centuries. They are one of our nearest relatives in the animal kingdom, yet they are often misunderstood, with an entirely undeserved reputation for being aggressive. Far from resorting to attack, they are the gentle giants of the wild, acting as loving and nuturing parents to their young, and even exhibiting protective behavior in some encounters with people. Genetically they are remarkably similar to humans; like us they are members of the Primate order and their anatomy resembles ours. But more than physical traits link humans and gorillas: perhaps more so than any other nonhuman animal, gorillas are highly intelligent, playful, capable of emotions, and can even laugh and smile. With spectacular photographs and informative text, this volume brings gorillas vividly before us, demonstrating such traits as:
* A sense of community involving mutual caring and cooperation
* Loving and nurturing care for the young
* Playfulness and the creation of games
Price:
8.19 USD
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3 |
A Natural History of Sex Adrian Forsyth
Firefly 2001 1552094812 / 9781552094815 Softcover New copy
The ecology and history of mating behavior by award-winning natural-science writer Adrian Forsyth. Revealing sexual patterns and the consequences of animal sexual behavior, this reference book is a must for anyone interested in the mating habits, rituals and evolution of animal reproduction.
Price:
3.00 USD
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4 |
A Pocket Guide to Butterflies and Moths Elizabeth Balmer
Parragon 2007 1405488034 / 978-1-4054-8803-7 Softcover New copy
With stunning photography and clear, authoritative text, this is an excellent field guide for those interested in butterflies and moths.
* Provides detailed descriptions to enable easy identification of butterflies in the field
* Illustrated throughout with superb color photographs
* Fact boxes provide concise information about habitat, range, and behavioural characteristics for each species.
Price:
9.50 USD
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5 |
Africa's Elephant - A Biography Martin Meredith
Hodder & Stoughton, UK 0340770813 / 9780340770818 1st Edition 2001 Hardcover, DJ New copy
A tour throug history, describing the elephant's interaction with humanity and its role in the affairs of mankind and its impact on the environment. The author traces the influence of the elephant and the various uses to which mankind has put this great creature; from being used as a conveyance in times of war, to being paraded as an object of wonder and curiosity, to being hunted down mercilessly for its ivory tusks, the elephant has had a somewhat checkered history in terms of its interaction with human beings.
Ancient writers dwelt on their intelligence, capacity for lewarning and gentle character. Modern biologists have discovered that the elephant has one of the most harmonious and advanced social organizations in the world of mammals, enjoying close family ties , acting from loyalty and compassion, and mourning and burying their dead. Yet elephant history has been dominated by periods of brutality and persecution. In the late 20th century, the onslaught was so severe that the African elephant was placed on the endangered species list.
A recommended read.
Price:
13.25 USD
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6 |
Audubon's Elephant Duff Hart-Davis
George Weidenfeld & Nicholson 2003 029782967X / 9780297829676 Hardcover, DJ New copy
Illegitimate, half-French, half-American, poorly educated, chronically short of money and obsessed with birds, Audubon came to England in 1826 to find a publisher for his extraordinary paintings. He insisted that they must be reproduced on double-elephant folio paper - sheets almost 40 inches by 30 - so that even the largest species could be represented life size, and no-one in America had been prepared to tackle such a gigantic task. With his dramatic good looks and flamboyant Woodsman's clothes he attracted attention wherever he went. Drawing on Audubon's journals, letters to his wife and the archives of the families with whom he stayed and worked, Duff Hart-Davis recreates Audubon's twelve years in Britain in search of patrons and publishers. It is an extraordinary story of an obsessive genius and his observations of people, places and events in early nineteenth century England and Scotland.
Price:
14.15 USD
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7 |
Band-Tailed Pigeons Worth Mathewson
Timber Press, 2005 0881927120 / 9780881927122 Hardcover, DJ New
"A longtime hunter in the coastal range of Oregon takes stock of his favorite prey, the band-tailed pigeon," reported The New York Times in the summer of 2003.
What made Worth Mathewsons writing about the western wilderness pigeon newsworthy is not his elegant evocation of the damp, spicy scent of a Pacific Northwest river valley or his keen observations of bandtails flying high and fast over a canyon. Rather the press took note of an avid hunter blaming overhunting and bad management for the devastation of a species.
Wary by nature yet brave under fire, the magnificent bandtail has long thrilled the sportsman. Some attribute the birds decline to habitat loss, but Mathewson, in this complete natural history, carefully builds his case to the contrary. While trichomoniasis and spraying of broadleaf trees may contribute, the human factor is paramount: a persistently callous attitude toward Patagioenas fasciata may keep it in a downward spiral. If modest protections are lifted at the first signs of recovery, its fate may be sealed.
