Very little is known about the issue of wildlife conservation within China. Even China specialists get a meager ration of stories about pandas giving birth in zoos, or poachers in some remote setting being apprehended. But what does the future hold for China's wildlife? In this thoughtful work the leading U.S. expert on wildlife projects in Western China presents a multi-faceted assessment of the topic. Richard B. Harris draws on twenty years of experience working in China, and incorporates perspectives ranging from biology through Chinese history and tradition, to interpret wildlife conservation issues in a cultural context. In non-technical language, Harris shows that, particularly in its vast western sections where most species of wildlife still have a chance to survive, China has adopted a strongly preservationist, "hands-off" approach to wildlife without confronting the larger and more difficult problem of habitat loss. This policy treats wildlife conservation as a strictly technical problem - and thus prioritizes captive breeding to meet the demand for animal products - while ignoring the manifold cultural, social, and economic dimensions that truly dictate how wild animals will fare in their interaction with the physical and human environments. The author concludes that any successes this policy achieves will be temporary.

This book analyzes empirical data from three specific Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) designed to establish rules for the conservation and management of fish stocks in the ocean, in order to assess their effectiveness in converting science into policy for the recovery and maintenance of fishery populations. The three RFMOs discussed are the CCAMLR (Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources), the ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas) and the CCSBT (Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna). The book seeks to understand when governments choose to listen to science, and establishes a framework to examine the institutional designs currently in place to accommodate RFMO policy suggestions and the conditions under which they are implemented successfully. The study will be of interest to academics and professionals broadly interested in global environmental governance and international relations, and will specifically appeal to policymakers, conservationists, and environmental researchers interested in fishery management and policy at the global and regional scale. Goncalves provides an accessible and comprehensive analysis of RMFOs. She offers valuable insights into the role of science and politics in shaping sustainable fisheries policies for the open oceans. ---Peter M Haas, Professor Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst As envisaged by the UN Decade of Ocean proclamation, this book is an important and sincere effort, hopefully to be accompanied by many others to come during this promising decade, that will help to build a common framework to ensure that ocean science can support countries and the international community in creating improved conditions for the sustainable development of our cherished Ocean. ---Fabio H. Hazin - Professor at Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Brazil

Suzanne Romaine and Daniel Nettle argue that the loss of linguistic diversity is just as threatening as the loss of global biodiversity. Approximately half of all known languages have disappeared in the last five hundred years, and with the advent of global communication, the rate of extinction is accelerating to the level that, according to some, 90% of all languages are in danger of becoming extinct during the next century. The loss of both linguistic and biological diversity is part of a much larger and more serious problem - the near-total collapse of our worldwide ecosystem. Languages are enmeshed in social and geographical matrix just as animals and plants, and their demise is symptomatic of the illness and dealth of cultures and ways of life different from our own. Romaine and Nettle describe the background of this situation, how the current catastrophe occurred, and what can be done about it. They argue for the importance of maintaining diverse, localized responses to the environment, and show how the maintenance of different languages is necessarily linked to the diversity of human beings.

James Lowen narrates a year-long quest to see Britain's rarest and more remarkable moths. Although mostly unseen by us, moths are everywhere. And their capacity to delight astounds. Inspired by a revelatory encounter with a Poplar Hawk-moth - a huge, velvety-winged wonder wrapped in silver - James Lowen embarks on a year-long quest to celebrate the joy of Britain's rarest and most remarkable moths. By hiking up mountains, wading through marshes and roaming by night amid ancient woodlands, James follows the trails of both Victorian collectors and present-day conservationists. Seeking to understand why they and many ordinary folk love what the general public purports to hate, his investigations reveal a heady world of criminality and controversy, derring-do and determination. From Cornwall to the Cairngorms, James explores British landscapes to coax these much-maligned creatures out from the cover of darkness and into the light. Moths are revealed to be attractive, astonishing and approachable; capable of migratory feats and camouflage mastery, moths have much to tell us on the state of the nation's wild and not-so-wild habitats. As a counterweight to his travels, James and his young daughter track the seasons through a kaleidoscope of moth species living innocently yet covertly in their suburban garden. Without even leaving home, they bond over a shared joy in the uncommon beauty of common creatures, for perhaps the greatest virtue of moths, we learn, is their accessibility. Moths may be everywhere, but above all, they are here. Quite unexpectedly, no animals may be better placed to inspire the environmentalists of the future.

