'Born to Fly' is a poignant and heart warming story based on true-life adventures of captive birds being safely released back into nature...blended with a fictional story about a Rainbow Lorikeet named Cherub. It is predominantly a book for all ages, for storytelling and learning is universal. 'Born to Fly' is also a metaphor for us all - to free ourselves to live happy, fulfilling and creative lives...and as we do this we automatically assist others to do the same. It is this inherent wisdom that Cherub and her friends are lovingly and patiently teaching us. As caretakers and guardians of the natural world, our role is to observe and delight in the many wondrous miracles and beauty of nature. It is also to teach each and every one of our children this precious gift, so we can all truly fly free.

Rhino occupy a unique part of the food chain and wide niches in specific ecosystems in which they have developed their own behaviour patterns and interactions with other species. They form an essential part of the animal kingdom and their loss would have significant ramifications for other dependant flora and fauna. The large numbers of rhino orphans and the loss of pregnant females are decimating wild rhino populations. This decline is mainly due to poaching for their horns that are made of keratin and which have no proven medical benefit to humans. Greedy markets in China, Vietnam and Yemen, and criminal syndicates offer extremely high prices for rhino horn making it more valuable than gold. Whilst tackling the poachers head on is essential, it is sadly not enough and vigorous education programmes need to be put in place to inform people of the ecological, economic, aesthetic and touristic value of rhino. This book is dedicated to the plight all rhino species face including museum specimens and fossils.

The purpose of the Endangered Species Act is to conserve threatened and endangered species, including sea turtles, and the ecosystems on which they depend. The act provides for listing species that need protection; designating habitat deemed critical to a listed species' conservation; protecting listed species against certain harms caused by federal and nonfederal actions; conducting 5-year reviews on species' status; and developing recovery plans that contain objective, measurable criteria that, when met, would result in a determination that the species can be removed from the list.

Ethnoprimatology, the combining of primatological and anthropological practice and the viewing of humans and other primates as living in integrated and shared ecological and social spaces, has become an increasingly popular approach to primate studies in the twenty-first century. Offering an insight into the investigation and documentation of human-nonhuman primate relations in the Anthropocene, this book guides the reader through the preparation, design, implementation, and analysis of an ethnoprimatological research project, offering practical examples of the vast array of methods and techniques at chapter level. With contributions from the world's leading experts in the field, Ethnoprimatology critically analyses current primate conservation efforts, outlines their major research questions, theoretical bases and methods, and tackles the challenges and complexities involved in mixed-methods research. Documenting the spectrum of current research in the field, it is an ideal volume for students and researchers in ethnoprimatology, primatology, anthropology, and conservation biology.

An engaging and at times sobering look at the coexistence of humans and animals in the 21st century and how their sometimes disparate needs affect environments, politics, economies, and culture worldwide. There is an urgent need to understand human-animal interactions and relations as we become increasingly aware of our devastating impact on the natural resources needed for the survival of all animal species. This timely reference explores such topics as climate change and biodiversity, the impact of animal domestication and industrial farming on local and global ecosystems, and the impact of human consumption of wild species for food, entertainment, medicine, and social status. This volume also explores the role of pets in our lives, advocacy movements on behalf of animals, and the role of animals in art and media culture. Authors Julie Urbanik and Connie L. Johnston introduce the concept of animal geography, present different aspects of human-animal relationships worldwide, and highlight the importance of examining these interconnections. Alphabetical entries illustrate key relationships, concepts, practices, and animal species. The book concludes with a comprehensive appendix of select excerpts from key primary source documents relating to animals and a glossary. Includes excerpts from 20 primary source documents related to animals Offers a comprehensive look at a variety of aspects of human-animal relationships Discusses how human actions affect the survival of other species, such as the northern spotted owl and bluefin tuna

Public concerns over large losses of wild ungulates to predators arise when restoring large carnivore species to former locations or population densities. During the 1990s, mountain lion and grizzly bear numbers increased in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and gray wolves were reintroduced to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. We investigated effects of these predators, as well as black bears and coyotes, on mortality of an abundant and increasing prey species, elk.

HISTORIES OF HUMAN CONSTRUCTIONS OF NATURE Wild Things: Nature and the Social Imagination assembles eleven substantive and original essays on the cultural and social dimensions of environmental history. They address a global cornucopia of social and ecological systems, from Africa to Europe, North America and the Caribbean, and their temporal range extends from the 1830s into the twenty-first century. The imaginative (and actual) construction of landscapes and the appropriation of Nature - through image-fashioning, curating museum and zoo collections, making 'friends', 'enemies' and mythical symbols from animals - are recurring subjects. Among the volume's thought-provoking essays are a group enmeshing nature and the visual culture of photography and film. Canonical environmental history themes, from colonialism to conservation, are re-inflected by discourses including gender studies, Romanticism, politics and technology. The loci of the studies included here represent both the microcosmic - underwater laboratory, zoo, film studio; and broad canvases - the German forest, the Rocky Mountains, the islands of Haiti and Madagascar. Their casts too are richly varied - from Britain's otters and Africa's Nile crocodiles to Hollywood film-makers and South African cattle. The volume represents an excitingly diverse collection of studies of how humans, in imagination and deed, act on and are acted on by 'wild things'.

