Widespread across open lands and cities of Europe, Africa, and Asia, the common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus) is one of the most abundant and studied birds of prey. This book brings together and synthesises the results of research on kestrels for professional ornithologists and scientists that seek to consolidate a vast body of literature. It is also a reference for those readers who may not have the depth of scientific knowledge to navigate new fields of scientific enquiry. It examines many aspects of the species' biology, from the reproductive strategies to the behavioural and demographic adaptations to changes of environmental conditions. It also discusses the roles of physiology and immunology in mediating the adaptability of kestrels to the ongoing environmental changes with a particular focus on contaminants. This volume presents new and exciting avenues of research on the ecology and behaviour of the common kestrel.

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.

Life histories can be defined as the means by which individuals (or more precisely genotypes) vary their age- or stage-specific expenditures of reproductive effort in response to genetic, phenotypic, and environmental correlates of survival and fecundity. Life histories reflect the expression of traits most closely related to individual fitness, such as age and size at maturity, number and size of offspring, and the timing of the expression of those traits throughout an individual's life. In addition to addressing questions of fundamental importance to ecology and evolution, life-history research plays an integral role in species conservation and management. This accessible primer encompasses the basic concepts, theories, and applied elements of life history evolution, including patterns of trait variability, underlying mechanisms of plastic/evolutionary change, and the practical utility of life-history traits as metrics of species/population recovery, sustainable exploitation, and risk of extinction. Empirical examples are drawn from the entire spectrum of life. A Primer of Life Histories is designed for readers from a broad range of academic backgrounds and experience including graduate students and researchers of ecology and evolutionary biology. It will also be useful to a more applied audience of academic/government researchers in fields such as wildlife biology, conservation biology, fisheries science, and the environmental sciences.

Human-induced climate change is emerging as one of the gravest threats to biodiversity in history, and while a vast amount of literature on the ecological impact of climate change exists, very little has been dedicated to the management of wildlife populations and communities in the wake of unprecedented habitat changes. "Wildlife Conservation in a Changing Climate" is an essential resource, bringing together leaders in the fields of climate change ecology, wildlife population dynamics, and environmental policy to examine the impacts of climate change on populations of terrestrial vertebrates. Chapters assess the details of climate change ecology, including demographic implications for individual populations, evolutionary responses, impacts on movement patterns, alterations of species interactions, and predicting impacts across regions. The contributors also present a number of strategies by which conservationists and wildlife managers can counter or mitigate the impacts of climate change as well as increase the resilience of wildlife populations to such changes. A seminal contribution to the fields of ecology and conservation biology, "Wildlife Conservation in a Changing Climate" will serve as the spark that ignites a new direction of discussions about and action on the ecology and conservation of wildlife in a changing climate.

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.

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."

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."

Emily Dickinson's poem "Split the Lark" refers to the "scarlet experiment" by which scientists destroy a bird in order to learn more about it. Indeed, humans have killed hundreds of millions of birds-for science, fashion, curiosity, and myriad other reasons. In the United States alone, seven species of birds are now extinct and another ninety-three are endangered. Conversely, the U.S. conservation movement has made bird-watching more popular than ever, saving countless bird populations; and while the history of actual physical human interaction with birds is complicated, our long aesthetic and scientific interest in them is undeniable. Since the beginning of the modern conservation movement in the mid-nineteenth century, human understanding of and interaction with birds has changed profoundly. In Scarlet Experiment, Jeff Karnicky traces the ways in which birds have historically been seen as beautiful creatures worthy of protection and study and yet subject to experiments-scientific, literary, and governmental-that have irrevocably altered their relationship with humans. This examination of the management of bird life in America from the nineteenth century to today, which focuses on six bird species, finds that renderings of birds by such authors as Henry David Thoreau, Emily Dickinson, Don DeLillo, and Christopher Cokinos, have also influenced public perceptions and actions. Scarlet Experiment speculates about the effects our decisions will have on the future of North American bird ecology.

