Intended for those with a limited background in genetic studies, this concise, entry-level text in conservation genetics is presented in a user-friendly format, with main points clearly highlighted. Solved problems are provided throughout to help illustrate key equations, although a basic knowledge of Mendelian genetics and simple statistics is assumed. A glossary and suggestions for further reading provide additional support for the reader. Numerous pen-and-ink portraits of endangered species bring the material to life. Also available: Introduction to Conservation Genetics "...balance[s] student need for clarity and brevity with the requirements of conservation professionals for detailed applications." Choice 0-521-63014-2 Hardback $130.00 C 0-521-63985-9 Paperback $50.00 D

Following the destruction of 95% of meadows during the twentieth century, there is an urgent need to understand what little unspoiled habitat remains in order to plan the management and restoration of existing sites, as well as re-creating future grassland habitats. This book is a much-needed guide to grassland restoration and management. Providing a thorough overview of recent research on grassland restoration and its implications for practical grassland restoration and management, it introduces grassland communities and the wildlife they support, including examples of species of conservation concern, and considers the management of semi-natural grassland habitats with particular emphasis on drier grassland habitats. Chapters cover: - Grassland character and communities - Introduction to grassland wildlife - Managing semi-natural grassland - Grassland restoration - threats and challenges - Opportunities in grassland restoration - Plant material for grassland restoration - Defining success in grassland restoration. A variety of management techniques are examined, including soil amendment, cultivation, harvesting and maintenance in creating suitable conditions for the successful restoration of species-rich grasslands. It is essential reading for conservationists, site owners or managers, practitioners, conservation organizations and students of ecological restoration with an interest in the creation of new grassland habitats, the restoration of semi-natural grassland, as well as the continuing management of semi-natural (unimproved) grassland communities.

This book focuses on Blakiston's fish owl and the red-crowned crane as umbrella species. Healthy river, riparian and wetland ecosystems are necessary to maintain the populations of the two species. Both species have been revered by people since ancient times, but both are currently listed as endangered because of their small population sizes. The population decline of the two species can be mainly attributed to the degradation of the natural riparian and wetland habitats, which is associated with land use development. The populations of the two species are now recovering in Japan due to recent conservation and reproduction efforts, but the genetic diversity of the two species are still low due to previous bottleneck effects. To develop conservation and dispersal plans to establish the species over the East Asian mainland and on the island of Hokkaido, basic information, such as their regional distribution, genetic diversity, food availability, reproductive traits, and nesting, breeding, rearing, and commuting habitat, is essential. The intensive, collaborative studies conducted in Japan and Russia has clarified the status quo and the ecology of the two species. This is the first book that comprehensively compiles the above information for the mainland and island populations. In addition, it verifies their suitability as umbrella species of an ecosystem and the possibility of their future population expansion, taking into account changes in land use in Hokkaido, which is about to experience a dramatic decline in human population. As such, the book provides valuable information for students who wish to learn about these beautiful symbolic creatures, for NGOs engaged in conservation activities, and for managers who are involved in creating conservation plans and implementing restoration projects.

At the start of the nineteenth century, Passenger Pigeons were perhaps the most abundant birds on the planet, numbering literally in the billions. The flocks were so large and so dense that they blackened the skies, even blotting out the sun for days at a stretch. Yet by the end of the century, the most common bird in North America had vanished from the wild. In 1914, the last known representative of her species, Martha, died in a cage at the Cincinnati Zoo.

This stunningly illustrated book tells the astonishing story of North America's Passenger Pigeon, a bird species that--like the Tyrannosaur, the Mammoth, and the Dodo--has become one of the great icons of extinction. Errol Fuller describes how these fast, agile, and handsomely plumaged birds were immortalized by the ornithologist and painter John James Audubon, and captured the imagination of writers such as James Fenimore Cooper, Henry David Thoreau, and Mark Twain. He shows how widespread deforestation, the demand for cheap and plentiful pigeon meat, and the indiscriminate killing of Passenger Pigeons for sport led to their catastrophic decline. Fuller provides an evocative memorial to a bird species that was once so important to the ecology of North America, and reminds us of just how fragile the natural world can be.

Published in the centennial year of Martha's death, "The Passenger Pigeon" features rare archival images as well as haunting photos of live birds.