The band-tailed pigeon might be mistaken for the common domestic pigeon except for its woodland or mountain habitat and greater tendency to alight in trees. Its range is southwest British Columbia through the Pacific states and Rockies to Argentina. Mathewson offers a history of the bird and discusses its nesting activity, feeding patterns (they eat mostly berries), migration, and predators. In 1932, the pigeon was returned to the list of legal game birds that could be shot, and the gravest dangers the pigeon had ever faced lay ahead. Mathewson describes how more than 100 hunters would gather to shoot the birds. "Cheers and yells and laughter rang out after flocks were shot down." Today, after 12 years of total protection in British Columbia and Washington and a much-reduced kill in Oregon and California because of a two-bird limit, the band-tailed pigeon has seemingly stopped its decline.
Price:
19.75 USD
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8 |
Bear Attacks: Their Causes and Avoidance Stephen Herrero
Lyons Press 2004 0941130827 / 9780941130820 Softcover New copy
What causes bear attacks? When should you play dead and when should you fight an attacking bear? What do we know about black and grizzly bears and how can this knowledge be used to avoid bear attacks? And, more generally, what is the bear's future?
Bear Attacks is a thorough and unflinching landmark study of the attacks made on men and women by the great grizzly and the occasionally deadly black bear. This is a book for everyone who hikes, camps, or visits bear country - and for anyone who wants to know more about these sometimes fearsome but always fascinating wild creatures.
For anyone planning a journey in bear country, this book should be required reading
Price:
9.00 USD
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9 |
Birdfeeding 101 Richard E. Mallery
Main Street Books 0385487002 / 9780385487009 Softcover New Copy
Dick E. Bird's Birdfeeding 101 is everything you always wanted to know about backyard birdfeeding but were afraid to ask. Without overwhelming the reader with details it covers all the bases and answers the most often asked questions.
Included are not only Dick E. Bird's personal experiences but those of thousands of readers who, for almost a decade, have conveyed their stories and experiences through their letters in the monthly issues of the Dick E. Bird News.
Chapters include:
* The Basics,
* Fine Tuning Your Feeding Program,
* Birdfeeding's Little Aggravations,
* Squirrelly Neighbors,
* Look Mom, No Cavities (Bird houses)
* Bird Droppings (Trivia),
* Seeds of Thought,
* Recipes and Home Brews.
Price:
8.00 USD
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11 |
Chasing Kangaroos: Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature Tim Flannery
Grove 2007 0802118526 / 9780802118523 Hardcover, DJ New
This paean to a remarkable animal is fascinating.
The kangaroo, the only large animal that hops, can travel at speeds of 15 - 40 kilometers per hour. Female kangaroos, who carry their young in pouches, have two vaginas, but don't give birth through either of them, and are always pregnant, because they mate a few hours after their young are born. There are 70-odd species of kangaroo: some drink salt water; others live in trees. But as a paleontologist, Flannery is obsessed with finding out when and where the first kangaroos lived. Much of the book is about his searches for the fossils of extinct species in remote areas of the Australian outback, where he discovered the remains of "the grandfather of all kangaroos," as well as the fossils of ice age giants, such as the short-faced kangaroo and a carnivorous kangaroo. Along the way he uses encounters with ancient aboriginal cultures and eccentric fossil hunters, farmers and scientists, kangaroo advocates and kangaroo hunters, to explore how Australia's deserts and rainforests have shaped human responses to the continent - and how kangaroos have evolved to handle the resulting challenges. Illustrated.
Price:
10.10 USD
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12 |
Daily Coyote: A Story of Love, Survival, and Trust in the Wilds of Wyoming Shreve Stockton
Simon & Schuster 1st Edition 2008 1416592180 / 9781416592181 Hardcover, DJ New remaindered copy
On a cross-country move from San Francisco to New York City in 2005, Stockton fell in love with the beauty of Wyomings Bighorn Mountains and decided to settle there. She found new roots and a new boyfriend, a government trapper whose job was to protect livestock by killing coyotes. When he finds an orphaned coyote pup, barely 10 days old, he gives it to Stockton, beginning an adventure that moves human and animal from a blissful open affection (the authors photos of baby Charlie are as adorable as they are beautifully composed) through a period of reconsideration after Charlie bites her to a breakthrough realization that Charlie needed a much more structured alpha attitude from his owner. Stockton's journey of sharing her life with a wild animal and providing training while respecting Charlies unique nature makes for a fascinating and rewarding read. Color photographs.
Price:
9.95 USD
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13 |
Dangerous Birds Lembke, Janet
Lyons & Burford 1992 155821514x / 9781558215146 Softcover, 179 pages
The stories in this book deal most obviously with birds. They are meant as an aviary housing a hodgepodge of species - some that are easily seen, some that aren't, and some that can't be seen at all. Honest-to-goodness field-guide birds, the sort that can be watched with eyes, share the pages with birds that can be observed only in memory and imagination, the birds of myth and poetry, the birds of Mother Goose and Edward Lear.
Price:
8.45 USD
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14 |
Dolphin Societies: Discoveries and Puzzles Karen Pryor & Kenneth S. Norris
University of California Press 1991 0520067177 / 9780520067172 Hardcover, DJ Very clean used copy - as new.
