The islands of Orkney are distinct, perhaps that bit wild. Remote, surrounded by an endless ocean and dominated by an infinite sky, which brings either brilliant light or days of wind that makes everything taste of salt. This remarkable landscape has the power to bewitch people, and Robin Noble has been in its thrall for a lifetime. In Sagas of Salt and Stone he takes us on a personal voyage of adventure and discovery of the archipelago, its history, nature and people - from its seabird colonies and startling rock formations to its fishermen's huts and the Ring of Brodgar. Robin reflects on what has changed and is changing in Orkney, sharing stories of golden summer days and relentless winter storms, of past friendships and family travails. He highlights the best that Orkney has to offer and elucidates its power to inspire and to provide succour for troubled souls. Sagas of Salt and Stone is nothing less than his love letter to Orkney and its people.

How to Raise a Happy Cat focuses on the happiness to be found in the person/pet relationship and includes dozens of ideas for activities and hacks you can build into daily life with your pet, from spontaneous play and activities to making them the perfect sleep spot. We know how important happiness is for ourselves but when it comes to pets, making sure they’re happy – as opposed to obedient, say – is often underrated. Yet there’s plenty of fresh science that shows that a happy, engaged pet is easy to live with and creates happiness in its owners, too. How to Raise a Happy Cat shows what you can learn from your pet’s behaviour and body language, offer a mass of practical ways to raise your pet’s happiness levels, and show you how to connect with them in the way they’ll love best. Building on recent scientific developments into animal behavioural science, this book's methods aim to increase inter-species understanding and encouraging the behaviour you do want, while discouraging the behaviour you don’t. Divided into 6 chapters, each of which contains plenty of easy-to-follow activities which owners can carry out themselves, this book will become an invaluable resource for building and strengthening the bond between human and cat. Sections include: How you can get to know your cat better;  How to develop happiness in different areas, from exercising to playing;  A guide to different stages in a cat’s life and at how to tailor activities to a kitten or to an ageing cat   Perfect for cat owners who want to get to know their feline friends as individuals, this indispensible book offers a new angle that gives owners lots of customized ideas for having fun with their pet, as well as explaining behaviours that they may have previously found baffling.

Snakes are creatures of mystery, arousing fear in many people but fascination in a few. Recent research has transformed our understanding of the behaviour and ecology of these animals, revealed their important roles in diverse ecosystems, and discovered new and effective ways to conserve their populations and to promote coexistence between snakes and people. One of the leading contributors to that scientific revolution has been Prof Rick Shine. Based in Australia, whose snake fauna is diverse and often dangerous, his experiences and anecdotes will inspire a new generation of serpent scientists. Spellbinding stories highlight the challenges, frustrations, and joys of discovery, and give the reader a greater appreciation of these often-slandered slithering reptiles. Key Features Documents the important role played by a preeminent herpetologist. Focuses on research conducted in Australia, especially on snakes. Summarizes highly influential conservation studies. Explores the ways in which research has deepened our understanding of snakes.

"With each day spent outdoors I am reminded of what a beautiful world we all call home, and the challenges that face ecosystems across the world." - Alfie Bowen "The photographs are outstanding, and the story behind them inspirational. Given the odds stacked against Alfie throughout his life, this book is a significant success and bodes very well for a continued and very inspiring career as a world-class photographer." - Chris Packham Alfie Bowen is an exceptionally talented young autistic photographer and wildlife activist. His latest project offers a glimpse into the private lives of numerous wild animals from across the globe and reveals the highs and lows of living as an autistic environmental campaigner. Bowen's photographs are truly breath-taking. Hours are invested into every piece to ensure the results are exactly as Bowen envisioned, and Bowen conducts in-depth research on every animal he captures, believing it is of the utmost importance to understand his subjects. In this book, Bowen discusses overcoming the limitations of technology and how autism has given him the obsession needed to persevere in often cold, lonely and difficult circumstances. From Bowen's relation of his struggle to capture the perfect picture of a cheetah, to his majestic portraits of some of the most beloved animals on the planet, this book captures the powerful sensory experience Bowen enjoys whenever he immerses himself in nature. Featured animals include: lions, cheetahs, leopards, tigers, snow leopards, Geoffrey's cats, red pandas, chimpanzees, monkeys and colobuses, lemurs, elephants, rhinos, giraffes, zebras, deer, flamingos, eagles and other birds, and koi.