In Producing Predators Michael D. Wise argues that contestations between Native and non-Native people over hunting, labor, and the livestock industry drove the development of predator eradication programs in Montana and Alberta from the 1880s onward. The history of these antipredator programs was significant not only for their ecological effects but also for their enduring cultural legacies of colonialism in the Northern Rockies. By targeting wolves and other wild carnivores for extermination, cattle ranchers disavowed the predatory labor of raising domestic animals for slaughter, representing it instead as productive work. Meanwhile, federal agencies sought to purge the Blackfoot, Salish-Kootenai, and other indigenous peoples of their so-called predatory behaviors through campaigns of assimilation and citizenship that forcefully privatized tribal land and criminalized hunting and its related ritual practices. Despite these colonial pressures, Native communities resisted and negotiated the terms of their dispossession by representing their own patterns of work, food, and livelihood as productive. By exploring predation and production as fluid cultural logics for valuing labor rather than just a set of biological processes, Producing Predators offers a new perspective on the history of the American West and the modern history of colonialism more broadly.

Conrad Glass MBE is the Inspector of Police with the most lonely beat in the world: he patrols the remote island of Tristan da Cunha, a UK Overseas Territory in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. No aircraft fly overhead and none can land. Few ships pass this way. Just 267 people live here, earning their living from farming, fishing, conservation, handicrafts and the sale of coins and colourful postage stamps. Much of his work is involved in the conservation of some of the world's rarest species in this fragile and remote environment. It's as much about penguins as people. This is the story of the Tristan islanders, told through the policeman's notebook and the anecdotes of Conrad Glass, a former Chief Islander and Conservation Officer, who is a direct descendant of the first settler and governor, William Glass, one of a garrison landed to prevent any rescue of Napoleon from St Helena. It is the first book to be written by a Tristan islander: stories of rescue from wild Atlantic islands; volcanic eruptions; the protection of penguins, seals and albatross; of chase by a whale; escape from violent hurricanes and the keeping of the peace in this most remote of British Territories. There's a glimpse of the island's past too - hidden pirate treasure, a shipwrecked lion, ghostly apparitions, of slave ships and abduction.

A marvelously illustrated reference to the natural wonders of one of the most spectacular places on earth Separated from Africa's mainland for tens of millions of years, Madagascar has evolved a breathtaking wealth of biodiversity, becoming home to thousands of species found nowhere else on the planet. The New Natural History of Madagascar provides the most comprehensive, up-to-date synthesis available of this island nation's priceless biological treasures. Now fully revised and expanded, this beautifully illustrated compendium features contributions by more than 600 globally renowned experts who cover the history of scientific exploration in Madagascar, as well as the island's geology and soils, climate, forest ecology, human ecology, marine and coastal ecosystems, plants, invertebrates, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. This invaluable two-volume reference also includes detailed discussions of conservation efforts in Madagascar that showcase several successful protected area programs that can serve as models for threatened ecosystems throughout the world. Provides the most comprehensive overview of Madagascar's rich natural history Coedited by 18 different specialists Features hundreds of new contributions by world-class experts Includes hundreds of new illustrations Covers a broad array of topics, from geology and climate to animals, plants, and marine life Sheds light on newly discovered species and draws on the latest science An essential resource for anyone interested in Madagascar or tropical ecosystems in general, from biologists and conservationists to ecotourists and armchair naturalists

The Slender-billed Curlew, Numenius tenuirostris, 'the slim beak of the new moon', is one of the world's rarest birds. It once bred in Siberia and wintered in the Mediterranean basin, passing through the wetlands and estuaries of Italy, Greece, the Balkans and Central Asia. Today the Slender-billed Curlew exists as a rumour, a ghost species surrounded by unconfirmed sightings and speculation. The only certainty is that it now stands on the brink of extinction. Birds are key environmental indicators. Their health or hardship has a message for us about the planet, and our future. What does the fate of the Slender-billed Curlew mean for us, and for the natural world? What happened to it, and why? In Orison for a Curlew Horatio Clare journeys through a fractured Europe in search of the Slender-billed Curlew, following the bird's migratory path on an odyssey that takes us into the lives of the men and women who have fought to save the landscapes to which the bird belongs. This is a story of beauty, triumph, and the struggles of conservation. It is a homage to a bird which may never be seen again.

Wetlands serve many important functions and provide numerous ecological services such as clean water, wildlife habitat, nutrient reduction, and flood control. Wetland science is a relatively young discipline but is a rapidly growing field due to an enhanced understanding of the importance of wetlands and the numerous laws and policies that have been developed to protect these areas. This growth is demonstrated by the creation and growth of the Society of Wetland Scientists which was formed in 1980 and now has a membership of 3,500 people. It is also illustrated by the existence of 2 journals ("Wetlands" and "Wetlands Ecology and Management") devoted entirely to wetlands.

