Harvest of Fish and Wildlife: New Paradigms for Sustainable Management unites experts in wildlife and fishery sciences for an interdisciplinary overview of harvest management. This book presents unique insights for embracing the complete social-ecological system to ensure a sustainable future. It educates users on evolutionary and population dynamics; social and political influences; hunter and angler behavior; decision processes; impacts of regulations; and stakeholder involvement. Features: Written by twenty-four teams of leading scientists and managers. Promotes transparent justification for fishing and hunting regulations. Provides examples for integrating decision making into management. Emphasizes creativity in management by integrating art and science. This book appeals to population biologists, evolutionary biologists and social scientists. It is a key resource for on-the-ground managers and research scientists developing harvesting applications. As the book's contributors explain: "Making decisions that are robust to uncertainty...is a paradigm shift with a lot of potential to improve outcomes for fish and wildlife populations." -Andrew Tyre and Brigitte Tenhumberg "Temporal shifts in system states...must somehow be anticipated and dealt with to derive harvest policies that remain optimal in the long term." -Michael Conroy "Proactive, effective management of sportspersons...will be essential in the new paradigm of harvest management." -Matthew Gruntorad and Christopher Chizinski

One of England's foremost bird photographers presents here for the first time a study of wading and shore birds, with over a hundred full-color pictures. The pictures of these beautiful feathered creatures, favorites of birders and wood carvers alike will delight the eye while providing an important resource for naturalists, artists, carvers and taxidermists. Over 38 varieties of shore and wading birds are shown, most in several poses and from different perspectives. Along with the photographs, Roger Everett presents his observations about the birds and tips on viewing the yourself. Yet the key ingredient in his book is his naturally dynamic photography. Other of his photographs have long been seen on the pages of exclusive nature magazines and on the walls of collectors. Roger Everett's photographs, the results of his keen eye for beauty, his technical brilliance, and his appreciation of the wonder of these small creatures, are available in book form for all to share.

Warblers, wolves, and whirligig beetles-the creatures of the canoe countrywilderness come alive in Canoe Country Wildlife. In this read-aloud treasure, "Sparky" Stensaas, naturalist and storyteller, intrigues you with his tales of encounters with the forest inhabitants-from tiny toads to majestic moose. Canoe Country Wildlife, a friendly field guide, introduces you to the wildlife you are most likely to see as you travel in the North Woods. It describes these creatures and their habits accurately so you'll know where and when to look for them. Detailed line drawings illustrate each animal clearly so you'll recognize what you're seeing. The book is filled with fascinating little-known facts: Did you know that wood frogs can freeze solid, only to live again? That loons can fly a hundred miles an hour? That chipmunks can carry seventy sunflower seeds in their cheeks? Canoe Country Wildlife includes handy checklists to help you keep track of the critters you encounter, a calendar for you to record the natural events you witness, and activities-one for each animal-that will help both adults and children learn by discovery. Carry Canoe Country Wildlife in your pack. Your trip will be more enjoyable and your memories will last forever. It's a great gift for anyone who loves the outdoors.

Humans and Hyenas examines the origins and development of the relationship between the two to present an accurate and realistic picture of the hyena and its interactions with people. The hyena is one of the most maligned, misrepresented and defamed mammals. It is still, despite decades of research-led knowledge, seen as a skulking, cowardly scavenger rather than a successful hunter with complex family and communal systems. Hyenas are portrayed as sex-shifting deviants, grave robbers and attackers of children in everything from African folk tales through Greek and Roman accounts of animal life, to Disney's The Lion King depicting hyenas with a lack of respect and disgust, despite the reality of their behaviour and social structures. Combining the personal, in-depth mining of scientific papers about the three main species and historical accounts, Keith Somerville delves into our relationship with hyenas from the earliest records from millennia ago, through the accounts by colonisers, to contemporary coexistence, where hyenas and humans are forced into ever closer proximity due to shrinking habitats and loss of prey. Are hyenas fated to retain their bad image or can their amazing ability to adapt to humans more successfully than lions and other predators lead to a shift in perspective? This book will be of great interest to students and scholars in the environmental sciences, conservation biology, and wildlife and conservation issues.

