This work provides the first overview of mammal species distributions in Africa since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 18 ky) to modern time. It is derived from data published mainly in the zooarchaeological literature until 2009. During a post-doctoral project hosted in the zoological department of mammal collection at the Naturhistoriches Museum in Vienna (Austria), the occurrences of taxa in archaeological sites on the African continent were recorded in a database, integrating geographical and chronological information. This record offers the opportunity to produce a chronological atlas of mammalian distributions by presenting their occurrences on successive maps over the last 18 ky. This work is useful for zooarchaeologists dealing with one particular species by providing a bibliographical work that documents its past locations. It must be noted that fauna are mainly documented through their presence at archaeological sites and are therefore tied to the presence of humans and their activities. This may only partially reproduce their true past distribution. However, the sites offer a good coverage throughout space and time and generally reflect the extent of mammalian distributions, although the limits of their distributions may be further refined. The atlas will aid in the investigation of palaeoecological issues, such as the capacity of mammals to adapt to climatic change and respond to human disturbance in the recent past of Africa. The database also provides information that is fundamental to a better understanding of what influenced the present-day distribution, dynamism and structure of mammalian communities in Africa. By incorporating a larger temporal scale to modern ecological studies, it may help control their conservation since desiccation and human disturbance in Africa is still a worrying question for their future.

Killer tales from an award-winning cinematographer and marine biologist. Marine biologist and underwater cameraman Richard 'Shark Tracker' Fitzpatrick wrangles sharks and other deadly marine creatures for a living. From the coral gardens of the Great Barrier Reef to the murky depths of the Amazon, Fitzpatrick shares his real-life experiences with predators of the deep - from sharks and box jellyfish to sea snakes. A mixture of mind-boggling anecdotes and science provide an intimate insight into marine life and the conservation issues at stake.

What is animal welfare? Why has it proved so difficult to find a definition that everyone can agree on? This concise and accessible guide is for anyone who is interested in animals and who has wondered how we can assess their welfare scientifically. It defines animal welfare as 'health and animals having what they want', a definition that can be easily understood by scientists and non-scientists alike, expresses in simple words what underlies many existing definitions, and shows what evidence we need to collect to improve animal welfare in practice. Above all, it puts the animal's own point of view at the heart of an assessment of its welfare. But, can we really understand what animals want? A consistent theme running through the book is that not only is it possible to establish what animals want, but that this information is vital in helping us to make sense of the long and often confusing list of welfare measures that are now in use such as 'stress' and 'feel good hormones', expressive sounds and gestures, natural behaviour, cognitive bias, and stereotypies. Defining welfare as 'health and what animals want' allows us to distinguish between measures that are simply what an animal does when it is alert, aroused, or active and those measures that genuinely allow us to distinguish between situations the animals themselves see as positive or negative. Sentience (conscious feelings of pleasure, pain, and suffering) is for many people the essence of what is meant by welfare, but studying consciousness is notoriously difficult, particularly in non-human species. These difficulties are discussed in the context of our current - and as yet incomplete - knowledge of human and animal consciousness. Finally, the book highlights some key ideas in the relationship between animal welfare science and animal ethics and shows how closely the well-being of humans is linked to that of other animals. The Science of Animal Welfare is an ideal companion for undergraduate and graduate students taking courses in animal behaviour and welfare, as well as for professional researchers, practitioners and animal welfare consultants. At the same time, it is easily understandable to non-scientists and anyone without prior knowledge but with an interest in animals and the rapidly evolving science of animal welfare.

This is the seventh book in the Al-the-Gator Series. A science book about animals written by an author who has done personal research on these animals. The book has additional information and other books to learn from. An activity section follows the story.

For nearly two decades, Dian Fossey immersed herself in the study of mountain gorillas in Africa. She became known as a highly respected primatologist - a scientist who studies apes and other primates - and a fiercely devoted champion of their safety and preservation. Fossey had made powerful enemies because of her opposition to the gorilla-related tourism industry and her knowledge of animal trafficking among members of the government. In 1985, she was found murdered in her cabin in Rwanda. The case remains unsolved to this day, but her intense love for this endangered species helped create a legacy that survives in the work of others to this day.

Australia has a rich and unique array of animals, including the largest diversity of marsupials on earth. The recent growth in ecotourism has increased the popularity of mammal-spotting, particularly whale and dolphin-watching, but also spotting of perennial tourist favorites such as koalas and kangaroos. For the first time ever, The Complete Guide to Finding the Mammals of Australia advises interested amateurs and professionals where to locate many of Australia's mammals. The book describes Australia's best mammal-watching sites state-by-state. It also includes a complete, annotated taxonomic list with hints on finding each species (or why it won't be easy to see); sections on travel and logistics in Australia; and appendices with hints on finding and photographing mammals.

Red wolves are shy, elusive, and misunderstood predators. Until the 1800s, they were common in the longleaf pine savannas and deciduous forests of the southeastern United States. However, habitat degradation, persecution, and interbreeding with the coyote nearly annihilated them. Today, reintroduced red wolves are found only in peninsular northeastern North Carolina within less than 1 percent of their former range. In The Secret World of Red Wolves, nature writer T. DeLene Beeland shadows the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's pioneering recovery program over the course of a year to craft an intimate portrait of the red wolf, its history, and its restoration. Her engaging exploration of this top-level predator traces the intense effort of conservation personnel to save a species that has slipped to the verge of extinction. Beeland weaves together the voices of scientists, conservationists, and local landowners while posing larger questions about human coexistence with red wolves, our understanding of what defines this animal as a distinct species, and how climate change may swamp its current habitat.