To date there has been no practical, comprehensive techniques book centered on wetlands, and written for wetland researchers, students, and managers. This techniques book aims to fill that gap. It is designed to provide an overview of the various methods that have been used or developed by researchers and practitioners to study, monitor, manage, or create wetlands. Including many methods usually found only in the peer-reviewed or gray literature, this 3-volume set fills a major niche for all professionals dealing with wetlands."

We love our pets. Dogs, cats, birds, reptiles, and other species have become an essential part of more families than ever before. Pet owners are drawn to their animal companions through an innate desire to connect with other species. But there is a dark side to our domestic connection with animal life: the pet industry is contributing to a global conservation crisis for wildlife, often without the knowledge of pet owners. In Unnatural Companions, journalist Peter Christie issues a call to action for pet owners. If we hope to reverse the alarming trend of wildlife decline, pet owners must acknowledge the pets-versus-conservation dilemma and concede that our well-fed and sheltered cats too often prey on garden wildlife and seemingly harmless reptiles released into the wild might be the next destructive invasive species. We want our pets to eat nutritionally healthy food, but how does the designer food we feed them impact the environment? Christie's book is a cautionary tale to responsible pet owners about why we must change the ways we love and care for our pets. It concludes with the positive message that the small changes we make at home can foster better practices within the pet industry that will ultimately benefit our pets' wild brethren.

In telling the amazing story of how life on earth came to be so diverse, distinguished scientist Edward O. Wilson defined a new environmental ethic – our obligation to conserve ecosystems, not simply individual species. In an extensive new foreword to this classic work, he assesses the continuing threat that human activity poses to the Earth’s rich biodiversity and, most importantly, explains why we should care.

'BRITAIN'S FINEST LIVING NATURE WRITER' - THE TIMES A SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER and BBC Radio 4 'Book of the Week' from 'indisputably, one of the best nature-writers of his generation' (Country Life) Written in diary format, The Wood is the story of English woodlands as they change with the seasons. Lyrical and informative, steeped in poetry and folklore, The Wood inhabits the mind and touches the soul. For four years John Lewis-Stempel managed Cockshutt wood, a particular wood - three and half acres of mixed woodland in south west Herefordshire - that stands as exemplar for all the small woods of England. John coppiced the trees and raised cows and pigs who roamed free there. This is the diary of the last year, by which time he had come to know it from the bottom of its beech roots to the tip of its oaks, and to know all the animals that lived there - the fox, the pheasants, the wood mice, the tawny owl - and where the best bluebells grew. For many fauna and flora, woods like Cockshutt are the last refuge. It proves a sanctuary for John too. To read The Wood is to be amongst its trees as the seasons change, following an easy path until, suddenly the view is broken by a screen of leaves, or your foot catches on a root, or a bird startles overhead. This is a wood you will never want to leave.

"The deeper the white man went into Africa, the faster the life flowed out of it, off the plains and out of the bush...vanishing in acres of trophies and hides and carcasses." - Peter Beard A landmark publication on Africa, The End of the Game combines Peter Beard's salient text and remarkable photographs to document the overpopulation and starvation of tens of thousands of elephants, rhinos, and hippos in Kenya's Tsavo lowlands and Uganda parklands in the 1960s and '70s. Researched and compiled over two decades, and updated several times since with new material, this is Beard's essential book-a powerful and poignant testimony to the damage done by human intervention in Africa. His own images and writings are supplemented by historical photographs of, and quotations from, the enterprisers, explorers, missionaries, and big-game hunters whose quest for adventure and "progress" were to change the face of a continent: Theodore Roosevelt, Frederick Courteney Selous, Karen Blixen (Isak Dinesen), Philip Percival, J. A. Hunter, Ernest Hemingway, and J. H. Patterson. This new edition includes an interview with conservationist Dr. Esmond Bradley Martin, as well as essays from previous editions by renowned writer Paul Theroux and ecologist Dr. Richard M. Laws, and contributions to the afterword by agronomist Dr. Norman Borlaug. Touching on such themes as distance from nature, density and stress, and loss of common sense, this seminal portrait is as resonant today, amid growing environmental crises, as it was a half century ago.