A vital read for anyone who cares about the future of British wildlife. With a foreword by the BBC TV presenter Chris Packham. 'A thriller, whodunnit and impassioned polemic.' - PATRICK BARKHAM, THE GUARDIAN Dominic Dyer explores the science and electioneering behind Britain's most controversial wildlife policy: the badger cull. He exposes the catastrophic handling of bovine TB by the British government, the political manoeuvring that engineered the badger cull in 2010, and the ongoing close relationship in perpetuating the cull between the National Farmers Union and the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). He shines an unflattering spotlight on Cabinet ministers, the veterinary profession, environmental NGOs and the BBC. Reviews 'I enjoyed reading this book and I strongly recommend it to you. 'This is a powerful and stimulating read and it's bang up to date with the important issue it discusses. It is written by a passionate insider with years of experience. The narrative is pacey and exciting. This book arrived with me on Thursday afternoon and I had read it completely by early yesterday [Saturday] morning.' - MARK AVERY, WRITER, BLOGGER AND ENVIRONMENTAL CAMPAIGNER 'A vital must-read for anyone concerned about the badger's enduring place in the British countryside. 'A thriller, whodunnit and impassioned polemic, this is the inside story of the badger cull.' - PATRICK BARKHAM, THE GUARDIAN 'It should be read by all those battling against government policies that put money ahead of science and the environment. 'The book's conclusion is that the culls will be stopped, not by science or validity, but by cost. Yet Dyer remains optimistic: 'Despite all the incompetence, negligence and deceit, it's the caring compassionate British public who have made a stand for wildlife that gives me the most hope for the future.' 'His book pays tribute to the 'Badger Army', those many individuals from all walks of life who turned out to protest and importantly, once culling started, to protect the badgers out in the field. 'Those people will be patrolling the countryside, day and night, in every area where badger killing is taking place this autumn. While determined to protect their badgers, many also want to see the government help and support farmers to beat the TB in their cattle - but with proper cattle-based measures, not by senselessly killing wildlife.' - LESLEY DOCKSEY, THE ECOLOGIST, 'Why are our badgers 'Badgered to Death'?' Introduction by Chris Packham How viciously fickle we are. We arbitrarily pick and choose which species we like or dislike, normally and sadly based on purely anthropomorphic criteria, and then either laud or loathe them paying scant attention to the realities of their lives, or ours. And once cursed and demonised that tag is almost impossible to redress. Think rat, think fox... damned for historical crimes, firmly fixed as malevolent vermin, even in our supposedly enlightened age. But as this book displays we can also be quick to destroy the reputation of our animal heroes and blight their status with bigotry and ignorance. For many reasons we had come to love the badger, to cherish and admire it, to protect and celebrate it and of course many still do. But the reputation of this essential member of the UK's ecology has been targeted by a smear campaign which has been swallowed by the gullible and fuelled by those with vested interests. You see, in spite of all the science and all the truths that it outlines, the badger has become a scapegoat. Its been branded a 'bad guy' and is being persecuted as such. It's a terrible shame, but like I said, how fickle, how vicious, how predictably human. Buy the book and carry on reading Chris Packham's introduction

Why the Porcupine Is Not a Bird is a comprehensive analysis of knowledge of animals among the Nage people of central Flores in Indonesia. Gregory Forth sheds light on the ongoing anthropological debate surrounding the categorization of animals in small-scale non-Western societies. Forth's detailed discussion of how the Nage people conceptualize their relationship to the animal world covers the naming and classification of animals, their symbolic and practical use, and the ecology of central Flores and its change over the years. His study reveals the empirical basis of Nage classifications, which align surprisingly well with the taxonomies of modern biologists. It also shows how the Nage employ systems of symbolic and utilitarian classification distinct from their general taxonomy. A tremendous source of ethnographic detail, Why the Porcupine Is Not a Bird is an important contribution to the fields of ethnobiology and cognitive anthropology.

In this important new book from a distinguished scholar, Josephine Donovan develops a new aesthetics of care, which she establishes as the basis for a critical approach to the representation of animals in literature. The Aesthetics of Care begins with a guide to the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, leading to a reconceptualization of key literary critical terms such as mimesis and catharsis, before moving on to an applied section, with interpretations of the specific treatment of animals handled by a wide range of authors, including Willa Cather, Leo Tolstoy, George Sand, and J.M. Coetzee. The book closes with three concluding theoretical chapters. Clear, original, and provocative, The Aesthetics of Care introduces and makes new contributions to a number of burgeoning areas of study and debate: aesthetics and ethics, critical theory, animal ethics, and ecofeminist criticism.