The 2nd international tagging and tracking symposium was held in San Sebastian, Spain, in October 2007, seven years after the first symposium was held in Hawaii in 2000 (Sibert and Nielsen 2001). In the intervening seven years, there have been major advances in both the capability and reliability of electronic tags and analytical approaches for geolocation of tagged animals in marine habitats. Advances such as increased data storage capacity, sensor development, and tag miniaturization have allowed researchers to track a much wider array of marine animals, not just large and charismatic species. Importantly, data returned by these tags are now being used in population analyses and movement simulations that can be directly utilized in stock assessments and other management applications.

Papers in this volume are divided into three sections, the first describing insights into behavior achieved using acoustic, archival, and novel tags, the second reporting on advances in methods of geolocation, while the final section includes contributions where tag data have been used in management of marine species. Accurate documentation of animal movements and behaviors in critical marine habitats are impossible to obtain with other technologies. The management and conservation of marine species are critical in today s changing ocean environment and as electronic tags become more accurate and functional for a diversity of organisms their application continues to grow, setting new standards in science and technology."

The importance of fungal infections in both human and animals has increased over the last few decades. This book presents an overview of the different categories of fungal infections that can be encountered in animals (including lower vertebrates) originating from environmental sources with or without transmission to humans. In addition, the endemic infections with indirect transmission from the environment, the zoophilic fungal pathogens with near-direct transmission, the zoonotic fungi that can be directly transmitted from animals to humans, mycotoxicoses and antifungal resistance in animals will also be discussed. This book includes case studies and reviews the current state of knowledge on the mechanism of fungal attraction, recognition, infection, extracellular hydrolytic enzymes and pathogenesis of nematophagous fungi. The book also covers diagnostics, fungal formulations, as well as prevention methods. It discusses strategies to access the fungal pathogen groups, metagenomic analyses, genomics, secretomics, metabolomics, proteomics and transcriptomics. In addition, pathogen description, understanding, distribution and recent research results are provided.

Madagascar is home to one of the most remarkable assemblages of mammals on earth. Millions of years of isolation has resulted in the evolution of a suite of species that are exceptional for two major reasons. Firstly, every native non-volant species (approximately 210 species) is endemic. No other island or place on earth boasts such a combination of species richness and endemism. And secondly, these mammals have evolved an extraordinary diversity of body forms and lifestyles often displaying significant convergence with forms elsewhere but also at times evolving utterly unique features. Handbook of the Mammals of Madagascar describes all 217 native species, including bats, tenres, mice and lemurs, and a small number of introduced, non-native species. Species accounts are subdivided into sections covering description and identification, habitat and distribution (including distribution maps), behaviour and where to see. Over the past 15 years, major advances in research have been made into the island's mammal fauna and species accounts include all the latest information. Supporting chapters cover the island's regions and habitats, threats to mammals, conservation and important mammal watching sites. There is also a section covering the bizarre extinct mammal fauna. Throughout, the book is illustrated with exceptional, high-quality photography, often featuring species rarely photographed previously.

Nutrition spans a wide range of mechanisms from acquisition of food to digestion, absorption and retention of energy substrates, water and other nutrients. Nutritional principles have been applied to improving individual health, athletic performance and longevity of humans and of their companion animals, and to maximizing agricultural efficiency by manipulating reproduction or growth of tissues such as muscle, hair or milk in livestock. Comparative nutrition borrows from these tra- tional approaches by applying similar techniques to studies of ecology and physiology of wildlife. Comparative approaches to nutrition integrate several levels of organization because the acquisition and flow of energy and nutrients connect individuals to populations, populations to communities, and communities to ecosystems. Integrative Wildlife Nutrition connects behavioral, morphological and biochemical traits of animals to the life history of species and thus the dynamics of populations. An integrated approach to nutrition provides a practical framework for understanding the interactions between food resources and wildlife popu- tions and for managing the harvest of abundant species and the conservation of threatened populations. This book is for students and professionals in animal physiology and ecology, conservation biology and wildlife management. It is based on our lectures, dem- strations and practical classes taught in the USA, Canada and Australia over the last three decades. Instructors can use Integrative Wildlife Nutrition as a text in wildlife and conservation biology programs, and as a reference source for related courses in wildlife ecology.

