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Books > Sport & Leisure > Natural history, country life & pets > Wild animals
Pursuing a dream instilled by early David Attenborough television adventures, a young man from the industrial northwest of England is advised at school to become a veterinary surgeon as a first step towards a career working with wild animals in Africa.
His misgivings about the values and justification of domestic veterinary practice are contrasted with a passion for wilderness and wildlife conservation. Early experiences in the vivid Uganda of Idi Amin are juxtaposed with life in a grey Pennines veterinary practice.
Eventually arriving as a veterinary officer in newly independent Botswana he finds adventure with wild animals as a veterinarian and later as an ecologist, survey pilot, game capture operator and even a safari hunter, becoming a passionate conservationist... all while starting the first veterinary practice in the country.
Austere and immense, the Arctic region is a fascinating topic for
intrepid travelers and stay at home students alike. This new guide
in the Pocket Naturalist series covers the variety of flora and
fauna that have adapted to this incredible, remote environment with
trademark beauty and accuracy.
A truly unique ecosystem, the Arctic remains one of the few areas
on Earth with very little human habitation. Many species truly run
free in the Arctic and there is a wide variety of vegetation
including shrubs, grasses, mosses, sedges and lichens. These plants
provide food and cover for a variety of small animals including
lemmings, voles and hares which are a critical food source for
larger mammals including the Arctic fox. Large mammals unique to
the Arctic include the polar bear, musk ox, walrus, caribou
(reindeer), bowhead whale and bearded seal.
Tourism to this region has experienced incredible growth in the
last decade with more and more people hoping to experience a region
only visited by explorers previously. This new Pocket Naturalist
Guide will be a must-have for anyone planning to visit the region
or anyone hoping to visit in the future.
Most livestock in the United States currently live in cramped and
unhealthy confinement, have few stable social relationships with
humans or others of their species, and finish their lives by being
transported and killed under stressful conditions. In Livestock,
Erin McKenna allows us to see this situation and presents
alternatives. She interweaves stories from visits to farms,
interviews with producers and activists, and other rich material
about the current condition of livestock. In addition, she mixes
her account with pragmatist and ecofeminist theorizing about
animals, drawing in particular on John Dewey's account of
evolutionary history, and provides substantial historical
background about individual species and about human-animal
relations. This deeply informative text reveals that the animals we
commonly see as livestock have rich evolutionary histories,
species-specific behaviors, breed tendencies, and individual
variation, just as those we respect in companion animals such as
dogs, cats, and horses. To restore a similar level of respect for
livestock, McKenna examines ways we can balance the needs of our
livestock animals with the environmental and social impacts of
raising them, and she investigates new possibilities for humans to
be in relationships with other animals. This book thus offers us a
picture of healthier, more respectful relationships with livestock.
Hal Markowitz has been an internationally popular lecturer and
consultant on environmental enrichment for four decades. Enriching
Animal Lives is chock full of recipes for enriching lives of a wide
range of animals along with a generous sprinkling of personal
experiences. This book will be of interest to those working in
zoos, aquariums, wild animal parks, and animal rehabilitation
facilities. It will also be of interest to all animal lovers,
especially those with companion animals and scientists conducting
research with captive animals. A detailed discussion concerning
what represents meaningful environmental enrichment and the need to
empower animals is provided in early chapters. The final chapter is
a brief autobiographical description of events that led the author
to pursue a career in science and teaching, and concludes with why
that has been so enriching for him.
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