The inspiration for the film The Dark Divide starring David Cross and Debra Messing, one of America's most esteemed natural history writers takes to the hills in search of Bigfoot-and finds the wildness within ourselves. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship to investigate the legends of Sasquatch, Yale-trained ecologist Dr. Robert Pyle treks into the unprotected wilderness of the Dark Divide near Mount St. Helens, where he discovers both a giant fossil footprint and recent tracks. On the trail of what he thought was legend, he searches out Indians who tell him of an outcast tribe, the Seeahtiks, who had not fully evolved into humans. A handful of open-minded biologists and anthropologists counter the tabloids Pyle studies, while rogue Forest Service employees and loggers swear of a vast conspiracy to deep-six true stories of unknown, upright hominoid apes among us. He attends Sasquatch Daze, where he meets scientists, hunters, and others who have devoted their lives to the search, only to realize that "these guys don't want to find Bigfoot they want to be Bigfoot!" Since its original publication, the author's fresh experiences and finds have been added to his original work through an updated chapter. With an evaluation of recent DNA evidence from Bigfoot hair and scat, the study of speech phonemes in the "Sierra Sounds" purported Bigfoot recordings, an examination of the impact of the wildly popular Animal Planet series Bigfoot Hunters, the reemergence of the famous Bob Gimlin into the Bigfoot community, and more, Walking With Bigfoot keeps every Bigfoot enthusiast's mind wide open to one of the biggest questions in the land and brings Pyle's work on the "legend" of Bigfoot into the new century.

Mongooses are a remarkable and fascinating group of small carnivores, with 25 species occurring in Africa and nine in Asia. They live within a wide variety of habitats, from open savannah to dense rainforest, and display an amazing diversity in social behaviour, with both solitary and group-living species. Yet this family is one of the least-known group of carnivores. The general lack of public awareness about most mongoose species, and the scarce ecological knowledge of what they need to survive in the wild, are two of the many conservation threats that this group of carnivores faces, which highlights the urgent need to promote an interest in these amazing animals. As well as popularising mongooses, the book will be a valuable source of information on general scientific and conservation topics, such as social behaviour and how the loss of suitable habitats impacts animal species. Recent cinematic films and TV documentaries on meerkats and banded mongooses have been very popular, but people are much less familiar with the other mongoose species that live across Africa and Asia - most of these are rarely seen in the wild and are very poorly known, and several have not been studied in the field. One African mongoose was only discovered by western scientists in 1958, and several others are only known from a few museum specimens and recent observations in the wild. This well-researched, lavishly illustrated book will give a comprehensive overview of the whole mongoose family, including all the different aspects of mongoose biology, their role in human society and the conservation issues that they face, as well as detailed information on all 34 mongoose species.

This book provides research on the threats and conservation of endangered species. Chapter One reviews the causes of extinction, the possibilities of persistence in colonised sites, as well as the proposed method of conservation of populations of selected rare plant species such as Dianthus superbus L., Gentiana pneumonanthe L., Gladiolus imbricatus L., Iris sibirica L. as well as Trollius europaeus L. Chapter Two provides an example of the use of multivariate analyses of morphological characters and DNA analyses for assessing the taxonomic ranking of rare plant taxa. Chapter Three offers a synthetic, state-of-the-art analysis of the existing knowledge around magnolias, including their biogeographic origin, the distribution and number of magnolia species, their current and potential uses in medicine and biochemistry, the ecology of seeds and of successful pre-germinate treatments, the regeneration and restructuring of populations, and a revision of the genetic diversity of magnolia species. Chapter Four examines a case study of Cycas hainanensis, an endangered cycad species.

The relationships between humans and aquatic mammals in the Neotropics has been important since archaic times in the American continent, but also varied across time and space, a fact taken on by this publication. In this book, the chapters were written by experts in the field of zooarchaeology, environmental archaeology and conservation biology and different lines of evidence and research questions are used to offer an archaeological approach to these long term relationships. One of the aims of this book is to discuss research questions, methodologies and results pursued and obtained across the different Neotropical regions. The range of variations in the zooarchaeological evidences that result from the aquatic mammal exploitation across time and space still cannot be clearly defined, and the book's chapters show clearly that different archaeological expectations on this matter seem to be linked to the ecological properties and internal subdivisions of the Neotropical region. Thus, the book leads the reader to consider the different ways humans impacted on aquatic mammal populations in both, the prehistoric and historic past. For that reason, we believe that the archeological data can contribute to deepen the knowledge about the natural history of the Neotropical aquatic mammals, eventually even helping to evaluate the ecological status of aquatic mammals in different areas of this region.