The perfect guide to the birds of Melanesia - New Caledonia, the Solomons, the Bismarcks and Vanuatu Written by leading ornithologist, Guy Dutson, this new Helm Field Guide covers the species-rich Melanesia region of the south-west Pacific, from New Caledonia and the Solomons through the Bismarcks to Vanuatu. This is an increasingly popular destination for tours and travellers, and one that has never before had complete field-guide coverage. For anyone travelling to this far-flung Pacific region, this book is an indispensable birdwatching guide. Species accounts include 650 superb illustrations allied with concise written information to aid quick and accurate identification. The cover star is the Kagu, the region's most iconic bird species and a highly sought-after endemic of New Caledonia.

This one-of-a-kind, lavishly illustrated anthology celebrates Audubon's connection to the sea through both his words and art. The American naturalist John James Audubon (1785-1851) is widely remembered for his iconic paintings of American birdlife. But as this anthology makes clear, Audubon was also a brilliant writer-and his keen gaze took in far more than creatures of the sky. Culled from his published and unpublished writings, Audubon at Sea explores Audubon's diverse observations of the ocean, the coast, and their human and animal inhabitants. With Audubon expert Christoph Irmscher and scholar of the sea Richard J. King as our guides, we set sail from the humid expanses of the American South to the shores of England and the chilly landscapes of the Canadian North. We learn not only about the diversity of sea life Audubon documented-birds, sharks, fish, and whales-but also about life aboard ship, travel in early America, Audubon's work habits, and the origins of beloved paintings. And as we face an unfathomable loss of seabirds today, Audubon's warnings about the fragility of birdlife in his time are prescient and newly relevant. Charting the course of Audubon's life and work, from his birth in Haiti to his death in Manhattan, Irmscher and King's wide-ranging introduction and carefully drawn commentary confront the challenges Audubon's legacy poses for us today, including his participation in American slavery and the thousands of birds he killed for his art. Beautifully illustrated, with a foreword by distinguished photographer and conservationist Subhankar Banerjee, and rounded out by hundreds of historical and ornithological notes, Audubon at Sea is the most comprehensively annotated collection of Audubon's work ever published.

The measurement of metabolic rates is central to important questions in many areas of physiological research. Unfortunately these measurements are anything but straightforward, with numerous pitfalls awaiting both the novice and even the experienced investigator. The original edition of this work, published in 2008, quickly became the principle "how to" manual for the field. It successfully de-mystified the topic, explaining every common variation of metabolic rate measurement. Background information on different analyzer and equipment types allowed users to choose the best instruments for their application. Respirometry equations, normally a topic of terror and confusion to researchers, were derived and described in sufficient detail to facilitate their selection and use. In this new edition, the content has been thoroughly updated and a decade of new literature incorporated. New chapters on room calorimetry, human metabolic measurement, and metabolic phenotyping have also been added. Measuring Metabolic Rates is aimed at experimental biologists, physiologists, and any professional scientist involved with metabolic measurement. This practical handbook will also be of relevance and use to graduate students.

Vocal signals are central for social communication across a wide range of vertebrate species; consequently, it is critical to understand the mechanisms underlying the learning, control, and evolution of vocal communication. Songbirds are at the forefront of research into such neural mechanisms. Indeed, songbirds provide a particularly important model system for this endeavor because of the many parallels between birdsong and human speech. Specifically, (1) songbirds are one of the few vertebrate species that, like humans, learn their vocal signals during development, (2) the processes of song learning and control in songbirds shares many parallels with the process of speech acquisition in humans, and (3) there exist deep homologies between the circuits for the learning, control, and processing of vocal signals across songbirds and humans. In addition, because of the diversity of songbirds and song learning strategies, songbirds offer a powerful model system to use the comparative method to reveal mechanisms underlying the evolution of song learning and production. Taken together, research on songbirds can not only reveal general principles underlying vertebrate vocal communication but can also provide insight into potential mechanisms underlying the learning, control, and processing of speech. This volume will cover a range of topics in birdsong spanning multiple level of analysis. Chapters will be authored by the world's leading experts on birdsong and will provide comprehensive reviews of the processes underlying song learning, of the neural circuits for song learning and control as well as for the extraction and processing of song information, of the selection pressures underlying song evolution, and of genetic and molecular mechanisms underlying the learning and evolution of song. The primary goals of this volume are to provide comprehensive, integrative, and comparative perspectives on birdsong and to underscore the importance of birdsong to biomedical research, evolutionary biology, and behavioral, systems, and computational neuroscience.The target audience of this volume will be graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and established academics and neuroscientists who are interested in mechanisms of communication from an integrative and comparative perspective. The volume is intended to function as a high-profile and contemporary reference on current work related to the learning, control, processing, and evolution of birdsong. This volume will have broad appeal to comparative and sensory biologists, neurophysiologists, and behavioral, systems, and cognitive neuroscientists who attend meetings such as the Society for Neuroscience, the International Society for Neuroethology, and the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology. Because of the relevance of birdsong research to understanding human speech, it is likely that the volume will also be of interest to speech researchers and clinicians researching communication, motor, and sensory processing disorders.

