From prairies to peak tops, Colorado attracts an intriguing mix of birds, from Mountain Plovers and Rosy-Finches to Lazuli Buntings and Black Swifts. Birders from all over the country visit the state to see the vast variety of western and prairie specialties. "Birding Colorado" guides you to the best birding sites at treeless prairies in Pawnee National Grassland; canyons, mesas, and mountains in four national parks and three national monuments; marshes, ponds, and streams in five national wildlife refuges; and mountain, mesa, and prairie highways and byways. Organized by region, this guide lists the likely birds at each site and the status and distribution of all species recorded in the state. For more than twenty-five years, FalconGuides(R) have set the standard for outdoor guidebooks. Written by top experts, each guide invites you to experience the adventure and beauty of the outdoors. Inside you'll find: - Where and when to go, how to get there, and likely birds - A description of each site, with information about key species - Where to find migrating eastern species, water birds, and such specialties as
Pygmy Nuthatch, Greater Roadrunner, and American Three-Toed Woodpecker - Details on the seasonal distributions of 482 bird species--where they occur,
their abundances there, and the best times to see them

‘Steve Brusatte, the author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, brings mammals out from the shadow of their more showy predecessors in a beautifully written book that . . . makes the case for them as creatures who are just as engaging as dinosaurs.’ – The Sunday Times, ‘Best Books For Summer’ 'In this terrific new book, Steve Brusatte . . . brings well-known extinct species, the sabre-toothed tigers and the woolly mammoths, thrillingly back to life' – The Times The passing of the age of the dinosaurs allowed mammals to become ascendant. But mammals have a much deeper history. They – or, more precisely, we – originated around the same time as the dinosaurs, over 200 million years ago; mammal roots lie even further back, some 325 million years. Over these immense stretches of geological time, mammals developed their trademark features: hair, keen senses of smell and hearing, big brains and sharp intelligence, fast growth and warm-blooded metabolism, a distinctive line-up of teeth (canines, incisors, premolars, molars), mammary glands that mothers use to nourish their babies with milk, qualities that have underlain their success story. Out of this long and rich evolutionary history came the mammals of today, including our own species and our closest cousins. But today’s 6,000 mammal species - the egg-laying monotremes including the platypus, marsupials such as kangaroos and koalas that raise their tiny babies in pouches, and placentals like us, who give birth to well-developed young – are simply the few survivors of a once verdant family tree, which has been pruned both by time and mass extinctions. In The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, palaeontologist Steve Brusatte weaves together the history and evolution of our mammal forebears with stories of the scientists whose fieldwork and discoveries underlie our knowledge, both of iconic mammals like the mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers of which we have all heard, and of fascinating species that few of us are aware of. For what we see today is but a very limited range of the mammals that have existed; in this fascinating and ground-breaking book, Steve Brusatte tells their – and our – story.

The text is complimented by new fine digital drawings and cartoons by Guy Troughton. This edition also features a gallery of extraordinary images by renowned wildlife photographer Frank Greenaway.

North Carolina has one of the richest arrays of birdlife in North America-460 species, including two of the rarest species in the Southeast: the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and the Wood Stork.
Birding North Carolina guides you to forty-four of the best birding locations across the state. Organized by region, this useful and comprehensive guide includes everything you need for a rewarding bird-watching experience.
Look inside to find:
Accurate bird-finding information for the entire state-from the Mountains to the Piedmont to the Coastal Plain
Where to find migrating raptors, a huge assortment of shorebirds and nesting waterbirds, plus many Southern specialties such as Swainson's Warbler, the
reclusive Black Rail, and the fire-dependent Bachman's Sparrow
Descriptions of each site, with information about key species
Where and when to go, how to get there, and what you'll see
Details on the seasonal distributions of 122 North Carolina bird specialties-
where they occur, their abundances there, and the best times to see them

Inside you will find that I have tried to create a guide for the general dog owner. It is not intended to create a show dog or an award-winning dog, but to give you the groundwork, if that is your desire. This book is intended to help in choosing your dog, understanding your dog, training your dog in basic obedience, and accomplishing some of the general skills that are needed to be a successful dog owner. Dogs are living, loving creatures that make every effort to understand humans and try to please us by fitting into our pack. If you want the bond often seen with some other dog owners, you have to make an effort to understand the dog.

Manatees are among nature's strangest-looking, gentlest animals. They're among America's most endangered mammals and were the basis for ancient tales of mermaids, legendary creatures that were half-fish and half-human.

Birds are intelligent, sociable creatures that exhibit a wide array of behaviours - from mobbing and mimicking to mating and joint nesting. Why do they behave as they do? Bringing to light the remarkable actions of birds through examples from species around the world, How To Read a Bird presents engaging vignettes about the private lives of birds, all explained in an evolutionary context. Richly illustrated, this book explores the increasing focus on how individual birds differ in personality and how big data and citizen scientists are helping to add to what we know about them.

In this text, ornithologist John Terres explains the process by which eagles, hawks, hummingbirds, and other birds fly, soar and hover.