First published more than a century ago, The Biography of a Grizzly recounts the life of a fictitious bear named Wahb who lived and died in the Greater Yellowstone region. This new edition combines Ernest Thompson Seton's classic tale and original illustrations with historical and scientific context for Wahb's story, providing a thorough understanding of the setting, cultural connections, biology, and ecology of Seton's best-known book. By the time The Biography of a Grizzly was published in 1900, grizzly bears had been hunted out of much of their historical range in North America. The characterization of Wahb, along with Seton's other anthropomorphic tales of American wildlife, helped to change public perceptions and promote conservation. As editors Jeremy M. Johnston and Charles R. Preston remind us, however, Seton's approach to writing about animals put him at the center of the ""Nature-Faker"" controversy of the early twentieth century, when John Burroughs and Theodore Roosevelt, among others, denounced sentimental representations of wildlife. The editors address conservation scientists' continuing concerns about inaccurate depictions of nature in popular culture. Despite its anthropomorphism, Seton's paradoxical book imparts a good deal of insightful and accurate natural history, even as its exaggerations shaped early-twentieth-century public opinion on conservation in often counterproductive ways. By complicating Seton's enthralling tale with scientific observations of grizzly behavior in the wild, Johnston and Preston evaluate the story's accuracy and bring the story of Yellowstone grizzlies into the present day. Preserving the 1900 edition's original design and illustrations, Wahb brings new understanding to an American classic, updating the book for current and future generations.

The Dingo Debate explores the intriguing and relatively unknown story of Australia's most controversial animal - the dingo. Throughout its existence, the dingo has been shaped by its interactions with human societies. With this as a central theme, the book traces the story of the dingo from its beginnings as a semi-domesticated wild dog in South-east Asia, to its current status as a wild Australian native animal under threat of extinction. It describes how dingoes made their way to Australia, their subsequent relationship with Indigenous Australians, their successful adaption to the Australian landscape and their constant battle against the agricultural industry. During these events, the dingo has demonstrated an unparalleled intelligence and adaptable nature seen in few species. The book concludes with a discussion of what the future of the dingo in Australia might look like, what we can learn from our past relationship with dingoes and how this can help to allow a peaceful co-existence. The Dingo Debate reveals the real dingo beneath the popular stereotypes, providing an account of the dingo's behaviour, ecology, impacts and management according to scientific and scholarly evidence rather than hearsay. This book will appeal to anyone with an interest in Australian natural history, wild canids, and the relationship between humans and carnivores.

Among all the large whales on Earth, the most unusual and least studied is the narwhal, the northernmost whale on the planet and the one most threatened by global warming. Narwhals thrive in the fjords and inlets of northern Canada and Greenland. These elusive whales, whose long tusks were the stuff of medieval European myths and Inuit legends, are uniquely adapted to the Arctic ecosystem and are able to dive below thick sheets of ice to depths of up to 1,500 meters in search of their prey-halibut, cod, and squid. Join Todd McLeish as he travels high above the Arctic circle to meet: Teams of scientific researchers studying the narwhal's life cycle and the mysteries of its tusk Inuit storytellers and hunters Animals that share the narwhals' habitat: walruses, polar bears, bowhead and beluga whales, ivory gulls, and two kinds of seals McLeish consults logbooks kept by whalers and explorers and interviews folklorists and historians to tease out the relationship between the real narwhal and the mythical unicorn. In Colorado, he visits climatologists studying changes in the seasonal cycles of the Arctic ice. From a history of the trade in narwhal tusks to descriptions of narwhals' vocalizations as heard through hydrophones, Narwhals reveals the beauty and thrill of the narwhal and its habitat, and the threat it faces from a rapidly changing world. Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHwaqdKyLCQ&list=UUge4MONgLFncQ1w1C_BnHcw&index=9&feature=plcp

The evolution of high-crowned teeth, hypsodonty, is a defining characteristic of many terrestrial herbivores. To date, the most prominent focus in the study of the teeth of grazing herbivores has been co-evolution with grasses and grasslands. This book develops the idea further and looks at the myriad ways that soil can enter the diet. Madden then expands this analysis to examine the earth surface processes that mobilize sediment in the environment. The text delivers a global perspective on tooth wear and soil erosion, with examples from the islands of New Zealand to the South American Andes, highlighting how similar geological processes worldwide result in convergent evolution. The final chapter includes a review of elodonty in the fossil record and its environmental consequences. Offering new insights into geomorphology and adaptive and evolutionary morphology, this text will be of value to any researcher interested in the evolution of tooth size and shape.

For centuries, reports of man-eating tigers in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore have circulated, shrouded in myth and anecdote. This fascinating book documents the "big cat"-human relationship in this area during its 350-year colonial period, re-creating a world in which people feared tigers but often came into contact with them, because these fierce predators prefer habitats created by human interference. Peter Boomgaard shows how people and tigers adapted to each other's behavior, each transmitting this learning from one generation to the next. He discusses the origins of stories and rituals about tigers and explains how cultural biases of Europeans and class differences among indigenous populations affected attitudes toward the tigers. He provides figures on their populations in different eras and analyzes the factors contributing to their present status as an endangered species. Interweaving stories about Malay kings, colonial rulers, tiger charmers, and bounty hunters with facts about tigers and their way of life, the book is an engrossing combination of environmental and micro history.