A unique guide to 365 of the world’s species on the IUCN, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Red List. Selected by a group of experts at the IUCN this list profiles a wide variety of species from the official list of threatened animal, fungi, and plant. Each of the species profiled is on the official IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™.Animals and plants of all shapes and sizes are included. Discover more about these and many other threatened species. Find out what conservation methods are helping the Blue-throated Macaw, qhere the Pinta Island Tortoise once roamed, qhat efforts are being done to help the 47 remaining Floreana Mockingbirds, rhe reasons behind the dramatic lose of the Globosa Mangrove, and why the Javan Rhino is the world’s most endangered mammal. All 365 species profiled include the level of threat, from "Least Concern" to "Extinct in the Wild," authoritative descriptions of why the species is included on The Red List, a location map, and a stunning color photograph.
Do you like polar bears? Do you want polar bears to be around in 50 years? Do you think that climate change is the only major threat to polar bear survival? Do you believe that polar bears are adequately protected today? Would you like to contribute to saving polar bears today and in the future? If your answer to any of those questions is yes, you need to read this book. "This book is an eye-opener and should kick off extensive debates."Dr. Thor S. Larsen, professor emeritus, Member of the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group 1968-1985. "In this impassioned book Morten raises very important, provocative questions that are not being addressed by the international environmental groups." Art Wolfe, Award-winning conservation photographer. In this book, the author analyses the current status of the polar bear. And he punctures the myth that polar bears are well protected and managed today. While most people think that global warming is the overhanging threat to polar bear survival, the author documents that it is actually the continuation of an unsustainable hunting pressure that is driving the species towards extinction. Across 228 pages, interspersed with beautiful photographs, Morten Joergensen demonstrates how there are probably fewer polar bears than most authorities claim, how hunting is the greatest manageable threat to the species, how current protection measures are insufficient, how the animal has been commercialized and how lack of courage and honesty is allowing this scenario to continue. The book also contains a long string of realistic and very urgent recommendations for action - to save polar bears before they are gone forever.
In one hundred years, or even fifty, the Arctic will look dramatically different than it does today. As polar ice retreats and animals and plants migrate northward, the arctic landscape is morphing into something new and very different from what it once was. While these changes may seem remote, they will have a profound impact on a host of global issues, from international politics to animal migrations. In Future Arctic, journalist and explorer Edward Struzik offers a clear-eyed look at the rapidly shifting dynamics in the Arctic region, a harbinger of changes that will reverberate throughout our entire world. Future Arctic reveals the inside story of how politics and climate change are altering the polar world in a way that will have profound effects on economics, culture, and the environment as we know it. Struzik takes readers up mountains and cliffs, and along for the ride on snowmobiles and helicopters, sailboats and icebreakers. His travel companions, from wildlife scientists to military strategists to indigenous peoples, share diverse insights into the science, culture and geopolitical tensions of this captivating place. With their help, Struzik begins piecing together an environmental puzzle: How might the land’s most iconic species—caribou, polar bears, narwhal—survive? Where will migrating birds flock to? How will ocean currents shift? And what fundamental changes will oil and gas exploration have on economies and ecosystems? How will vast unclaimed regions of the Arctic be divided? A unique combination of extensive on-the-ground research, compelling storytelling, and policy analysis, Future Arctic offers a new look at the changes occurring in this remote, mysterious region and their far-reaching effects.
A powerful new theory of human nature suggests that our secret to success as a species is our unique friendliness “Brilliant, eye-opening, and absolutely inspiring—and a riveting read. Hare and Woods have written the perfect book for our time.”—Cass R. Sunstein, author of How Change Happens and co-author of Nudge For most of the approximately 300,000 years that Homo sapiens have existed, we have shared the planet with at least four other types of humans. All of these were smart, strong, and inventive. But around 50,000 years ago, Homo sapiens made a cognitive leap that gave us an edge over other species. What happened? Since Charles Darwin wrote about “evolutionary fitness,” the idea of fitness has been confused with physical strength, tactical brilliance, and aggression. In fact, what made us evolutionarily fit was a remarkable kind of friendliness, a virtuosic ability to coordinate and communicate with others that allowed us to achieve all the cultural and technical marvels in human history. Advancing what they call the “self-domestication theory,” Brian Hare, professor in the department of evolutionary anthropology and the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University and his wife, Vanessa Woods, a research scientist and award-winning journalist, shed light on the mysterious leap in human cognition that allowed Homo sapiens to thrive. But this gift for friendliness came at a cost. Just as a mother bear is most dangerous around her cubs, we are at our most dangerous when someone we love is threatened by an “outsider.” The threatening outsider is demoted to sub-human, fair game for our worst instincts. Hare’s groundbreaking research, developed in close coordination with Richard Wrangham and Michael Tomasello, giants in the field of cognitive evolution, reveals that the same traits that make us the most tolerant species on the planet also make us the cruelest. Survival of the Friendliest offers us a new way to look at our cultural as well as cognitive evolution and sends a clear message: In order to survive and even to flourish, we need to expand our definition of who belongs.