Darkness has shaped the lives of humans for millennia, and in Dark Skies, Tiffany Francis-Baker travels around Britain and Europe to learn more about nocturnal landscapes and humanity's connection to the night sky. For a year, Tiffany travels through different nightscapes across the UK and beyond. She experiences 24-hour daylight while swimming in the Gulf of Finland and visits Norway to witness the Northern Lights and speak to people who live in darkness for three months each year. She hikes through the haunted yew forests of Kingley Vale and embarks on a nocturnal sail down the River Dart. As she travels, Tiffany explores how our relationship with darkness and the night sky has changed over time. In this personal and beautifully written nature memoir, Tiffany Francis-Baker investigates how our experiences of the night-time world have permeated our history, folklore, science, geography, art and literature.

A comprehensive book intended for anyone maintaining bats in captivity. Bats in Captivity is the only book of its kind, detailing the captive care of bats worldwide. This volume comprises 38 papers by 41 contributing authors. It contains a user-friendly guide to bat identification, subjects on reproductive patterns and parental care, social organization and communication, capturing and handling, releasing bats into the wild, marking bats for individual identification, torpor and hibernation, lactation and postnatal growth, simulating mother's milk and hand rearing pups of all bat groups, plus much more.

This beautifully illustrated concise guide is packed with information on the wildlife that can be found in Britain and the near Continent, including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, molluscs, and crustaceans. It covers around 200 species, all of which are illustrated with superb full-colour artworks. A concise written account covering size, description, voice, habitat, distribution and habits appears on the same page as the illustration for each species. The easy-to-follow layouts and superb artworks aid quick and accurate identification, and make this book an invaluable reference outdoors as well as at home. To protect it against the elements, the book is wrapped in a durable plastic wallet. Also included is a fold-out insert illustrating differences between similar species, and assisting in quick identification. Renowned natural history artists Sandra Doyle, Stuart Carter, David Daly and Lyn Wells painted the illustrations.

Understanding the relationships between humans and animals is essential to a full understanding of both our present and our shared past. Across the humanities and social sciences, researchers have embraced the 'animal turn,' a multispecies approach to scholarship, with historians at the forefront of new research in human-animal studies that blends traditional research methods with interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks that decenter humans in historical narratives. These exciting approaches come with core methodological challenges for scholars seeking to better understand the past from non-anthropocentric perspectives.Whether in a large public archive, a small private collection, or the oral histories of living memories, stories of animals are mediated by the humans who have inscribed the records and organized archival collections. In oral histories, the place of animals in the past are further refracted by the frailty of human memory and recollection. Only traces remain for researchers to read and interpret. Bringing together seventeen original essays by a leading group of international scholars, Traces of the Animal Past showcases the innovative methods historians use to unearth and explain how animals fit into our collective histories. Situating the historian within the narrative, bringing transparency to methodological processes, and reflecting on the processes and procedures of current research, this book presents new approaches and new directions for a maturing field of historical inquiry.

This checklist of 50 fascinating animals, including mammals, reptiles, birds and insects, will liven up any trip to East Africa's national parks. Children will have great fun ticking off these creatures as they discover them, reading about each one and studying the beautiful, full-colour illustrations.

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was a florid, popular writer of his day, who coined such phrases as "the great unwashed," and "the pen is mightier than the sword."

Hyenas have a bad reputation and are misunderstood by most people. Until recent years many wildlife publications used words like freak, stupid, demented and ungainly to describe hyenas, but in this title the author allow the reader to see these intriguing animals for what they really are: intelligent, powerful, even beautiful. Gus and Margie Mills, newly married, trekked to the Kalahari to spend two years studying the little-known brown hyena. They were so enchanted by these captivating animals that they ended up stayed for 12 years and uncovered a treasure trove of facts about the lives of both brown and spotted hyenas. Their studies allowed them to get to know the hyena clans and their hierarchies intimately and became privy to events which only a handful of people have ever had the privilege to witness.

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was a florid, popular writer of his day, who coined such phrases as "the great unwashed," and "the pen is mightier than the sword."

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was a florid, popular writer of his day, who coined such phrases as "the great unwashed," and "the pen is mightier than the sword."

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was a florid, popular writer of his day, who coined such phrases as "the great unwashed," and "the pen is mightier than the sword."

Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician. He was a florid, popular writer of his day, who coined such phrases as "the great unwashed," and "the pen is mightier than the sword."