This book places lion conservation and the relationship between people and lions both in historical context and in the context of the contemporary politics of conservation in Africa. The killing of Cecil the Lion in July 2015 brought such issues to the public's attention. Were lions threatened in the wild and what was the best form of conservation? How best can lions be saved from extinction in the wild in Africa amid rural poverty, precarious livelihoods for local communities and an expanding human population? This book traces man's relationship with lions through history, from hominids, to the Romans, through colonial occupation and independence, to the present day. It concludes with an examination of the current crisis of conservation and the conflict between Western animal welfare concepts and sustainable development, thrown into sharp focus by the killing of Cecil the lion. Through this historical account, Keith Somerville provides a coherent, evidence-based assessment of current human-lion relations, providing context to the present situation. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of environmental and African history, wildlife conservation, environmental management and political ecology, as well as the general reader.

Since early on in the development of wind-energy production, concerns have arisen about the potential impacts of turbines to wildlife; these concerns have especially focused on the mortality of birds. Structural changes and improved turbine design have been instrumental in reducing mortality in birds. Despite the improvements to turbines that have resulted in reduced mortality of birds, there is clear evidence that bat mortality at wind turbines is of far greater conservation concern. Larger and taller turbines actually seem to be causing increased fatalities of bats. Numerous research opportunities exist that pertain to issues such as identifying the best and worst placement of sites for turbines; and mitigation strategies that would minimise impacts to wildlife (birds and bats). This book focuses on refereed journal publications and theses about bats and wind-energy development in North America.

Life on Earth is facing a mass extinction event of our own making. Human activity is changing the biology and the meaning of extinction. What Is Extinction? examines several key moments that have come to define the terms of extinction over the past two centuries, exploring instances of animal and human finitude and the cultural forms used to document and interpret these events. Offering a critical theory for the critically endangered, Joshua Schuster proposes that different discourses of limits and lastness appear in specific extinction events over time as a response to changing attitudes toward species frailty. Understanding these extinction events also involves examining what happens when the conceptual and cultural forms used to account for species finitude are pressed to their limits as well. Schuster provides close readings of several case studies of extinction that bring together environmental humanities and multispecies methods with media-specific analyses at the terminus of life. What Is Extinction? delves into the development of last animal photography, the anthropological and psychoanalytic fascination with human origins and ends, the invention of new literary genres of last fictions, the rise of new extreme biopolitics in the Third Reich that attempted to change the meaning of extinction, and the current pursuit of de-extinction technologies. Schuster offers timely interpretations of how definitions and visions of extinction have changed in the past and continue to change in the present.

Shortlisted for the 2018 TWS Wildlife Publication Awards in the edited book category Lesser Prairie-Chickens have experienced substantial declines in terms of population and the extent of area that they occupy. While they are an elusive species, making it difficult at times to monitor them, current evidence indicates that they have been persistently decreasing in number since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s dramatically affected their core range. In May of 2014, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service listed Lesser Prairie-Chickens as a threatened species, granting them federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, which included a special rule recognizing significant conservation planning efforts made by state and federal wildlife agencies within the geographical range of the species. Although the listing was vacated by judicial ruling in September 2015, concern for persistence of the species persists. These actions illustrate the uncertain legal status and future conservation challenges for Lesser Prairie-Chickens. Ecology and Conservation of Lesser Prairie-Chickens provides a compendium of data, analytical results, and synthesis generated among expert wildlife biologists, conservation biologists, and ornithologists. It thoroughly reviews the life history, genetics, and ecology of the species, and is ultimately directed toward developing and establishing appropriate conservation management strategies. It presents a detailed analysis of the issues and risks relative to conservation as well as an overview of potential conservation tools. It also addresses the challenges that natural resource managers continue to face in their current conservation efforts. While dealing with immediate and short-term issues in Lesser Prairie-Chicken conservation, this book is also a useful starting point for guiding future research, management, and conservation of the species. Published in collaboration with and on behalf of The American Ornithological Society, this volume in the highly-regarded Studies in Avian Biology series provides a definitive reference for researchers, managers, and policy makers as well as those with interests in environmental science, avian biology, game bird management, or Great Plains ecology.