More often than not, when people think of a neotropical forest, what comes to mind is a rain forest, rather than a dry forest. Just as typically, when they imagine a savanna, they visualize the African plains, rather than those dry woodlands and grasslands found in the Neotropics. These same preconceptions can be found among scientists, as these neotropical biomes receive nowhere near the attention they should - in terms of both research and conservation -considering the amount of land they encompass and the diversity of vegetation they contain. Neotropical Savannas and Dry Forests: Plant Diversity, Biogeography, and Conservation provides an engaging synthesis of information on the plant diversity and geography, as well as the conservation status, of these species-rich areas. This impressive compilation is the result of a plant diversity symposium that took place during an international conference on tropical savannas and seasonally dry forests held in 2003. Fifty leading scientists, representing a variety of disciplines have contributed to the chapters of this book in an effort to address three questions: What are the patterns of diversity, species-richness and endemism of the floras of neotropical seasonally dry forest and savannas? How and why did this endemism and diversity arise? Are these ecosystems adequately protected and, if not, which areas should be elevated into priorities for conservation, and how can this be best achieved? This work is the first extensive compilation of the patterns of plant biodiversity in these neotropical ecosystems. The overview also provides a summary of what is known of their evolutionary history, including an examination of the links to the development of analogous vegetation in Africa. In contrast to previously published titles that emphasize ecology and physiology, this work focuses on plant biodiversity and reviews molecular phylogenetic and molecular population genetic approache

An ambitious and beautifully illustrated account of the evolution and biology of insects. Insects are the busy, teeming arthropods on whose activities much of life on earth depends, and whose global populations are currently under the gravest of threats - with unimaginable consequences for us all. In Alien Worlds, Steve Nicholls explores nothing less than a complete natural history of insects, bringing us on a journey through a world of a million species and their phenomenal and extraordinary diversity. A fantastically authoritative and congenial guide, led by a fluent and entertaining writer with the ability to make complex ideas comprehensible, it is not only a feast for the curious mind but also contains beautiful and visually arresting imagery of the tiny beasts whom we depend on greatly.

This fun-filled, full-colour RHS adventure handbook is full of ideas to help kids discover the great outdoors and get closer to nature. Created with the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), the UK's leading gardening charity. This beautifully illustrated book is packed with fun activities, handy tips and nature facts to encourage children to explore the wonderful world around them. Grow your own strawberries and runner beans Build a hibernation home for outdoor creatures Create a nature scrapbook to treasure Discover more about plants, trees and wildlife Each page is filled with inspiring ideas for discovering and exploring plants and wildlife, with exciting activities for all seasons and weathers.

Among the deep-sea marine invertebrates, pycnogonids and crustaceans represent ecologically important and most diverse groups of species. Yet both are still poorly understood. Sampling and exploring operations off the west and east coast of the Americas has significantly increased in the last two decades. However such operations are very costly and limited in number and frequency. In countries like Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, the United States of America, and El Salvador a large effort has been made to explore the deep-sea resources and the rich diversity of the communities, resulting in a better understanding of the natural ecosystems on both coasts of America. Pycnogonids and many groups of deep-sea crustaceans have been intensively studied, from the smallest animals, like the mostly unknown benthic copepods to the largest decapods. This book presents new and updated information on various groups of deep-sea pycnogonids and crustaceans occurring off the American continent. Offering a valuable reference resource for scientists interested in this fascinating fauna, it includes review papers and new data on the deep-sea communities occurring off the USA, Mexico, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, as well as in larger areas in both the East Pacific and the West Atlantic. As such it covers most of the current deep-water research in Latin America.

