Showing titles in Ecosystems & Habitats

An acclaimed natural history writer follows the trail of the remarkable hummingbird all over the world. Hummingbirds are a glittering, sparkling collective of over three hundred wildly variable species. For centuries, they have been revered by indigenous Americans, coveted by European collectors...

Over the past 100 years, gulls have been brought ashore by modernity. They now live not only on the coasts, but in our slipstream following trawlers, barges, and garbage trucks. They are more our contemporaries than most birds, living their wild lives among us in towns and cities. In many ways, they live as we do, walking the built-up world and grabbing a bite where they can. Yet this disturbs us. We’ve started fearing gulls for getting good at being among us. We see them as scavengers, not entrepreneurs; oceangoing aliens, not refugees.

In Albert & the Whale, Philip Hoare sets out to discover why Dürer's art endures. He encounters medieval alchemists and modernist poets, eccentric emperors and queer soul rebels, ambassadorial whales and enigmatic pop artists. He witnesses the miraculous birth of Dürer's fantastical rhinoceros and his hermaphroditic hare, and he traces the fate of the star-crossed leviathan that the artist pursued. And as the author swims from Europe to America and beyond, these prophetic artists and downed angels provoke awkward questions. 

It’s summer, and John Connell finds himself—like so many others—confined to his local area, the opportunity to freely travel and socialise cut short. His attention turns to the Camlin river—an ever-present source of life for his hometown’s inhabitants and, for John, a site of boyhood adventure, first love, family history and local legend. He decides to canoe its course with a friend, a two-day trip requiring physical exertion and mental resilience. Despite the world growing still around them, the river teems with life—a symphony of buzzing mayfly and jumping trout.

Since its inception, however, America’s public land system has been embroiled in controversy - caught in the push and pull between the desire to develop the valuable resources the land holds or conserve them. Alarmed by rising tensions over the use of these lands, hunter, angler, and outdoor enthusiast Mark Kenyon set out to explore the spaces involved in this heated debate, and learn firsthand how they came to be and what their future might hold.

Against the white expanse of the Arctic tundra, a snowy owl is hardly visible as he pauses to listen for the rustling of small prey. While most Arctic birds migrate south for the winter, this owl can survive through the endless polar nights. In this episode, we follow a snowy owl as he searches for food in the dark, soaring past the footprints of polar bears, howling huskies, and snow foxes that call this wintry world home.

There is a growing crisis in our oceans as rates of infectious disease outbreaks are on the rise. A warmer world is a sicker world for humans and wild biota. Marine epidemics have caused mass die-offs of wildlife from the bottom to the top of the food chains, impacting the health of ocean ecosystems as well as lives on land. Fueled by a warming ocean and accelerated by sewage dumping, unregulated aquaculture, and drifting plastic, ocean outbreaks are sentinels of impending global environmental disaster.

Beavers, those icons of industriousness, have been gnawing down trees, building dams, shaping the land, and creating critical habitat in North America for at least a million years. Once one of the continent's most ubiquitous mammals, they ranged from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Rio Grande to the edge of the northern tundra. Wherever there was wood and water, there were beavers - 60 million (or more) - and wherever there were beavers, there were intricate natural communities that depended on their activities.

On the day of their estranged father's wedding, half-sisters Cheyenne and Livy set off to claim their inheritance. It's been years since the two have seen each other - Cheyenne is newly back in Seattle after a failed marriage and a series of dead ends, Livy works refinishing boats - but the promise of a shot at financial security brings the two together to claim what's theirs. Except: instead of money, their father gives them information - a name - that reveals a stunning family secret. 

Die Wälder sind sein berufliches Zuhause, und die Arbeit mit Bäumen ist sein Leben. Bei geführten Waldwanderungen gibt der passionierte Förster und Autor Peter Wohlleben sein enormes Wissen über Bäume weiter. Seine Gebrauchsanweisung ist eine ebenso handfeste wie stimmungsvolle Entdeckungstour. Fundiert und unterhaltsam weist er ein in die wichtigsten Laub- und Nadelbaumarten: was sie kennzeichnet, welchen die Zukunft gehört, welche bei Gewitter wirklich Schutz bieten.

Wie man sich im Wald auch ohne Kompass oder GPS orientiert.

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER A gripping blend of travelogue and frontline reporting that reveals how climate change, military ambition, and economic opportunity are transforming the Arctic into the epicenter of a new cold war, where a struggle for dominance between the planet’s great powers...

In this panoramic account, Nir Arielli explores the history of the Dead Sea from the first Neolithic settlements to the present day. Moving through the ages, Arielli reveals the religious, economic, military, and scientific importance of the lake, which has been both a source of great wealth and a site of war. The Dead Sea weaves together a tapestry of the lake's human stories—and amidst environmental degradation and renewed conflict, makes a powerful case for why it should be saved.

Drawing on more than three decades of experience writing about sharks and other marine animals, the bestselling author of Jaws combines high adventure with practical information in a book that is at once a thriller and a valuable guide to being safe in, on, under, and around the sea. “Shark...

Drawing on more than three decades of experience writing about sharks and other marine animals, the bestselling author of Jaws combines high adventure with practical information in a book that is at once a thriller and a valuable guide to being safe in, on, under, and around the sea. “Shark...

A riveting, urgent account of the explorers and scientists racing to understand the rapidly melting ice sheet in Greenland, a dramatic harbinger of climate change “Jon Gertner takes readers to spots few journalists or even explorers have visited. The result is a gripping and important book...

En Asilvestrado, Isabella Tree cuenta la historia del "experimento Knepp", un proyecto pionero de rewilding en West Sussex que utiliza animales de pastoreo en libertad para crear nuevos hábitats para la fauna. Wilding es, sobre todo, una inspiradora historia de esperanza. Obligados a aceptar que la agricultura intensiva en la pesada arcilla de sus tierras en Knepp era económicamente insostenible, Isabella Tree y su marido Charlie Burrell dieron un espectacular salto de fe: decidieron dar un paso atrás y dejar que la naturaleza se hiciera cargo.

"A reminder that even the smallest newspapers can hold the most powerful among us accountable."—The New York Times Book Review Watch the documentary Storm Lake on PBS. Iowa plays an outsize role in national politics. Iowa introduced Barack Obama and voted bigly for Donald Trump. But is it a...

Nur zwei große Lebensräume unserer Erde sind scheinbar über lange Zeiträume hinweg gleich geblieben: der Dschungel und das Meer. Doch selbst die Landmassen, auf denen der Urwald liegt, haben sich aufgrund der Kontinentalverschiebungen verändert, und die Aufspal­tung und Verschmelzung der Kontinente hatten Auswirkungen auf die Ausdehnung der warmen, flachen Küstenmeere.

‘An extraordinary treasure trove’ Andrew Marr A unique collection of unpublished letters from the climbing legend George Mallory to his family, revealing his innermost thoughts about people, places and mountains. On the 8th of June, 1924, George Mallory and Sandy Irvine were seen through a...

The Ocean is a compelling exploration of the ocean’s profound influence on human history, contemporary society, and the critical role it plays in addressing existential challenges. Sturla Henriksen, a former CEO of the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association and current Special Advisor to the UN–as well as a passionate diver–presents a comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the ocean's impact on geopolitics, climate, biodiversity, and the potential for a sustainable future.