Biologist Mackenzie Connor is charged with protecting the human race after a devastating alien invasion in this first book in the Species Imperative science fiction series Herself a biologist, Julie E. Czerneda has earned a reputation in science fiction circles for her ability to create beautifully crafted, imaginative, yet believably realized alien races. In Survival, the first novel in her new series, Species Imperative, she draws upon this talent to build races, characters, and a universe which will draw readers into a magnificent tale of interstellar intrigue, as an Earth scientist is caught up in a terrifying interspecies conflict. Senior co-administrator of the Norcoast Salmon Research Facility, Dr. Mackenzie Connor, Mac to her friends and colleagues, was a trained biologist, whose work had definitely become her life. And working at Norcoast Base, set in an ideal location just where the Tannu River sped down the west side of the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Coast was the perfect situation for Mac. She and fellow scientist Dr. Emily Mamani were just settling in to monitor this year's salmon runs when their research was interrupted by the unprecedented arrival of Brymn, the first member of the alien race known as the Ohryn to ever set foot on Earth. Brymn was an archaeologist, and much of his research had focused on a region of space known as the Chasm, a part of the universe that was literally dead, all of its worlds empty of any life-forms, though traces existed of the civilizations that must once have flourished in the region. Brymn had sought out Mac because she was a biologist -- a discipline strictly forbidden among his own people -- and he felt that through her expertise she might be able to help him discover what had created the Chasm. But Mac had little interest in alien races and in studies that ranged beyond Earth, and as politely as she was capable of, she tried to make it clear that she was unwilling to abandon her own work. However, the decision was soon taken out of her hands when a mysterious and devastating attack on the Base resulted in the abduction of Emily, and forced Mac to flee for her life with Brymn and the Earth special agents who were escorting him. Suddenly, it appeared that Earth itself might be under attack by the legendary race the Ohryn called the Ro, the beings they thought might be the destructive force behind the Chasm. Cut off from everything and everyone she knew, Mac found herself in grave danger and charged with the responsibility of learning everything she could that might possibly aid Earth in protecting the human race from extinction...
100 Endangered Species is a little book with a big ambition: to highlight 100 endangered species from around the world and the work being done to bring them back from the brink of extinction. It began as part of the 100-Day Project on Instagram, where the author teamed up with the People's Trust for Endangered Species to illustrate one new species every day for 100 days. From giant anteaters to Andean bears, seahorses to sungazer lizards, it explores the incredible species that we're in danger of losing for ever, highlighting their plight and the conservation efforts having a direct, positive impact on the ground. Packed with exquisite illustrations, fascinating facts and essential maps and charts, it is both a beautiful gift and a shout-out to future generations to get involved with protecting our precious wildlife. * 100 endangered species from around the world, illustrated and described * Charts their habitat, distribution, conservation status and threats faced * Highlights conservation efforts, inviting readers to take positive action * For ages 7+
Winner of the Sierra Club's 2021 Rachel Carson Award One of Chicago Tribune's Ten Best Books of 2021 Named a Top Ten Best Science Book of 2021 by Booklist and Smithsonian Magazine "At once thoughtful and thought-provoking,” Beloved Beasts tells the story of the modern conservation movement through the lives and ideas of the people who built it, making “a crucial addition to the literature of our troubled time" (Elizabeth Kolbert, author of The Sixth Extinction). In the late nineteenth century, humans came at long last to a devastating realization: their rapidly industrializing and globalizing societies were driving scores of animal species to extinction. In Beloved Beasts, acclaimed science journalist Michelle Nijhuis traces the history of the movement to protect and conserve other forms of life. From early battles to save charismatic species such as the American bison and bald eagle to today’s global effort to defend life on a larger scale, Nijhuis’s “spirited and engaging” account documents “the changes of heart that changed history” (Dan Cryer, Boston Globe). With “urgency, passion, and wit” (Michael Berry, Christian Science Monitor), she describes the vital role of scientists and activists such as Aldo Leopold and Rachel Carson, reveals the origins of vital organizations like the Audubon Society and the World Wildlife Fund, explores current efforts to protect species such as the whooping crane and the black rhinoceros, and confronts the darker side of modern conservation, long shadowed by racism and colonialism. As the destruction of other species continues and the effects of climate change wreak havoc on our world, Beloved Beasts charts the ways conservation is becoming a movement for the protection of all species including our own.
From world-renowned scientist Jane Goodall, as seen in the new National Geographic documentary Jane, comes an inspiring message about the future of the animal kingdom. With the insatiable curiosity and conversational prose that have made her a bestselling author, Goodall - along with Cincinnati Zoo Director Thane Maynard - shares fascinating survival stories about the American Crocodile, the California Condor, the Black-Footed Ferret, and more; all formerly endangered species and species once on the verge of extinction whose populations are now being regenerated. Interweaving her own first-hand experiences in the field with the compelling research of premier scientists, Goodall illuminates the heroic efforts of dedicated environmentalists and the truly critical need to protect the habitats of these beloved species. At once a celebration of the animal kingdom and a passionate call to arms, Hope For Animals Their World presents an uplifting, hopeful message for the future of animal-human coexistence. Praise for Hope For Animals Their World "Goodall's intimate writing style and sense of wonder pull the reader into each account...The mix of personal and scientific makes for a compelling read."-Booklist "These accounts of conservation success are inspirational."-Publishers Weekly
This book tries to answer that question through a global journey in search of places where conservation efforts mean things are getting better, not worse an attempt to understand conservation success, celebrate it, and learn from it.
