Wild science! Eye-opening books about animals and nature
The natural world and the animals who live within it are endlessly fascinating. There's so much still to be explored and discovered in nature and wildlife. The books on this list are but a small sampling of the incredible world that exists just outside our doors.
These books also all look at humanity and what we can learn about ourselves through our connection (or sometimes disconnection) to nature and wildlife. From the tiniest snail to the most ferocious wild predator, every creature and every part of nature can teach us something new not just about the natural world but also about ourselves.
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The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy — and Why They Matter
Award-winning scientist Marc Bekoff has spent years studying social communication in different animal species, and through his studies, he has learned about the rich emotional lives of animals. This book is a look at the emotional lives of many species of animals through extraordinarily touching stories and groundbreaking scientific research.
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What the Robin Knows: How Birds Reveal the Secrets of the Natural World
Author Jon Young is a lifelong birder, naturalist, and tracker who has learned to appreciate the value of listening to birds. In this book, Young shares with readers what can be learned about nature just by listening to birds. The understanding of bird language has long been a practice of Indigenous people around the world, and What the Robin Knows incorporates Indigenous knowledge with the latest science to guide readers towards a deeper understanding of birds and nature.
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Predators I Have Known
If you’re looking for a book about nature and animals that will give you a huge rush of adrenaline, check out science-fiction writer Alan Dean Foster’s memoir. Over the last forty years, the author has traveled the world to come face-to-face with some of nature’s most fearsome creatures. From Bengal tigers in India to great white sharks in Australia, this thrilling look at the dangerous side of nature has it all.
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Deep Blue Home: An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean
Author Julia Whitty has spent thirty years as a documentary filmmaker and diver, learning about ocean life from her experiences and from scientists who have dedicated their lives to studying every aspect of the ocean’s ecosystem. This book reads as an exploration and celebration of the ocean and the creatures who call the ocean home.
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The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man's Love Affair with Nature
In his memoir, J. Drew Lanham, a Professor of Wildlife Ecology at Clemson University, writes about the ways his love for nature and his racial identity intersect. Through lyrical prose, Lanham looks at what it means to be a Black naturalist in a field of study that is predominantly white, and how Black people have a complicated and deep connection to the land and to nature.
A Book of Bees
Author Sue Hubbell tends over three hundred beehives on her small Missouri farm. This book is a look into life tending bees on the farm, and it’s an ode to a simple life in service of nature. A Book of Bees is a rare mixture of genres. It’s all at once a memoir, a beekeeping manual, and a nature journal.
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The Elements We Live By
Some elements get all the attention: glittering gold, radioactive uranium—materials we call “precious” because they are so rare. But what could be more precious than the building blocks of life—from the oxygen in our air to the carbon in all living things? In The Elements We Live By, physicist and award-winning author Anja Røyne reminds us that we’d be lost without the quiet heroes of the periodic table.
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Fastest Things on Wings: Rescuing Hummingbirds in Hollywood
This book follows hummingbird rehabilitator Terry Masear and two injured birds she worked with, Gabriel and Pepper. During their time together, Pepper and Gabriel formed a special bond and, together, with Terry’s help, learned to fly again. Woven throughout Gabriel and Pepper’s stories are those of other colorful birds in a narrative filled with the science and magic surrounding these fascinating creatures.
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Photo by Wynand Uys on Unsplash