Wild dolphins are an elusive subject for behavioral studies: How can you 'do a Jane Goodall' on animals usually visible only as a glimpse of rolling dorsal fins heading for the horizon? In this unusual book, two of the best-known scientists in the marine-mammal field have assembled an astonishing variety of discoveries about dolphins. The contributions range from a graduate student's first paper to senior scientists summarizing a lifetime of research. The dolphins they have studied range from tiny spinners to majestic pilot whales, from killer whales to the familiar bottle-nosed dolphin. The research tactics vary just as widely: the researchers have followed dolphins in boats, tracked them from shore, dived among hundreds of them (plus a few sharks) in tuna fishing nets. They have used computers and airplanes, genetic analysis and artificial language, and learned to read the life history of a dolphin from the cross-section of a single tooth.
Pryor and Norris are successful writers as well as scientists; the book is peppered with entertaining essays, by one or both editors, on the intriguing history of dolphin research. Dolphin Societies not only surveys the most interesting recent research on dolphin behavior but also gives lay readers a fascinating look at the scientific mind at work.
Price:
14.15 USD
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15 |
Extreme Bugs Leslie Mertz
Collins/Smithsonian 2007 060891475 New Softcover
Extreme Bugs takes a magnifying glass to some of the most striking and bizarre insects imaginable.
From the Madagascar Moon Moth and Rainbow Leaf Beetle to Mantids and the Billygoat Plum Caterpillar, all of the insects featured here have spectacular colors, patterns, shapes, behavior, or other extreme characteristics.
Price:
8.75 USD
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16 |
Extreme Nature Mark Carwardine
HarperResources 006082574X / 9780060825744 Hardcover, DJ New copy
The world's most devious plant, the largest flock of birds, the most bizarre mating ritual, the most dangerous love life . . . here is a mind-blowing guide to the weirdest and most remarkable wildlife on our planet. Using many of the best photographs available, Extreme Nature is as visually arresting as it is intriguing. Lavishly illustrated, this is a beautiful book to own as well as a totally absorbing read.
Price:
13.55 USD
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17 |
First Flight A Mother Hummingbird's Story Carroll, Don & Noriko
Andrews McMeel Publishing 0740757075 / 9780740757075 Hardcover New copy
When Noriko and Don Carroll moved from New York City to suburban Las Vegas, they found a tiny nest on a clothesline on their back porch. As the Carrolls settled into their new home, so did a female hummingbird they named Honey. For weeks, the Carrolls watched in fascination as they witnessed an event few humans are privy to - the birth and growth of two hummingbirds.
First Flight is the beautifully photographed story of Honey and her two chicks, Ray and Zen. In over 50 stunning, full-color close-ups, it captures the grace, the beauty, and the simultaneous strength and fragility of one of nature's tiniest birds.
Professional photographer Don Carroll's images of his tiny housemates are woven throughout with Noriko's charming narrative describing the mother bird and her developing brood.
Not just for bird enthusiasts, First Flight is a magical mix of hummingbird field guide, personal story, and new life taking flight. Readers will be captivated by the inherent drama as it unfolds in miniature, and they'll cheer as babies Ray and Zen make their own first flights out into a bright new world.
Price:
8.75 USD
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18 |
Flights of Fancy: Birds in Myth and Legend Peter Tate
Random House 2007 1905211619 / 9781905211616 New Hardcover
A beguiling collection of myths, legends and superstitions attached to birds. Throughout history, birds have fascinated and intrigued mankind, so it isn't surprising that a rich body of myth, legend and superstition has grown around them. Flights of Fancy explores the stories surrounding approximately thirty of the world's best-known species, from the blackbird to the wryneck, drawing on traditions from every quarter of the globe. The vast majority of these stories seem to have their origin in people's delight in inventing stories - whether the legend that the blackbird was originally white, or the suggestion that witches kept owls as their familiars.
As Peter Tate points out, what is so extraordinary is that the same story often crops up in many different parts of the world: the belief that eagles and snakes are sworn enemies can be found as far apart as Iraq and Mexico; the view that the raven is the harbinger of bad luck can be found throughout Europe from Denmark to Spain.
Flights of Fancy is a fascinating and entertaining read, the ideal book for anyone interested in birds or myths - or both. Illustrated.
Price:
6.95 USD
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19 |
Giant Pandas John Seidensticker
Collins 2007 0061205788 / 9780061205781 Softcover New
Instantly recognizable to people everywhere, giant pandas are arguably the best known of all wild animals, yet also the least understood. With stunning full-color images and cutting-edge research, GIANT PANDAS covers all aspects of the biology, behavior, history, and conservation needs of these enigmatic bears. This beautiful book will inform and inspire countless people the world over who love giant pandas and want to learn everything about them.
Price:
13.10 USD
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20 |
Handbook of the Weather Gerrie McCall
Grange 2003 1840135948 / 9781840135947 Hardcover New copy
This complete handbook of the weather is the essential guide for protecting yourself against the elements. Included are tips on how to protect your home, how to recognize and treat heat and cold injuries and methods for acquiring and purifying water. With the first-hand accounts from survivors as well as easy-to-follow text and diagrams, this book is the perfect companion for any outdoorsman.
Price:
13.25 USD
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