The lake charr Salvelinus namaycush is a ubiquitous member of cold-water lake ecosystems in previously glaciated regions of northern continental U.S., Alaska, and Canada that often support important commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries. The lake charr differs from other charrs by its large size, longevity, iteroparity, top-predator specialization, reduced sexual dimorphism, prevalence of lacustrine spawning, and use of deepwater habitat. The species is remarkably variable in phenotype, physiology, and life history, some of which is reflected in its ecology and genetics, with as many as four morphs or ecotypes co-occurring in a single lake. The lake charr is often the top predator in these systems, but is highly adaptable trophically, and is frequently planktivorous in small lakes. The lake charr by their name highlights their common habitat, lakes both large and small, but often frequents rivers and occasionally moves into the Arctic Ocean. Movement and behaviour of lake charr are motivated by access to cool, well-oxygenated water, foraging opportunities, predator avoidance, and reproduction. Owing to their broad distribution and trophic level, the lake charr serves as a sentinel of anthropogenic change. This volume will provide an up-to-date summary of what is currently known about lake charr from distribution to genetics to physiology to ecology. The book provides a compilation and synthesis of available information on the lake charr, beginning with an updated distribution and a revised treatment of the paleoecology of the species. Understanding of ecological and genetic diversity and movement and behaviour of the species has advanced remarkably since the last major synthesis on the species over 40 years ago. Mid-sections of the book provide detailed accounts of the biology and life history of the species, and later sections are devoted to threats to conservation and fishery management practices used to ensure sustainability. A new standard lake charr-specific terminology is also presented. The book will be a valuable reference text for biologists around the world, ecologists, and fishery managers, and of interest to the angling public.

It is more than a thousand years since the exploitation of the elephant began.

Fisheries resources are an important component of natural resources. It is an important source of high-quality animal protein and food for humans, which provides employment, economic benefits and social welfare for people engaged in fishing activities. It also has played an important role in food safety, economic development, and foreign trade. Fisheries resources economics is an important branch of both applied economics and resource economics. Its research object is fishery resources and its economic problems. The economics of fishery resources is to focus on the relationship between the demand for human economic activities and the supply of fishery resources, as well as between fishery resources and its development. This book expounds the reasons for the economic problems of fishery resources and the theoretical principles for solving them, so as to reveal the objective rules of the allocation of fishery resources in different regions and at different times, to coordinate the relationship between the utilization of fishery resources and economic development, and to realize the sustainable development of fishery economy. This book will also provide learning materials for undergraduates, graduate students and practitioners engaged in fishery resources development and scientific management.

The book presents a collection of large-scale network-modeling studies on coastal systems in Latin America. It includes a novel description of the functioning of coastal complex ecosystems and also predicts how natural and human-made disturbances percolate through the networks. Coastal areas belong to the most populated ecosystems around the globe, and are massively influenced by human impacts such as shipping, mining, fisheries, tourism, pollution and human settlements. Even though many of these activities have facilitated socio-economic development, they have also caused a significant deterioration in natural populations, communities and ecosystems worldwide. Covering coastal marine ecosystems of Latin America such as the NE and SE Pacific, NW Atlantic and Caribbean areas, it discusses the construction of quantitative (Ecopath-Ecosim-Ecospace and Centrality of Node Sets) and semi-quantitative (Loop Analysis) multispecies trophic-network models to describe and assess the impacts of natural and human interventions like pelagic and benthic fishing as well as natural events such as El Nino, and La Nina. The book also features steady state (and/or near moving equilibrium) and dynamical models to support the management of exploited organisms, and applies and quantifies macroscopic indices, based on Ascendency (Ulanowicz) and Local Stability (Levins Loop Analysis). Further, it discusses the determination of the Keystone Species Complex Index, which is a holistic extension of the classical concept of Keystone Species (Paine), offering novel strategies for conservation monitoring and management.