This booklet, together with the following two, -which are well under way and will succeed it at intervals of, we hope, no more than six months, sets the stage for a new editorial enterprise in the field of brain science. The accent is on the functional aspects of brains rather than on their develop ment, hence the title of the series. The central question being how neural activity is related to behavior, there will be, naturally, a wide scatter of sub jects, and Heiligenberg's monograph on electric fish may be considered typ ical of the expected standard deviation from the mean. Deviations in other directions may go as far as the sensory neuron, or brain theory, or aphasia, or farther. The next contributions planned for the series are: Precht, Neuronal Operations in the Vestibular System, and Movshon, Genes and Environment in the Development of the Visual Cortex. Our aim is to ap proach the central area by means of something like an evolving handbook of brain science. The individual monographs should describe promising and successful approaches, even in areas where the last word is far from being said. Besides originaI monographs and compounds of the author's own published papers, reviews are also we1come if they are more than the sum of the parts. The publisher promises speedy publication, and the editors will see that the manuscripts will be readable as well as interesting. Tubingen, Summer 1977 V."

For centuries, criminologists have looked for scientific ways to study, understand, and ultimately prevent crime. In this volume, a unique offense, poaching, is explored in various contexts to determine what opportunity structures favor this crime and how situational crime prevention may reduce its prevalence. The data sources used range from publically available secondary data about animal populations, to interviews with hunters, to actual law enforcement data collected inside protected areas. Various methods are utilized to look for patterns in poaching behaviour regarding where poachers strike, which species they target and their modus operandi. Collectively, the volume shows that principles of criminal opportunity theory and situational crime prevention are useful for studying and preventing poaching in a variety of contexts. The methods employed by each chapter are easily replicated and meant to stimulate empirical poaching research where data is available. While the theoretical grounding of this volume is drawn from criminology, it is written for a broad audience of academics, practitioners and those interested in wildlife conservation.

You might have heard that bees are in trouble -- but in fact, the trouble is coming our way too and bees are just showing it first. The looming environmental crisis means that, as a result of modern agricultural practices and pesticide,s we may well fail to prevent honeybee collapse. Honeybees are vital to the health of our planet, and this book is designed to equip and encourage small-scale backyard beekeepers -- who may end up having the only strong, healthy honeybees left. An expert beekeeper, Jack Bresette-Mills calls his approach 'sensitive beekeeping'. He promotes beekeeping without fear, beekeeping for the sake of the bee rather than for profit, and learning to answer your own questions about beekeeping. It's an approach that takes time, practice and patience to develop, and requires physical, mental and spiritual transformation. In the long run though, it results in healthier, sustainable hives and a happier beekeeper.

From foraging patterns in a single tree to social interactions across a home range, how primates use space is a key question in the field of primate behavioral ecology. Drawing on the latest advances in spatial analysis tools, this book offers practical guidance on applying geographic information systems (GIS) to central questions in primatology. An initial methodological section discusses niche modelling, home range analysis and agent-based modelling, with a focus on remote data collection. Research-based chapters demonstrate how ecologists apply this technology to a suite of topics including: calculating the intensity of use of both range and travel routes, assessing the impacts of logging, mining and hunting, and informing conservation strategies.

Britain was a very different place 15,000 years ago - home to lions, lynx, bears, wolves, bison and many more megafauna. But as its climate changed and human populations expanded, most of early Britain's largest mammals disappeared. Will advances in science and technology mean that we can one day bring these mammals back? And should we? In The Missing Lynx, palaeontologist Ross Barnett uses case studies, new fossil discoveries and biomolecular evidence to paint a picture of these lost species and to explore the ecological significance of their disappearance. He discusses how the Britons these animals shared their lives with might have viewed them and investigates why some species survived while others vanished. Barnett also looks in detail at the realistic potential of reintroductions, rewilding and even of resurrection in Britain and overseas, from the successful return of beavers in Argyll to the revolutionary Pleistocene Park in Siberia, which has already seen progress in the revival of 'mammoth steppe' grassland. As widespread habitat destruction, climate change and an ever-growing human population lead us inexorably towards the sixth extinction, this timely book explores the spaces that extinction has left unfilled. And by helping us to understand why some of our most charismatic animals are gone, Ross Barnett encourages us to look to a brighter future, one that might see these missing beasts returned to the land on which they once lived and died.

Pursuing a dream instilled by early David Attenborough television adventures, a young man from the industrial northwest of England is advised at school to become a veterinary surgeon as a first step towards a career working with wild animals in Africa.

His misgivings about the values and justification of domestic veterinary practice are contrasted with a passion for wilderness and wildlife conservation. Early experiences in the vivid Uganda of Idi Amin are juxtaposed with life in a grey Pennines veterinary practice.

Eventually arriving as a veterinary officer in newly independent Botswana he finds adventure with wild animals as a veterinarian and later as an ecologist, survey pilot, game capture operator and even a safari hunter, becoming a passionate conservationist... all while starting the first veterinary practice in the country.

