In this volume, new human disease pandemics, arising from animals stimulated by ongoing environmental change, demonstrate the value of ornithological research into avian diseases.
Return to the Sea portrays the life and evolutionary times of marine mammalsfrom giant whales and sea cows that originated 55 million years ago to the deep-diving elephant seals and clam-eating walruses of modern times.
The Northern Spotted Owl, a threatened species that occurs in coniferous forests in the western United States, has become a well-known environmental symbol.
Reaching from interior Alaska across Canada to Labrador and Newfoundland, North America's boreal forest is the largest wilderness area left on the planet.
Grouse-an ecologically important group of birds that include capercaillie, prairie chickens, and ptarmigan-are distributed throughout the forests, grasslands, and tundra of Europe, Asia, and North America.
From gray whales giving birth in the lagoons of Baja California to sea otters nestled in kelp beds off California to killer whales living around Vancouver Island-this spectacular stretch of the Pacific Coast boasts one of the most abundant populations of sea mammals on earth.
These compelling stories and photographs take us to places like Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda, Ivindo National Park in Gabon, and the Tai National Park in Cote d'Ivoire for an intimate and revealing look at the lives of African wild apes-and at the lives of the humans who study them.
Admired for its elaborate breeding displays and treasured as a game bird, the Greater Sage-Grouse is a charismatic symbol of the broad open spaces in western North America.
Described as "e;a writer in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and other self-educated seers"e; by the San Francisco Chronicle, David Rains Wallace turns his attention in this new book to another distinctive corner of California-its desert, the driest and hottest environment in North America.
Nature documentaries often depict animal life as a grim struggle for survival, but this visually stunning book opens our eyes to a different, more scientifically up-to-date way of looking at the animal kingdom.
The fish faunas of continental South and Central America constitute one of the greatest concentrations of aquatic diversity on Earth, consisting of about 10 percent of all living vertebrate species.
More than three hundred million years ago-a relatively recent date in the two billion years since life first appeared-vertebrate animals first ventured onto land.
Written to be accessible to any college-level reader, Protecting Life on Earth offers a non-technical, yet comprehensive introduction to the growing field of conservation science.
Insects boast incredible diversity, and this book treats an important component of the western insect biota that has not been summarized before-moths and their plant relationships.
The life cycles of fishes are complex and varied, and knowledge of the early life stages is important for understanding the biology, ecology, and evolution of fishes.
Personal, anecdotal, and highly engaging, Watching Giants opens a window on a world that seems quite like our own, yet is so different that understanding it pushes the very limits of our senses.
From individual grains to desert dunes, from the bottom of the sea to the landscapes of Mars, and from billions of years in the past to the future, this is the extraordinary story of one of nature's humblest, most powerful, and most ubiquitous materials.
The California Tortoiseshell, West Coast Lady, Red Admiral, and Golden Oak Hairstreak are just a few of the many butterfly species found in the floristically rich San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Valley regions.
This guide synthesizes the most current information available on the pests and environmental conditions that can damage California's conifers, the vast majority of native trees in the state.
From crocodiles and penguins to seals and whales, this comprehensive and authoritative synthesis explores the function and evolution of sensory systems in animals whose ancestors lived on land.
This unprecedented volume presents a sweeping picture of what we know about the natural history, biology, and ecology of whales in the broad context of the dynamics of ocean ecosystems.
This book chronicles the discovery and analysis of animal fossils found in one of the most important paleontological sites in the world-Porcupine Cave, located at an elevation of 9,500 feet in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.
Marks presents the field of molecular anthropology-a synthesis of the holistic approach of anthropology with the reductive approach of molecular genetics-as a way of improving our understanding of the science of human evolution.
American Bison combines the latest scientific information and one man's personal experience in an homage to one of the most magnificent animals to have roamed America's vast, vanished grasslands.
The much-loved giant panda, a secretive denizen of the dense bamboo forests of western China, has become an icon worldwide of progress in conservation and research.
In what is certain to be the key reference on iguanas for years to come, some of the world's leading experts offer a clear and accessible account of the latest research on the evolution, behavioral ecology, and conservation of these highly visible and increasingly endangered creatures, much loved by professional herpetologists and hobbyists alike.
The Salton Sea, California's largest inland lake, supports a spectacular bird population that is among the most concentrated and most diverse in the world.
This benchmark volume documents in comprehensive detail a major environmental crisis: rapidly declining amphibian populations and the disturbing developmental problems that are increasingly prevalent within many amphibian species.
