From eminent biologists like Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin to famous authors such as Rudyard Kipling in his Just So Stories, many people have asked, "Why do zebras have stripes?" There are many explanations, but until now hardly any have been seriously addressed or even tested. In Zebra Stripes, Tim Caro takes readers through a decade of painstaking fieldwork examining the significance of black-and-white striping and, after systematically dismissing every hypot...

The vast scope of conservation problems has forced biologists and managers to rely on "surrogate" species to serve as shortcuts to guide their decision making. These species-known by a host of different terms, including indicator, umbrella, and flagship species-act as proxies to represent larger conservation issues, such as the location of biodiversity hotspots or general ecosystem health.Synthesizing an immense body of literature, conservation biologist and field researcher Tim Ca...

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA “thrilling” (The New York Times), “dazzling” (The Wall Street Journal) tour of the radically different ways that animals perceive the world that will fill you with wonder and forever alter your perspective, by Pulitzer Prize–winning science journalist Ed Yong“One of this year’s finest works of narrative nonfiction.”—Oprah DailyONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Wall Street Journal, The New ...

**“Lovely, celebratory. For all the belittling of ‘bird brains,’ [Ackerman] shows them to be uniquely impressive machines . . .” —New York Times Book Review“A lyrical testimony to the wonders of avian intelligence.” —Scientific AmericanAn award-winning science writer tours the globe to reveal what makes birds capable of such extraordinary feats of mental prowess**Birds are astonishingly intelligent creatures. According to revolutionary new research...

What is it like to be a swift, flying at over one hundred kilometres an hour? Or a kiwi, plodding flightlessly among the humid undergrowth in the pitch dark of a New Zealand night? And what is going on inside the head of a nightingale as it sings, and how does its brain improvise?Bird Sense addresses questions like these and many more, by describing the senses of birds that enable them to interpret their environment and to interact with each other. Our affinity for birds i...

In her comprehensive and carefully crafted book, Gisela Kaplan demonstrates how intelligent and emotional Australian birds can be. She describes complex behaviours such as grieving, deception, problem solving and the use of tools. Many Australian birds cooperate and defend each other, and exceptional ones go fishing by throwing breadcrumbs in the water, extract poisonous parts from prey and use tools to crack open eggshells and mussels. The author brings together evidence of many such cogniti...

An entrancing, informative book filled with answers to many of the common questions we ask about birds and their lives.For thousands of years birds have fascinated us. We've observed what they do - their behaviours, their characteristics, their survival skills, the food they eat and their habitats - and wondered why they do it.Why Do Birds Do That? answers many of these often-asked questions, such as: Why do birds sing in the mornings? Why are some...

"Bats Sing, Mice Giggle" tracks many years of research by hundreds of scientists that reveals how wild animals, as well as pets, have inner, secret lives of which until recently - although many animal lovers will have instinctively believed it - we have had little proof. The authors show how animal 'friends' stay in touch, and how they warn and help each other in times of danger; how some animals problem-solve as or in some instances even more effectively than humans - and how they regulat...

Songs, barks, roars, hoots, squeals, and growls: exploring the mysteries of how animals communicate by soundWhat is the meaning of a bird’s song, a baboon’s bark, an owl’s hoot, or a dolphin’s clicks? In The Voices of Nature, Nicolas Mathevon explores the mysteries of animal sound. Putting readers in the middle of animal soundscapes that range from the steamy heat of the Amazon jungle to the icy terrain of the Arctic, Mathevon reveals the amazing variety o...

The Australian Soil and Land Survey Field Handbook specifies methods and terminology for soil and land surveys. It is widely used throughout Australia, providing the official source of definitions and codes for the characterisation of landform, vegetation, land surface, soil and substrate.This fourth edition incorporates significant revisions throughout, except for the Substrate chapter. Changes include the removal of redundant concepts, clarification of concepts and intro...

Dragonflies are among the most ancient of living creatures – few insect groups fascinate as much or are more immediately recognisable.In this seminal new work, Philip Corbet and Stephen Brooks examine the behaviour, ecology and distribution of dragonflies in Britain and Ireland, placing emphasis on the insects' habitats and also on measures needed to conserve them.Published in 1960 – with Philip Corbet as contributing author – volume 41 of the New Naturalist series provided...

Animal Behavior, Second Edition, covers the broad sweep of animal behavior from its neurological underpinnings to the importance of behavior in conservation. The authors, Michael Breed and Janice Moore, bring almost 60 years of combined experience as university professors to this textbook, much of that teaching animal behavior. An entire chapter is devoted to the vibrant new field of behavior and conservation, including topics such as social behavior and the relationship between parasites,...