Walker's Mammals of the World

Walker's Mammals of the World PDF Author: Ronald M. Nowak
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421424673
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 785

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Book Description
Walker's vision, the text smoothly combines in-depth scholarship with a popular, readable style to preserve and enhance what the Washington Post called a landmark of zoological literature.

Walker's Mammals of the World

Walker's Mammals of the World PDF Author: Ronald M. Nowak
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421424673
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 785

Get Book

Book Description
Walker's vision, the text smoothly combines in-depth scholarship with a popular, readable style to preserve and enhance what the Washington Post called a landmark of zoological literature.

Walker's Marine Mammals of the World

Walker's Marine Mammals of the World PDF Author: Ronald M. Nowak
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801873430
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 836

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Book Description
Marine mammals are among the most fascinating and most watched of Earth's many animal species, particularly for their many adaptations for life in and around the water and their unique methods of communication. This comprehensive guide to the order is for experts and enthusiasts alike.

Walker's Marsupials of the World

Walker's Marsupials of the World PDF Author: Ronald M. Nowak
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801882111
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Authoritative and engaging, this volume from the Walker's Mammals series focuses on marsupials, pouched animals whose unusual method of reproduction—between egg laying and placental birth—places them in a unique category among mammals. A comprehensive guide to the biology and distribution of marsupials, this book includes common and scientific names, size and physical traits, habitat and ecology, behavior and social interactions, reproduction, life span, and conservation. The text is coupled with illustrations from the collections of leading photographers and the world's greatest museums. An introduction by marsupial expert Christopher R. Dickman describes the evolution and current status of marsupials and reveals why they add so much intrigue to the natural world.

Walker's Carnivores of the World

Walker's Carnivores of the World PDF Author: Ronald M. Nowak
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801880339
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Although they are highly intelligent, ruthless predators, carnivores are increasingly rare. From the dwarf mongoose to the polar bear, carnivores are at once respected and misunderstood, invoking both fear and curiosity in the humans with whom they share their world. Ronald M. Nowak celebrates these fascinating mammals in Walker's Carnivores of the World. This comprehensive guide, featuring 225 illustrations, covers the world's eight terrestrial families of carnivores. Each generic account comprises scientific and common names, number and distribution of species, physical attributes, measurements, hunting and social activity, reproduction, habitat, population dynamics, longevity, and status of threatened species. A thought-provoking overview by David W. Macdonald and Roland W. Kays is packed with results of the latest field and laboratory research on topics ranging from evolutionary history to the adaptive value of fur patterns. Emphasizing the interplay of social life, morphology, and predatory behavior, it provides an up-to-date panorama of the world's carnivores.

Walker's Bats of the World

Walker's Bats of the World PDF Author: Ronald M. Nowak
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801849862
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
Valuable guide for general readers and an important reference for professionals.

Walker's Primates of the World

Walker's Primates of the World PDF Author: Ronald M. Nowak
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801862519
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 238

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Book Description
Recently extinct genera, such as the giant lemurs of Madagascar, are covered in full Text summaries present well-documented descriptions of the physical characteristics and living habits of primates in every part of the world."--BOOK JACKET.

Why We Sleep

Why We Sleep PDF Author: Matthew Walker
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501144316
Category : Health & Fitness
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
"Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity ... An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now ... neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming"--Amazon.com.

Ice Walker

Ice Walker PDF Author: James Raffan
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1501155385
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
From bestselling author James Raffan comes an enlightening and original story about a polar bear’s precarious existence in the changing Arctic, reminiscent of John Vaillant’s The Golden Spruce. Nanurjuk, “the bear-spirited one,” is hunting for seals on Hudson Bay, where ice never lasts more than one season. For her and her young, everything is in flux. From the top of the world, Hudson Bay looks like an enormous paw print on the torso of the continent, and through a vast network of lakes and rivers, this bay connects to oceans across the globe. Here, at the heart of everything, walks Nanurjuk, or Nanu, one polar bear among the six thousand that traverse the 1.23 million square kilometers of ice and snow covering the bay. For millennia, Nanu’s ancestors have roamed this great expanse, living, evolving, and surviving alongside human beings in one of the most challenging and unforgiving habitats on earth. But that world is changing. In the Arctic’s lands and waters, oil has been extracted—and spilled. As global temperatures have risen, the sea ice that Nanu and her young need to hunt seal and fish has melted, forcing them to wait on land where the delicate balance between them and their two-legged neighbors has now shifted. This is the icescape that author and geographer James Raffan invites us to inhabit in Ice Walker. In precise and provocative prose, he brings readers inside Nanu’s world as she treks uncertainly around the heart of Hudson Bay, searching for nourishment for the children that grow inside her. She stops at nothing to protect her cubs from the dangers she can see—other bears, wolves, whales, human beings—and those she cannot. By focusing his lens on this bear family, Raffan closes the gap between humans and bears, showing us how, like the water of the Hudson Bay, our existence—and our future—is tied to Nanu’s. He asks us to consider what might be done about this fragile world before it is gone for good. Masterful, vivid, and haunting, Ice Walker is an utterly unique piece of creative nonfiction and a deeply affecting call to action.

Platypus Matters

Platypus Matters PDF Author: Jack Ashby
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022678939X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
Scientifically informed and funny, a firsthand account of Australia’s wonderfully unique mammals—and how our perceptions impact their future. Think of a platypus: They lay eggs (that hatch into so-called platypups), produce milk without nipples and venom without fangs, and can detect electricity. Or a wombat: Their teeth never stop growing, they poop cubes, and they defend themselves with reinforced rears. And what about antechinuses—tiny marsupial carnivores whose males don’t see their first birthday, as their frenzied sex lives take so much energy that their immune systems fail? Platypuses, possums, wombats, echidnas, devils, kangaroos, quolls, dibblers, dunnarts, kowaris: Australia has some truly astonishing mammals, with incredible, unfamiliar features. But how does the world regard these creatures? And what does that mean for their conservation? In Platypus Matters, naturalist Jack Ashby shares his love for these often-misunderstood animals. Informed by his own experiences meeting living marsupials and egg-laying mammals during fieldwork in Tasmania and mainland Australia, as well as his work with thousands of zoological specimens collected for museums over the last two-hundred-plus years, Ashby’s tale not only explains historical mysteries and debunks myths (especially about the platypus), but also reveals the toll these myths can take. Ashby makes clear that calling these animals “weird” or “primitive”—or incorrectly implying that Australia is an “evolutionary backwater,” a perception that can be traced back to the country’s colonial history—has undermined conservation: Australia now has the worst mammal extinction rate of any place on Earth. Important, timely, and written with humor and wisdom by a scientist and self-described platypus nerd, this celebration of Australian wildlife will open eyes and change minds about how we contemplate and interact with the natural world—everywhere.

Portland City Walks

Portland City Walks PDF Author: Laura O. Foster
Publisher: Timber Press
ISBN: 0881928852
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
The author of Portland Hill Walks presents an array of twenty self-guided walking tours of the backstreets and neighborhoods of Portland and five nearby towns, all easily accessible by public transportation, offering fun facts, historical and cultural details, shopping and eating suggestions, and other things to see and do along each route. Original.