Summarizing a 15-year study of the seabird community on this small group of rocks about 20 miles offshore of San Francisco, this volume is both a detailed account of a seabird breeding ecology and a challenge to the prevailing conception of ecological stability as the typical seabird lifestyle. With

Weaning represents a significant challenge to every young piglet and the success of the process is crucial to the lifetime performance of the animal. The transition from a liquid diet to one that is usually based on dry food ingredients is accompanied by major changes in digestive physiology, immune status and social and physical environments. Successful weaning is, therefore, the key to effective growth, feed efficiency and the subsequent development of the pig. This book has been developed from a British Society of Animal Science occasional meeting, held in September 2000. "The Weaner Pig: Nutrition and Management" brings together all the scientific disciplines involved in the pre- and post-weaning biology of the piglet, concentrating on growth/development, nutrition, immunology/health, ethology and the physical environment.

This handbook is the first complete guide to the herpetofauna of northeast Africa, covering seven countries - Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan. It contains keys, comprehensive descriptions, maps of all species and photographs of virtually all species known from the region, including 114 species of amphibians and more than 460 species of reptiles. It is an essential tool for herpetologists and conservationists involved with any aspect of the African herpetofauna, and for museums and specialist libraries. Comprehensive and written by the world's leading experts in the field, this is the first book ever written on these animals.

Hierdie praktiese, eenvoudige gids tot van die voëls in Suider-Afrika wat die meeste gesien word, is gemik op beginner- en selfs juniorv oëlkykers. Dit is meer toeganklik as ’n volwaardige veldgids, en baie nuttig met eenvoudige teks, duidelike illustrasies en foto’s van 300 van die streeks se voëls wat die maklikste te sien is.

Vir elke voël bied die boek:

- Eenvoudige teks met onder meer ‘vind dit;’ ‘identifiseer dit’ en ‘verstaan dit’

- Illustrasies en foto’s in volkleur

- ’n Verspreidingskaart

- Die gewone Afrikaanse naam, wetenskaplike naam en gewone name in Engels en ander Afrika-tale

- Gemiddelde grootte en besonderhede oor die nes

- Omraamde teks met bykomende inligting vir sommige voëls.

Hierdie kleurryke, tersaaklike boek met bondige aanwysings vir identifisering behoort groot byval te vind by Suider-Afrikaanse voëlkykers en buitelewe-entoesiaste.

Discover the healing power of nature through the stories of these characterful birds, whose song is never far away . . . LONGLISTED FOR THE 2022 WAINWRIGHT PRIZE 'A lyrical and life-affirming book that teaches us as much about birds as it does ourselves - a balm for the soul' Raynor Winn, author of The Salt Path 'Totally absorbing and completely engaging on so many levels . . . Charlie has opened my eyes to the constant joy of the sights and sounds of the birds that surround us. It is a book that really will save lives' Dr Richard Shepherd, author of Unnatural Causes _________ After the tragic loss of his mother, Charlie Corbett felt trapped by his pain. Having lost all hope and perspective he took to the countryside in search of solace. There, he heard the soaring, cascading song of the skylark - a sound that pulled him from the depths of despair and into the calm of the natural world. Weaving his journey through grief with a remarkable portrait of the birds living right on our doorstep, 12 Birds to Save Your Life is an invitation to stop, step outside, and listen. By following Charlie's path, opening your eyes and ears to what has been there all along, you will discover how nature can set you free.