Network thinking and network analysis are rapidly expanding features of ecological research. Network analysis of ecological systems include representations and modelling of the interactions in an ecosystem, in which species or factors are joined by pairwise connections. This book provides an overview of ecological network analysis including generating processes, the relationship between structure and dynamic function, and statistics and models for these networks. Starting with a general introduction to the composition of networks and their characteristics, it includes details on such topics as measures of network complexity, applications of spectral graph theory, how best to include indirect species interactions, and multilayer, multiplex and multilevel networks. Graduate students and researchers who want to develop and understand ecological networks in their research will find this volume inspiring and helpful. Detailed guidance to those already working in network ecology but looking for advice is also included.

'Exquisite and timely.' Maggie O'Farrell 'A rare and magical book. I didn't want it to end.' Bill Bryson 'A witty, intoxicating paean to Earth's wondrous creatures.' Observer 'A total miracle.' Max Porter ** SHORTLISTED FOR WATERSTONES AND FOYLES BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARDS ** The world is more astonishing, more miraculous and more wonderful than our wildest imaginings. In this passionately persuasive and sharply funny book, Katherine Rundell tells us how and why. A lavishly illustrated collection of the lives of some of the Earth's most astounding animals, The Golden Mole is a chance to be awestruck and lovestruck - to reckon with the beauty of the world, its fragility, and its strangeness. A swift flies two million kilometres in its lifetime. That's far enough to get to the moon and back twice over - and then once more to the moon. A pangolin keeps its tongue furled in a pouch by its hip. A Greenland shark can live five hundred years. A wombat once inspired a love poem. 'Rundell's pen is gold-tipped.' Sunday Times 'I love everything about this book: it is a rare little treasure.' Joanna Lumley 'Beautifully written.' Monty Don

This volume examines women and wildlife trafficking via a collection of narratives, case studies and theoretical syntheses from diverse voices and disciplines. Wildlife trafficking has been documented in over 120 countries around the world. While species extinction and animal abuse are major problems, wildlife trafficking is also associated with corruption, national insecurity, spread of zoonotic disease, undercutting sustainable development investments and erosion of cultural resources, among others. The role of women in wildlife trafficking has remained woefully under-addressed, with scientists and policymakers failing to consider the important causes and consequences of the gendered dimensions of wildlife trafficking. Although the roles of women in wildlife trafficking are mostly unknown, they are not unknowable. This volume helps fill a lacuna by examining the roles and experiences of women with case studies drawn from across the world, including Mexico, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, South Africa and Norway. Women can be wildlife trafficking preventors, perpetrators, and pawns; their roles in facilitating wildlife trafficking are considered from both a supply and a demand viewpoint. The first half of the book assesses the range of science, offering four different perspectives on how women and wildlife trafficking can be studied or evaluated. The second half of the book profiles diverse case studies from around the world, offering context-specific insight about on-the-ground activities associated with women and wildlife trafficking. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of wildlife crime, environmental law, human geography, conservation, gender studies and green criminology. It will also be of interest to NGOs and policymakers working to improve efficacy of efforts targeting wildlife crime, the illegal wildlife trade and conservation more broadly.

Wind farms are an essential component of global renewable energy policy and the action to limit the effects of climate change. There is, however, considerable concern over the impacts of wind farms on wildlife, leading to a wide range of research and monitoring studies, a growing body of literature and several international conferences on the topic. This unique multi-volume work provides a comprehensive overview of the interactions between wind farms and wildlife. Volume 3 documents the current knowledge of the potential effects upon wildlife during both construction and operation of offshore wind farms. An introductory chapter on the nature of wind farms and the legislation surrounding them is followed by a series of in-depth chapters documenting effects on physical processes, atmosphere and ocean dynamics, seabed communities, fish, marine mammals, migratory birds and bats and seabirds. A synopsis of the known and potential effects of wind farms upon wildlife concludes the volume. The authors have been carefully selected from across the globe from the large number of academics, consultants and practitioners now engaged in wind farm studies, for their influential contribution to the science. Edited by Martin Perrow and with contributions by 30 leading researchers including: Goeran Brostroem, Steven Degraer, Mike Elliot, Andrew Gill, Ommo Huppop, Georg Nehls and Nicolas Vanermen. The authors represent a wide range of organisations and institutions including the Universities of Gothenburg, Hamburg and Hull, Alfred Wegener Institute, Cefas (UK), Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Vattenfall and several leading consultancies. Each chapter includes informative figures, tables, colour photographs and detailed case studies, including some from invited authors to showcase exciting new research. Other volumes: Volume 1: Onshore: Potential Effects (978-1-78427-119-0) Volume 2: Onshore: Monitoring and Mitigation (978-1-78427-123-7) Volume 4: Offshore: Monitoring and Mitigation (978-1-78427-131-2)