Douglas W. Tallamy's first book, Bringing Nature Home, sparked a national conversation about the link between healthy local ecosystems and human well-being. In his new book Nature's Best Hope, Tallamy takes the next step and outlines his vision for a grassroots approach to conservation. Tallamy advocates for homeowners everywhere to turn their yards into conservation corridors that provide wildlife habitats and mitigate the effects of development and corporate agriculture. This home-based approach doesn't rely on the federal government and protects the environment from the whims of politics. It is also easy to do, and readers will walk away with specific suggestions they can incorporate into their own yards. Nature's Best Hope is nature writing at its best - rooted in history, progressive in its advocacy, and above all, actionable and hopeful. By proposing practical measures that ordinary people easily can do, Tallamy gives us reason to believe that the planet can be preserved for future generations.

This photographic guide to the wildlife of East Africa is an accessible introduction to the region’s more conspicuous and interesting mammals, birds, reptiles, frogs, insects, flowers and trees. A colour photograph accompanies each account, which describes the species’ appearance, size, and habits, and gives information on their conservation status, habitat and the best viewing localities.

This book is an invaluable guide for visitors to national parks and other wildlife-rich places in East Africa and is a handy size for travel.

Africa is home to an amazing array of animals, including the world's most diverse assortment of large mammals. These include the world's largest terrestrial mammal, the African elephant, which still roams great swathes of the continent alongside a host of hooved mammals such as hippopotamuses, giraffes, rhinoceroses, and zebras.

African Ark: Mammals, Landscape and the Ecology of a Continent tells the story of where these mammals have come from and how they have interacted to create the richly varied landscape that makes up Africa as we know it today. It also highlights small mammals, such as rodents and bats, which are often overlooked by both naturalists and zoologists in favour of their larger cousins.

African Ark explains the processes through which species and population groups are formed and how these fluctuate over time. It explores the impact of megafauna on the environment and the important roles they play in shaping the landscape. In this way, mammals such as elephants and rhinoceros support countless plant communities and the habitats of many smaller animals. The book brings in a human perspective as well as a conservation angle in its assessment of the interaction of African mammals with the people who live alongside them.

African Ark is at once scientifically rigorous - drawing on the contributions of numerous zoologists, ecologists and conservationists - and an engaging read for anyone dedicated to the understanding of Africa and its wildlife.

Alaska is truly bear country. It is the only one of America’s fifty states to be inhabited by all three of North America’s ursine species: black, polar bear, and brown bear (also known as grizzly). Alaska’s Bears is a handy guidebook to the bears of Alaska, a book that slips easily into a jacket pocket or a day pack, and that provides entertaining armchair reading when you’re not in bear country. Here in one compact edition is a book that can help you understand Alaska’s bears and their natural histories. Learn about their appearances, behaviors, yearly cycles, ecological niches, and relationships with humans. Find full details on how to visit Alaska’s prime bear-viewing and get tips for traveling safely through bear country. Complementing Bill Sherwonit’s text are photographs from longtime Alaskan Tom Walker, a premier wildlife photographer who has spent hundreds of hours in the company of bears.

Meet 36 of southern Africa’s most common and interesting snakes in this lively and engaging kids’ guide. Discover the intriguing habits of snakes – where they live, how they hunt, what dangers they face, and how they protect themselves, all richly supported by more than 250 captivating photographs. A detailed introduction to many aspects of snake behaviour opens up the fascinating world of these widely misunderstood reptiles.

'Every essay in this book is magnificent... Mesmerizing.' New York Times 'How we interact with animals has preoccupied philosophers, poets, and naturalists for ages,' writes Susan Orlean. Since the age of six, when Orlean wrote and illustrated a book called Herbert the Near-Sighted Pigeon, she's been drawn to stories about how we live with animals, and how they abide by us. Now, in On Animals, she examines animal-human relationships through the compelling tales she has written over the course of her celebrated career. These stories consider a range of creatures - the household pets we dote on, the animals we raise to end up as meat on our plates, the creatures who could eat us for dinner, the various tamed and untamed animals we share our planet with who are central to human life. In her own backyard, Orlean discovers the delights of keeping chickens. In a different backyard, in New Jersey, she meets a woman who has twenty-three pet tigers - something none of her neighbours knew about until one of the tigers escapes. In Iceland, the world's most famous whale resists the efforts to set him free; in Morocco, the world's hardest-working donkeys find respite at a special clinic. We meet a show dog and a lost dog and a pigeon who knows exactly how to get home. Equal parts delightful and profound, enriched by Orlean's stylish prose and precise research, these stories celebrate the meaningful cross-species connections that grace our collective existence.