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.

A remarkable achievement that took over 30 years to construct, Keys for Identifying Mexican Mammals is the only complete identification guide to Mexico's mammalian fauna. Fully updated and revised, this bestselling book follows a bilingual arrangement, with identical information presented in Spanish and English on facing pages. The dichotomous presentation is both easy to follow and flawlessly compiled, including updated and expanded material that surpasses any previously available resource. Hundreds of diagnostic images are dispersed throughout the book, many showing minute details that differentiate one species from another, and introductory materials carefully explain the use of diagnostic features. The heart of the book, though, is the keys themselves, which cover every taxa-from artiodactyls and carnivores to primates and rodents-while allowing confident identification at the species level for both field and museum use. The book closes with appendices that cover preparation of specimens, a glossary, and a bibliography. Anyone with an interest in the mammalian fauna of Mexico, or mammals in general, will find this one-of-a-kind book an indispensable reference to Mexico's rich diversity of wildlife.

A photographic celebration of the return of otters to our rivers and freshwater wetlands after a drastic decline. Ripples of excitement are spreading through Europe's rivers and wetlands. A generation ago, otter watching was a wildlife highlight restricted to remote coastal areas - otter populations had been decimated over the previous century by pesticide poisoning and habitat disturbance. Now we are seeing the positive effect of determined conservation efforts over recent decades. As our waterways improve, otters are returning and spreading throughout their former habitats. One of the UK's leading natural history photographers, Laurie Campbell got to know otters while working in Scotland's Highlands and Islands, but he had never seen these elusive predators on his home beat. Then, in the early 1990s, he was delighted to find otters back on the Tweed and its tributaries, a river system he has lived close to for most of his life. The discovery launched him on a quest to create a photographic account of their lives on his home river. More than two decades later, otter numbers continue to increase, and new generations of otters have become more confident around people, sometimes appearing in broad daylight and in town centres. Laurie continues his long-standing study, still photographing the otters through the changing seasons - always with an eye on the bigger picture of the river itself and the plants and animals that share the otters' habitat. Wildlife journalist and writer Anna Levin accompanies Laurie to the riverbank and learns of his working philosophy and fieldcraft. Together they weave a wealth of information into the stories that the pictures tell. While extracts from Anna's notebooks offer a vivid glimpse of the photographer at work and the otters that enchant them both.

Marine Mammal Ecotoxicology: Impacts of Multiple Stressors on Population Health provides tactics on how to develop a comprehensive methodology for the study of existing threats to marine mammals. By presenting a conservation-biology approach and new and emerging technologies, this work helps provide crucial knowledge on the status of marine mammal populations that not only helps readers understand the ecosystem's health, but also instigate mitigation measures. This volume provides information that helps investigators unravel the relationships between exposure to environmental stressors (e.g., climate change, pollutants, marine litter, pathogens and biotoxins) and a range of endpoints in marine mammal species. The application of robust examination procedures and biochemical, immunological, and molecular techniques, combined with pathological examination and feeding ecology, has led to the development of health assessment methods at the individual and population levels in wild marine mammals.

The Amazon and Orinoco basins in northern South America are home to the highest concentration of freshwater fish species on earth, with more than 3,000 species allotted to 564 genera. Amazonian fishes include piranhas, electric eels, freshwater stingrays, a myriad of beautiful small-bodied tetras and catfishes, and the largest scaled freshwater fish in the world, the pirarucu. Field Guide to the Fishes of the Amazon, Orinoco, and Guianas provides descriptions and identification keys for all the known genera of fishes that inhabit Greater Amazonia, a vast and still mostly remote region of tropical rainforests, seasonally flooded savannas, and meandering lowland rivers. The guide's contributors include more than fifty expert scientists. They summarize the current state of knowledge on the taxonomy, species richness, and ecology of these fish groups, and provide references to relevant literature for species-level identifications. This richly illustrated guide contains 700 detailed drawings, 190 color photos, and 500 distribution maps, which cover all genera. An extensive and illustrated glossary helps readers with the identification keys. The first complete overview of the fish diversity in the Amazon, Orinoco, and Guianas, this comprehensive guide is essential for anyone interested in the freshwater life inhabiting this part of the world. * First complete overview of the fish diversity in the Amazon and Orinoco basins* Contributors include more than fifty experts* Identification keys and distribution maps for all genera*190 stunning color photos *700 detailed line drawings* Extensive and illustrated glossary

Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species, published in 2014, was the first catalogue of its kind and covered all living and fossil snakes described between 1758 and 2012. This new volume will be a supplement to this important herpetological reference and will include new published data on snakes named and recognized since 2012. Key Features Supplements and updates Wallach et al. - Snakes of the World - the only work to cover all living snakes in the world. Includes updates for fossil snakes named since the publication of Wallach et al. Summarizes the systematic snake literature published since the appearance of Wallach et al. Genera and species are listed alphabetically for ease of reference. Related Titles Wallach, V., K. L. Williams, and J. Boundy. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species (ISBN 978-1-138-03400-6) Aldridge, R. D. and D. M. Sever, eds. Reproductive Biology and Phylogeny of Snakes (ISBN 978-1-57808-701-3) Caldwell, M. W. The Origin of Snakes: Morphology and the Fossil Record (ISBN 978-1-4822-5134-0)

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.

Chameleons are fascinating creatures: they almost always evoke in people a strong response, be it delight, wonder or fear.

Chameleons of Southern Africa explores this interesting group of lizards and discusses their strange and unusual, sometimes unnerving, characteristics. It presents an overview of all types of chameleons (of which there are up to 160 species in total, worldwide), their history, geographic distribution (restricted mainly to Madagascar and Africa), reproduction, behaviour and their relationships to each other.

It also contains a clear identification guide to all southern African species - some 25 have been identified to date - together with distribution maps and colourful photographs of their many features and guises. For interested students, gardeners, naturalists and even just the curious, Chameleons of Southern Africa is an essential guide to these intriguing lizards.

Celebrate the lives of common loons with this collection of photographs and information by award-winning author and wildlife photographer Stan Tekiela. Their stunning beauty inspires us. Their haunting calls fill us with nostalgia. Loons remind us of joyful days at the lake, of time spent with family. Their arrival each spring signals the end of winter and that warmer days are ahead. Award-winning author, naturalist, and wildlife photographer Stan Tekiela believes that loons are the most fascinating of birds. He spent years studying loons, noting their behaviors and capturing them in photographs. Stan's research spanned major events such as migration and courtship, as well as everyday activities including feeding and sleeping. The result is a striking portrayal of these amazing birds in Loons. Stan's extraordinary photographs depict the water birds in a new, unique fashion. His fascinating text, drawn from detailed research and personal observations, provides information about every aspect of the loons' lives. Presented with headings and short paragraphs, the coffee-table book is pleasurable to browse and easy to read. "They're one of my favorite birds because they're so beautiful," says Stan. "Their calls can send shivers down my spine, and they have incredible parenting skills." Unmatched by any other book on the market, Loons is a must-have for bird watchers, water bird enthusiasts, and nature lovers.

Using R for Modelling and Quantitative Methods in Fisheries has evolved and been adapted from an earlier book by the same author and provides a detailed introduction to analytical methods commonly used by fishery scientists, ecologists, and advanced students using the open-source software R as a programming tool. Some knowledge of R is assumed, as this is a book about using R, but an introduction to the development and working of functions, and how one can explore the contents of R functions and packages, is provided. The example analyses proceed step-by-step using code listed in the book and from the book's companion R package, MQMF, available from GitHub and the standard archive, CRAN. The examples are designed to be simple to modify so the reader can quickly adapt the methods described to use with their own data. A primary aim of the book is to be a useful resource to natural resource practitioners and students. Featured Chapters: Model Parameter Estimation provides a detailed explanation of the requirements and steps involved in fitting models to data, using R and, mainly, maximum likelihood methods. On Uncertainty uses R to implement bootstrapping, likelihood profiles, asymptotic errors, and Bayesian posteriors to characterize any uncertainty in an analysis. The use of the Monte Carlo Markov Chain methodology is examined in some detail. Surplus Production Models applies all the methods examined in the earlier parts of the book to conducting a stock assessment. This included fitting alternative models to the available data, characterizing the uncertainty in different ways, and projecting the optimum models forward in time as the basis for providing useful management advice.