The tropics and subtropics are home to about 75% of the global human population. Cultural, economic, and political circumstances vary enormously across this vast geography of some 170 countries and territories. The regions not only harbor the world's poorest countries but their human populations are growing disproportionally faster than in temperate zones. Some countries are developing rapidly - Brazil, China, India, and Mexico being obvious examples, while others still remain in the poverty trap. This region contains an astonishing proportion of global biodiversity; some 90% of plant and animal species by some measures. Its contribution to human well-being is astounding. It was the birthplace for our species; and it hosts a myriad of plant and animal species which products feed us, keep us healthy, and supply us with a variety of material goods. The tropics and subtropics are also a natural laboratory where some of humanity's most important scientific discoveries have been made. Such biodiversity has enormous implications for research priorities, capacity building, and policy to address the challenges of conserving this region. Tropical Conservation: Perspectives on Local and Global Priorities drew the majority of its contributors from this growing pool of scientists and practitioners working in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. It introduces important conservation concepts and illustrates their application as the authors directly capture real world experiences in their home countries in preventing biodiversity loss and sustaining ecological health. Today, no part of the world can be viewed in isolation, and we further codify and integrate a range of approaches for addressing global threats to nature and environmental sustainability, including climate change and emerging diseases. Five sections structure the major themes.

An intrepid investigation of the criminal world of wildlife trafficking ― the poachers, the traders, and the customers ― and of those fighting against it.

Journalist Rachel Love Nuwer plunges the reader into the underground of global wildlife trafficking, a topic she has been investigating for nearly a decade. Our insatiable demand for animals ― for jewellery, pets, medicine, meat, trophies, and fur ― is driving a worldwide poaching epidemic, threatening the continued existence of countless species. Illegal wildlife trade now ranks among the largest contraband industries in the world, yet compared to drug, arms, or human trafficking, the wildlife crisis has received scant attention and support, leaving it up to passionate individuals fighting on the ground to try to ensure that elephants, tigers, rhinos, and more are still around for future generations.

Poached takes readers to the front lines of the trade: to killing fields in Africa, traditional-medicine black markets in China, and wild-meat restaurants in Vietnam. Through exhaustive first-hand reporting that took her to ten countries, Nuwer explores the forces currently driving demand for animals and their parts; the toll that demand is extracting on species across the planet; and the conservationists, rangers, and activists who are working to stop the impending extinctions ― people who believe this is a battle that can be won, that our animals are not beyond salvation.

Large ungulates in tropical forests are among the most threatened taxa of mammals. Excessive hunting, degradation of and encroachments on their natural habitats by humans have contributed to drastic reductions in wild ungulate populations in recent decades. As such, reliable assessments of ungulate-habitat relationships and the spatial dynamics of their populations are urgently needed to provide a scientific basis for conservation efforts. However, such rigorous assessments are methodologically complex and logistically difficult, and consequently many commonly used ungulate population survey methods do not address key problems. As a result of such deficiencies, key parameters related to population distribution, abundance, habitat ecology and management of tropical forest ungulates remain poorly understood. This book addresses this critical knowledge gap by examining how population abundance patterns in five threatened species of large ungulates vary across space in the tropical forests of the Nagarahole-Bandipur reserves in southwestern India. It also explains the development and application of an innovative methodology - spatially explicit line transect sampling - based on an advanced hierarchical modelling under the Bayesian inferential framework, which overcomes common methodological deficiencies in current ungulate surveys. The methods and results presented provide valuable reference material for researchers and professionals involved in studying and managing wild ungulate populations around the globe.