Collected here in this omnibus edition are Henry David Thoreau's most important works including A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers; The Selected Essays of Henry David Thoreau, including Civil Disobedience; and of course, Walden. A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers is both a remembrance of an intensely spiritual moment in Henry David Thoreau's life and a memoriam to his older brother who accompanied him on the trip shortly before his death. Full of fascinating literary musings and philosophical speculations, this book is a true precursor to Walden. The Selected Essays contains nineteen essays (including Civil Disobedience). Thoreau was one of America's best known and most influential writers. His work has helped shape the American Discourse and had a lasting effect on the environmental movement in America. Walden is one of the best-known non-fiction books ever written by an American. It details Thoreau's sojourn in a cabin near Walden Pond, amidst woodland owned by his friend and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson. Walden was written with expressed seasonal divisions. Thoreau hoped to isolate himself from society in order to gain a more objective understanding of it. Simplicity and self-reliance were Thoreau's other goals, and the whole project was inspired by Transcendentalist philosophy. This book is full of fascinating musings and reflections. As pertinent and relevant today as it was when it was first written.

In this book, we document and evaluate the recovery of gray wolves (Canis lupus) in the Great Lakes region of the United States. The Great Lakes region is unique in that it was the only portion of the lower 48 states where wolves were never c- pletely extirpated. This region also contains the area where many of the first m- ern concepts of wolf conservation and research where developed. Early proponents of wolf conservation such as Aldo Leopold, Sigurd Olson, and Durward Allen lived and worked in the region. The longest ongoing research on wolf-prey relations (see Vucetich and Peterson, Chap. 3) and the first use of radio telemetry for studying wolves (see Mech, Chap. 2) occurred in the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes region is the first place in the United States where "Endangered" wolf populations recovered. All three states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan) developed ecologically and socially sound wolf conservation plans, and the federal government delisted the population of wolves in these states from the United States list of endangered and threatened species on March 12, 2007 (see Refsnider, Chap. 21). Wolf management reverted to the individual states at that time. Although this delisting has since been challenged, we believe that biological recovery of wolves has occurred and anticipate the delisting will be restored. This will be the first case of wolf conservation reverting from the federal government to the state conser- tion agencies in the United States.

"This is, indeed, an "Alaskan adventure." For two years this resourceful couple experienced intense and dangerous situations, yet they persevered and learned a tremendous amount about sea otters."
-Ancel M. Johnson, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Sea Otter Biologist, retired

A white-headed male sea otter paddles on his back, patrolling his territory, while he rubs his round fuzzy face with his dexterous forepaws. Suddenly, he notices a young couple on shore and pops straight up in the water to have a better look. As two people stare back at him through a high-powered telescope, these three have one thing in common-curiosity.

"The Otter Spotters" chronicles the incredible journey of Minnesotans Dave and Judy Garshelis, who spent over a year in the wilderness of Prince William Sound, Alaska, studying sea otters. While working from remote field locations and traveling by open skiff, they faced relentless rain, rough seas, bears, mechanical failures, and perilous mishaps, all while completing one of the most comprehensive studies of this fascinating species. This captivating story includes unforgettable adventures, as well as detailed documentation of the otters' social relationships, feeding, activity patterns, and breeding behaviors. Here is a rare insider's view of the true essence of wildlife research: from the day-to-day drudgery of checking capture nets at 4:00 AM to evening brainstorming sessions under the warm glow of a Coleman lantern, interspersed with the occasional "Eureka " moments that make it all worthwhile.

It seems obvious that animals have emotions. Dogs bark with excitement when their masters return home, snarl aggressively at the approach of a stranger, and cower with anxiety at the vet's office. Our ordinary ways of talking about animals suggest that animals and humans are emotional kin.
In this exploration of our emotional kinship with animals, philosopher B. A. Dixon invites the reader to consider what is philosophically controversial about the idea that animals have emotions. Dixon guides the reader through a tangle of philosophical issues related to the concept of emotion and the various ways in which emotions are morally significant. She demonstrates that claims about animal emotion often stand in for a more fundamental property it is believed that animals and humans share--namely morality.
Do some animals have "morally laden" emotions? Dixon examines various arguments in favor of this idea and finds them lacking. Her close analysis elucidates the concept of emotional kinship, the role of emotions as virtues, Darwin's principle about evolutionary continuity, the nature of primate empathy, the possibility of morally appraising children and animals, and how the animal narrative should be used as a methodology for thinking about the animal mind. Each chapter begins with an animal story or anecdote to illustrate the theme to be covered.
Dixon concludes that we are unwarranted in attributing to animals morally laden emotions.

This single volume describes the animals that are most injurious and costly to humans, examining the important roles of these pests throughout history and the implications of the never-ending wars we wage against the natural world. From mosquitoes to nematodes to mice, there are a multitude of organisms and animals that pose major health risks, cause economic burdens, and even threaten famine conditions for human civilization. Addressing these problems is often extremely costly and only partially effective. Pests: A Guide to the World's Most Maligned, Yet Misunderstood Creatures presents an overview of the animals that have the greatest impact on our lives, from the creatures that eat our crops through the ones that invade our homes and those that transmit diseases. Each entry provides a brief history of our interactions with the specific pest, methods of management or eradication for the pest being discussed, and an extensive Further Reading list that includes resources on both the biology of the pest and methods of control. The author explains the complexity of the worldwide pest problem and demonstrates how some of these issues are a result of human over-population and shortsightedness, inviting readers to consider our place in nature and how other animals have adapted to and benefited from the growing human population. Includes more than 60 photographs of the pests in question as well as illustrations that highlight topics discussed throughout the book Contains more than 50 sidebars that provide greater detail and showcase the role pests play in history and current events to promote critical thinking A substantial bibliography provides readers with starting points for further reading A glossary defines specialist terminology