In Habitats and Ecological Communities of Indiana, leading experts assess the health and diversity of Indiana's eight wildlife habitats, providing detailed analysis, data-generated maps, color photographs, and complete lists of flora and fauna. This groundbreaking reference details the state's forests, grasslands, wetlands, aquatic systems, barren lands, and subterranean systems, and describes the nature and impact of two man-made habitats—agricultural and developed lands. The book considers extirpated and endangered species alongside invasives and exotics, and evaluates floral and faunal distribution at century intervals to chart ecological change.
This beautifully illustrated guide identifies nearly 300 common plants in Indiana's most prominent ecosystem—the Eastern Deciduous Forest. For ease of identification, the plants are arranged by flower color or growth form, providing a convenient way to distinguish a great majority of plants in any given woodland. Generous treatment is given to all major vascular plant groups of the forest, such as wildflowers, ferns, shrubs, trees, grasses, and sedges. Michael A. Homoya not only helps with identification, but also offers information on a plant's habitat, flowering period, familial relationships, biology, and connections to Indiana. For the garden enthusiast and habitat restorer, there is a section on landscaping and natural community restoration using native forest plants. A portion of the proceeds from each sale of this book go to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources for land protection and stewardship.
First comprehensive account of the mammals of the entire southeastern US The southeastern United States is home to a remarkable and diverse mammalian fauna that is a significant part of the region’s rich natural heritage. Mammals of the Southeastern United States presents accounts of 137 species that currently or previously occurred in the Southeast. Although accessible and useful for the generalist, this book provides an up-to-date compilation of basic knowledge about native and nonnative mammals of the region that is suitable for students of all ages and for professional mammalogists and biologists alike. This volume profiles common species like the eastern gray squirrel, the white-tailed deer, and the Virginia opossum, but also includes among its accounts many extant species, such as the jaguar and porcupine, that once occurred in the region; native species, like the Caribbean monk seal, that are now extinct; native species that have been extirpated, or wiped out, from all or part of the region, such as the red wolf, cougar, American bison, and elk; and many introduced species, including the Mexican mouse opossum, common squirrel monkey, and capybara. Each species account includes full-color images of the animal, plates featuring at least three views of its skull, color distribution maps of its approximate geographic range in the Southeast and in North America, and an up-to-date synthesis of several aspects of its biology, including habitat, diet, predators, parasites, diseases, and behaviors. An introductory chapter on conservation summarizes the current status of mammalian populations in the region and provides insight into some of the threats mammals now encounter in the Southeast.
This pocket-sized field guide to native Indiana mammals offers color photos, skull close-ups, and range maps, along with descriptions and clues to finding and identifying all mammals indigenous to the area -- and even a few that are not, but can now be found in the state. In addition to detailing Indiana's wild, mostly small, secretive, and nocturnal mammals, John O. Whitaker, Jr., describes the region's habitats, climate, and vegetation. Mammals of Indiana: A Field Guide precisely identifies the creatures you are likely to encounter while hiking a trail, camping in a state park, or picnicking in your own backyard. Whether you are a biologist, veterinarian, wildlife manager, or simply a nature enthusiast, this guide is certain to be a welcome companion during your next outdoor adventure.
The most recent installment of the Reappraisals series, which examines the range of meanings associated with animals in the Canadian literary imagination.
Animals were everywhere in the early modern period and they impacted, at least in some way, the lives of every kind of early modern person, from the humblest peasant to the greatest prince. Artists made careers based on depicting them. English gentry impoverished themselves spending money on them. Humanists exercised their scholarship writing about them. Pastors saved souls delivering sermons on them. Nobles forged alliances competing with them. Foreigners and indigenes negotiated with one another through trading them. The nexus between animal-human relationships and early modern identity is illuminated in this volume by the latest research of international scholars working on the history of art, literature, and of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Germany, France, England, Spain, and South Africa. Collectively, these essays investigate how animals - horses, dogs, pigs, hogs, fish, cattle, sheep, birds, rhinoceroses, even sea-monsters and other creatures - served people in Europe, England, the Americas, and Africa to defend, contest or transcend the boundaries of early modern identities. Developments in the methodologies employed by scholars to interrogate the past have opened up an intellectual and discursive space for - and a concomitant recognition of - the study of animals as a topic that significantly elucidates past and present histories. Relevant to a considerable array of disciplines, the study of animals also provides a means to surmount traditional disciplinary boundaries through processes of dynamic interchange and cross-fertilization.
