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Books > Sport & Leisure > Natural history, country life & pets > Wild animals
A transporting exploration of the deep sea, and how our planet’s strangest, most ancient and astonishing creatures have urgent relevance to cutting-edge science today.
Hundred-year-old giant clams, coral kingdoms the size and shape of cities, and jellyfish that glow in the dark: ocean invertebrates are among the oldest and most diverse organisms on Earth, seeming to bend the rules of land-based biology. Although sometimes unseen in the deep, these incredible spineless creatures contain 600 million years of adaptation to problems of disease, energy consumption, nutrition, and defence.
Marine ecologist Dr Drew Harvell takes us diving from Hawaii to the Salish Sea, from the Caribbean to Indonesia, to uncover the incredible underwater ‘superpowers’ of spineless creatures: we meet corals many times stronger than steel or concrete, sponges who create potent chemical compounds to fight off disease, and sea stars who garden the coastlines, keeping all the other nearby species in perfect balance. As our planet changes fast, the biomedical, engineering and energy innovations of these wondrous creatures hold ever more important secrets to our own survival.
The Ocean’s Menagerie is a tale of biological marvels, a story of a woman’s passionate connection to an adventurous career in science and a call to arms to protect the world’s most ancient ecosystems.
This book is "co-authored" by eighteen dogs, all of whom have lived
with the author at one time or another. The dogs lend a unique
perspective into their behaviors, adventures, illnesses, accidents
and humorus episodes. Animal lovers will appreciate their mindset.
This version of the book is fully illustrated and contains over a
hundred photographs in black & white. Moths of the Limberlost
is a fascinating book written by the well-known American novelist
and photographer Gene Stratton-Porter. It paints a vibrant picture
of her delight in the moths as she loves, cares for, breeds and
studies the creatures. The first chapter is an introduction and the
second is an overview of the natural history of moths, however, it
is only marginally technical and she interweaves the chapter with
her own experiences. In the final thirteen chapters she focuses on
one moth per chapter, the moths that have most caught her interest.
It is partly an autobiography as she describes her experiences from
childhood - her delights and joys at successfully breeding them or
learning something new about them and her sadness when they die or
don't breed. It describes her family's help in this passion and the
friends she gained through the pursuit. It is a beautiful window
into the person she was and her love of nature.
A JIGSAW WITH A TWIST - No two shapes are the same, and each piece
is a fish (or other sea creature, plus one that's a diver! See if
you can spot it!) HOURS OF MADDENING FUN Have you got what it takes
to assemble all 299 fish into a perfect puzzle? CHARMING
ILLUSTRATIONS by Lea Maupetit STURDY & ATTRACTIVE BOX perfect
for gifting and storage Have you got what it takes to corral all
299 sea creatures into a perfect puzzle? In this cunning cluster
puzzle, there are no regular jigsaw shapes: each piece takes the
outline of the creature itself. And there are 299 of them! Can you
fit them all together?
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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