Smell is our most seductive and provocative sense, invading every domain of our lives. We can identify our relatives, detect the availability of a potential mate, sniff out danger, and distinguish between good and bad food just with our noses. In this surprising and delightful book, Lyall Watson rescues our most unappreciated sense from obscurity. He brings to light new evidence concerning Jacobson's Organ: an anatomical feature discovered high in the nose in 1811 and dismissed for centuries as a vestigial ghost. Yet recent research has shown Jacobson's Organ to be an incredibly influential pheromonal mechanism that feeds the area of the brain affecting our awareness, emotional states, and sexual behavior. Following the seven classes of smell devised by the pioneering botanist Carolus Linnaeus in his Odores Medicamentorum, Watson examines the roles of smell and pheromones in humans, plants, and animals. He reveals the curious ways in which trees communicate their distress, the olfactory abilities of feral children, the bond we have with our offspring, the psychosexual effects of perfume, and the link between smell and memory formation. Jacobson's Organ unlocks the door to the strange world of this mysterious sense.

The whole hog is just that, an attempt to encompass everything that is known about all the pigs of the world. In recounting the author's close encounters with wild pigs on three continents, the author explores how profoundly pigs have succeeded, from the Gadarene Swine to Miss Piggy, in capturing our imagination. Also makes some surprising revelations. Pigs may lack big brains and grasping hands but they nevertheless manipulate their environment in ways that demonstrate learning, memory, abstract thought, a capacity for pleasure and a real aptitude for reason. Pigs have been seriously neglected and consequently suffer from an unjustified bad press, but in truth, pigs and people have a lot in common. We are both the recently domesticated result of a long tradition of gregarious, playful, tuneful, caring and highly resourceful beings. And all that prevents us from admitting pigs to the society of creatures who understand each other, comprehend complex relationships, distinguish between self and non-self, and regularly respond to situations in a conceptual way, is that those we most often see are confined to tiny sties. The whole hog is an eye-opening new look at pigs as they really are, and an antidote to centuries of superstition and taboo. In fact it is nothing less than a clarion call for an honest reassessment of hoggish behaviour, and a celebration of the fascinating true nature of pigs.

A scientific safari and personal memoir celebrating the enigmatic dignity of the world's largest land animal.

As a child in South Africa, spending summers exploring the wild with his boyhood friends, Lyall Watson came face to face with his first elephant. This "entertaining and enchanting" work (Washington Post Book World) chronicles how Watson's fascination grew into a lifelong quest to understand the nature and behavior of this impressive creature.

From that moment on, Watson's fascination grew into a lifelong obsession with understanding the nature and behavior of this impressive creature. Around the world, the elephant—at once a symbol of spiritual power and physical endurance—has been worshipped as a god and hunted for sport.

"Watson's insights and speculations are dazzling, but what lends them power is his extraordinary knowledge of evolutionary biology and animal behavior, ethnography and South African history" (Wade Davis, National Geographic Society). "Like a shaman, Watson conjures up the spirit of the massive beast" (Publishers Weekly), documents the animal's wide-ranging capabilities to remember and to mourn, and reminds us of its rich mythic origins, its evolution, and its devastation in recent history. Part meditation on an elusive animal, part evocation of the power of place, Elephantoms presents an alluring mix of the mysteries of nature and the wonders of childhood. Line drawings.

"This compelling book is filled with warmth, wisdom and depth.... I could not imagine a better introduction to these mysterious and wondrous creatures, than this fine and loving book."—Jeffrey Masson, author of When Elephants Weep

"An absorbing, beautifully written memoir focusing on one of the most amazing animals that has ever lived."—Desmond Morris, author of The Naked Ape

"Elephantoms is above all a celebration of scientific and intuitive wonder, a work of mystery and delight."—Wade Davis, author of One River

"Much more evocatively than any zoologist has ever managed, Watson makes the elephant a force of nature..."—Kirkus Reviews

"[R]econnects us to something old and fundamental inside ourselves: a wordless brotherhood with the nonhuman, a lost intuitive understanding."—National Geographic Adventure

"[P]rovides a wonderful overview of creatures that remember, mourn, and even draw pictures."—Science News

"Watson is at his peak literary style....impressive."—Midwest Book Review, B. A. Brittingham

"Readers need not share Watson's level of fascination to find this book interesting....entertaining and enchanting."—Washington Post, Stephen Mihm

At a time when violence threatens to become epidemic and genocide takes the place of diplomacy in many regions of the world, it is no longer enough to simply dismiss such dark behavior as "human nature." People need to know why such atrocities and horrors take place, and the usual moral, religious, political and philosophical explanations have proved inadequate.

With Dark Nature, world naturalist Lyall Watson presents a scientific examination of evil. Drawing on the latest insights of genetics, evolutionary ethology, anthropology and psychology, he takes the discussion of evil out of the realm of monsters and demons to reveal it for what it truly is: A biological reality that may be terrifying but can be controlled. Groundbreaking, fascinating and eminently readable, Dark Nature is a vital and timely antidote to modern despair.

In his thought-provoking new book, Watson takes a serious look at the world of the supernatural and shows that many paranormal events can be explained by what is already known about the natural world.