From the underreported frontlines of the climate emergency, an at-turns alarming and awe-inspiring work that follows the harrowing migrations of animals and plants fleeing rising temperatures and drought in their natural habitats. As humans accelerate global warming while laying waste to the environment, animals and plants must flee to the margins: on scattered nature reserves, between major highways, or among urban sprawl. And when even these places become too hot and inhospitable, wildlife is left with only one path to survival: an often-formidable journey toward the poles as they race to find a new home in a warming world. Tropical zones lose their inhabitants, beavers settle in Alaska, and gigantic shoals of fish disappear - just to reappear along foreign coastlines. Award-winning environmental journalist Benjamin von Brackel traces these awe-inspiring journeys and celebrates the remarkable resilience of species around the world. But the lengths these plants and animals must go to avoid extinction are as alarming as they are inspirational: Sea animals - like fish - move on average 45 miles a decade to cooler regions, while land animals - like beavers and butterflies - move 11 miles. As even the poles of the Earth heat up, we're left with a stark and irreversible choice: Halt the climate emergency now, or face a massive die-off of species, who are increasingly left with nowhere else to go.

Marine Mammal Observer and Passive Acoustic Monitoring Handbook is the ultimate instruction manual for mitigation measures to minimise man-made acoustical and physical disturbances to marine mammals from industrial and defence activities. Based on more than two decades of offshore experience, and a decade of supplying MMO and PAM services (commercial and scientific), the Handbook is a long-overdue reference guide that seeks to improve standards worldwide for marine operations such as seismic and drilling exploration, wind farm and civil engineering piling, dredging, trenching, rock-dumping, hydrographical surveys, and military/defence exercises. By popular request, this manual will also form an accompaniment to MMO and PAM courses. The Handbook consolidates all aspects of this discipline into one easily accessible resource, to educate all stakeholders (e.g. MMOs, PAM operators, suppliers, recruitment agencies, clients, contractors, regulators, NGOs, consultants, scientists, academia and media), regardless of experience. Topics include worldwide legislation, compliance, anthropogenic noise sources and potential effects, training, offshore life, visual and acoustic monitoring (theory and practice), marine mammal distribution, hearing and vocalisations, and report writing. Advice is provided on implementing sensible and practical mitigation techniques, appropriate technologies, data collection, client and regulator liaison, and project kick-off meetings. "The Handbook is an indispensable How To guide to the growing and increasingly important occupation of marine mammal monitoring, written with clarity and humor by scientists who have extensive experience in this field." -Dr Phillip J. Clapham, world-renowned cetologist and Director of the Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program at the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle.

In this eloquent plea for compassion and respect for all species, journalist and gardener Nancy Lawson explains why we should welcome wildlife to our yards and provides foundational advice for doing so. Through personal narratives, profiles of home gardeners and interviews with scientists, the book applies the broader lessons of ecology to our own backyards.

For thousands of years dolphins have been man's best friend in the sea. Their brain power, sociability, communication ability and altruism have been the issue of reference for myths, tales and several scientific or experimental studies. They have also inspired people to create several works of art from the ancient times until today. Ancient Greeks called dolphins "people of the sea" and considered them equal to human beings. This book discusses several topics on different species of dolphins, their natural habitat, behaviours, and conservation strategies. Some of the topics included are behaviours of botos and short-finned pilot whales; isolation of yeasts from stranded and captive dolphins in Italy; ecological stressors of the coastal bottlenose dolphin; and dolphin-assisted therapy.