This book addresses the multidisciplinary challenges in biodiversity conservation with a focus on wildlife crime and how forensic tools can be applied to protect species and preserve ecosystems. Illustrated by numerous case studies covering different geographical regions and species the book introduces to the fundamentals of biodiversity conflicts, outlines the unique challenges of wildlife crime scenes and reviews latest techniques in environmental forensics, such as DNA metagenomics. In addition, the volume explores the socio-economic perspective of biodiversity protection and provides an overview of national and international conservation laws. The field of conservation medicine stresses the importance of recognizing that human health, animal health, and ecosystem health are inextricably interdependent and the book serves as important contribution towards achieving the UN Sustainable Developmental Goals, in particular SDG 15, Life on Land. The book addresses graduate students, scientists and veterinary professionals working in wildlife research and conservation biology.

Because elephants are pachyderms, a combination of two Greek roots meaning "thick skin," one might think that nothing bothers them and that they lead quiet, safe lives. Nothing could be further from the truth: elephants have been hunted and killed for their ivory tusks since antiquity. And people often ignore the calves left behind, who must now live out their lives as traumatized and fearful orphans. Wildlife photographer Joachim Schmeisser made it his mission to document the story of these abandoned baby elephants. Through his sponsorship of elephants, he came into contact with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, the world's largest and most successful rescue and rehabilitation operation for orphaned elephants, headquartered in Nairobi. Professional veterinary technicians bottle feed the elephant calves until they are old enough to locate their own food. By living together with older elephant calves, they also learn the social rules governing elephant herds. After this phase is complete, the elephants are taken to one of the Trust's rehabilitation stockades before they are released back into the wild. Joachim Schmeisser followed numerous elephants through the entire process and captured fascinating pictures from their arrival at the nursery all the way to their release back into the wild. Elephants in Heaven provides a visual record of how these traumatized elephants are raised in a place that is truly heavenly for them, offering a compelling behind-the-scenes look inside an elephant nursery. The touching animal portraits also convey the devastating consequences of poaching, because for Joachim Schmeisser, it's about "beauty, fragility, tran- sience, mindfulness, and about dignity and the equal standing of each individual."

In 1970, a group of young lawyers launched a new kind of organisation and helped secure the country's bedrock environmental laws. Ever since, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has harnessed its legal and scientific expertise to become one of the fiercest protectors of public health and the environment. In this recounting of NRDC's 50-year history, cofounder John Adams tells the ongoing story about fighting the world's most powerful polluters and winning. Alongside archival photography and insider accounts, Adams celebrates a half century of victories, everything from saving whales to getting lead pipes out of Flint, Michigan, to protecting treasured landscapes, like Alaska's Katmai National Park & Preserve. But the book is also a road map for the future, offering hard-won lessons on how to tackle problems that lie at the intersection of science and society. Today, as humanity faces the climate crisis, the stakes have never been higher nor the solutions more complex which is why NRDC remains uniquely positioned as the earth's best defense.

Wildlife professionals can more effectively manage species and social-ecological systems by fully considering the role that humans play in every stage of the process. "Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management" provides the essential information that students and practitioners need to be effective problem solvers. Edited by three leading experts in wildlife management, this textbook explores the interface of humans with wildlife and their sometimes complementary, often conflicting, interests. The book's well-researched chapters address conservation, wildlife use (hunting and fishing), and the psychological and philosophical underpinnings of wildlife management.

"Human Dimensions of Wildlife Management" explains how a wildlife professional should handle a variety of situations, such as managing deer populations in residential areas or encounters between predators and people or pets.

This thoroughly revised and updated edition includes detailed information about

- systems thinking- working with social scientists- managing citizen input- using economics to inform decision making- preparing questionnaires- ethical considerations

The third in a trilogy of global overviews of conservation of diverse and ecologically important insect groups. The first two were Beetles in Conservation (2010) and Hymenoptera and Conservation (2012). Each has different priorities and emphases that collectively summarise much of the progress and purpose of invertebrate conservation. Much of the foundation of insect conservation has been built on concerns for Lepidoptera, particularly butterflies as the most popular and best studied of all insect groups. The long-accepted worth of butterflies for conservation has led to elucidation of much of the current rationale of insect species conservation, and to definition and management of their critical resources, with attention to the intensively documented British fauna leading the world in this endeavour. In Lepidoptera and Conservation, various themes are treated through relevant examples and case histories, and sufficient background given to enable non-specialist access. Intended for not only entomologists but conservation managers and naturalists due to its readable approach to the subject.