A lavish and definitive view of the oceanic world - accompanying the landmark 7-part BBC series narrated by Sir David Attenborough. With over 200 breath-taking photographs and stills from the BBC Natural History Unit's spectacular footage, this awe-inspiring study of life below the surface will amaze and enthral. 'Jaw-dropping' - Variety 'Substantial and awe-inspiring' - Publishers Weekly 'Breath-taking' -- ***** Reader review 'An incredible book and a must buy' -- ***** Reader review 'Outstanding' -- ***** Reader review ************************************************************************* Take a deep breath and dive into the mysteries of the ocean... Our understanding of ocean life has changed dramatically in the last decade, with new species, new behaviours, and new habitats being discovered at a rapid rate. Blue Planet II, which accompanies the epic BBC 7-part series, is a ground-breaking new look at the richness and variety of underwater life across our planet. From ambush hunters such as the carnivorous bobbit worm to cuttlefish mesmerising their prey with a pulsating light display, Blue Planet II reveals the never-before-seen secrets of the ocean. With over 200 breath-taking photographs and stills from the BBC Natural History Unit's spectacular footage, each chapter of Blue Planet II brings to life a different habitat of the oceanic world. As well as shining a light on ocean life, coral reef and arctic ice communities and shoreline existence, Blue Planet II examines unflinchingly what the future holds for our ocean dwellers. It's a book that will amaze, educate, captivate and astound.

Meet Najin and Fatu—the last of the northern white rhinos—as well as the scientists, conservationists, and rangers who are fighting for the species’ survival. The last two remaining northern white rhinos, an already functionally extinct species, are kept behind three electrical fences and protected by a squad of rangers at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. Their names are Najin and Fatu. Both are descended from the last male northern white rhino, Sudan. Najin is his daughter, while Fatu is his granddaughter. Along with Sudan and another male named Suni, they were transferred to Kenya in 2009, in the hope that returning them to their natural habitat might help them regain their zest for life and reproduction. Unfortunately, things didn’t go to plan. With the deaths of Sudan and Suni, the northern white rhinos’ destiny is now in the hands of their Kenyan caretakers and a team of scientists at the BioResuce international consortium, which is developing and using several different techniques to resurrect the species, including assisted reproduction and stem cell research. The plan is to insert northern white rhino embryos into southern white rhino surrogate mothers as soon as possible. There is a real chance the first “new� northern white rhino baby will be born in late 2023. Will science prevail, or is it too late? Journalists Boštjan and Maja Videmšek explore this question by taking readers on a journey through the history of the northern white rhinos. They introduce the rangers, conservationists, and scientists fighting for the future of the northern white rhinos and dissect what led the species to the brink of extinction, from wars and climate change to poaching and the black market. The Last Two offers hope for the future of the environment and the fight to save the many species that call Earth home.

The most up-to-date and authoritative resource on the biology and evolution of solitary bees While social bees such as honey bees and bumble bees are familiar to most people, they comprise less than 10 percent of all bee species in the world. The vast majority of bees lead solitary lives, surviving without the help of a hive and using their own resources to fend off danger and protect their offspring. This book draws on new research to provide a comprehensive and authoritative overview of solitary bee biology, offering an unparalleled look at these remarkable insects. The Solitary Bees uses a modern phylogenetic framework to shed new light on the life histories and evolution of solitary bees. It explains the foraging behavior of solitary bees, their development, and competitive mating tactics. The book describes how they construct complex nests using an amazing variety of substrates and materials, and how solitary bees have co-opted beneficial mites, nematodes, and fungi to provide safe environments for their brood. It looks at how they have evolved intimate partnerships with flowering plants and examines their associations with predators, parasites, microbes, and other bees. This up-to-date synthesis of solitary bee biology is an essential resource for students and researchers, one that paves the way for future scholarship on the subject. Beautifully illustrated throughout, The Solitary Bees also documents the critical role solitary bees play as crop pollinators, and raises awareness of the dire threats they face, from habitat loss and climate change to pesticides, pathogens, parasites, and invasive species.

Joel Sartore's quest to photograph all the animal species under human care celebrates its 15th year with this glorious and heartwrenching collection of photographs. The animals featured in these pages are either destined for extinction or already extinct in the wild but still alive today, thanks to dedication of a heroic group comitted to their continued survival. From the majestic Sumatran rhinoceros to the tiny Salt Creek tiger beetle, Sartore's photographs bring us eye to eye with the kaleidoscopic diversity of shapes, colors, personalities, and attitudes of the animal world.

In these vivid pages, Sartore singles out the species most likely to disappear in the next decades, as well as some that have already been lost. Alongside these indelible images are the words of scientists and conservationists who are working to protect and restore populations of endangered species. With Sartore's distinctive portrait photography, he invites us to look closer--and to care more.