Compiled by an ardent bibliophile, this week's report features eleven science, natural history and science education books and field guides all of which were recently published in North America and the UK.
Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high.
How I love them! How I need them!
I'll have a long beard by the time I read them.
~ Arnold Lobel [1933-1987] author of many popular children's books.
Compiled by Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen, the Birdbooker Report is a weekly report that has been published online for years, listing the wide variety of nature, natural history, ecology, animal behaviour, science and history books that have been newly released or republished in North America and in the UK. The books listed here were received by Ian during the previous week, courtesy of various publishing houses.
New and Recent Titles:
Wallace, Alfred Russel. Island Life. 2013. The University of Chicago Press. Paperback: 528 pages. Price: $30.00 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US].
SUMMARY: Alfred Russel Wallace is best known as the codiscoverer, with Charles Darwin, of natural selection, but he was also history's foremost tropical naturalist and the father of biogeography, the modern study of the geographical basis of biological diversity. Island Life has long been considered one of his most important works. In it he extends studies on the influence of the glacial epochs on organismal distribution patterns and the characteristics of island biogeography, a topic as vibrant and actively studied today as it was in 1880. The book includes history's first theory of continental glaciation based on a combination of geographical and astronomical causes, adiscussion of island classification, and a survey of worldwide island faunas and floras.
The year 2013 will mark the centennial of Wallace's death and will see a host of symposia and reflections on Wallace's contributions to evolution and natural history. This reissue of the first edition of Island Life, with a foreword by David Quammen and an extensive commentary by Lawrence R. Heaney, who has spent over three decades studying island biogeography in Southeast Asia, makes this essential and foundational reference available and accessible once again.
IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: For those with an interest in Wallace's writings, evolution, or island biogeography.
Prothero, Donald R.. Reality Check: How Science Deniers Threaten Our Future. 2013. Indiana University Press. Hardbound: 371 pages. Price: $35.00 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US].
SUMMARY: The battles over evolution, climate change, childhood vaccinations, and the causes of AIDS, alternative medicine, oil shortages, population growth, and the place of science in our country -- all are reaching a fevered pitch. Many people and institutions have exerted enormous efforts to misrepresent or flatly deny demonstrable scientific reality to protect their nonscientific ideology, their power, or their bottom line. To shed light on this darkness, Donald R. Prothero explains the scientific process and why society has come to rely on science not only to provide a better life but also to reach verifiable truths no other method can obtain. He describes how major scientific ideas that are accepted by the entire scientific community (evolution, anthropogenic global warming, vaccination, the HIV cause of AIDS, and others) have been attacked with totally unscientific arguments and methods. Prothero argues that science deniers pose a serious threat to society, as their attempts to subvert the truth have resulted in widespread scientific ignorance, increased risk of global catastrophes, and deaths due to the spread of diseases that could have been prevented.
IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: For those with an interest in science education (or lack thereof).
Mooallem, Jon. Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America. 2013. The Penguin Press. Hardbound: 339 pages. Price: $27.95 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US].
SUMMARY: Journalist Jon Mooallem has watched his little daughter's world overflow with animals butterfly pajamas, appliquéd owls -- while the actual world she's inheriting slides into a great storm of extinction. Half of all species could disappear by the end of the century, and scientists now concede that most of America's endangered animals will survive only if conservationists keep rigging the world around them in their favor. So Mooallem ventures into the field, often taking his daughter with him, to move beyond childlike fascination and make those creatures feel more real. Wild Ones is a tour through our environmental moment and the eccentric cultural history of people and wild animals in America that inflects it -- from Thomas Jefferson's celebrations of early abundance to the turn-of the-last-century origins of the teddy bear to the whale-loving hippies of the 1970s. In America, Wild Ones discovers, wildlife has always inhabited the terrain of our imagination as much as the actual land.
The journey is framed by the stories of three modern-day endangered species: the polar bear, victimized by climate change and ogled by tourists outside a remote northern town; the little-known Lange's metalmark butterfly, foundering on a shred of industrialized land near San Francisco; and the whooping crane as it's led on a months-long migration by costumed men in ultralight airplanes. The wilderness that Wild Ones navigates is a scrappy, disorderly place where amateur conservationists do grueling, sometimes preposterous-looking work; where a marketer maneuvers to control the polar bear's image while Martha Stewart turns up to film those beasts for her show on the Hallmark Channel. Our most comforting ideas about nature unravel. In their place, Mooallem forges a new and affirming vision of the human animal and the wild ones as kindred creatures on an imperfect planet.
With propulsive curiosity and searing wit, and without the easy moralizing and nature worship of environmental journalism's older guard, Wild Ones merges reportage, science, and history into a humane and endearing meditation on what it means to live in, and bring a life into, a broken world.
IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: For those with an interest in wildlife conservation.
D'Elia, Jesse and Susan M. Haig. California Condors in the Pacific Northwest. 2013. Oregon State University Press. Paperback: 208 pages. Price: $19.95 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US].
SUMMARY: Despite frequent depiction as a bird of California and the desert southwest, North America's largest avian scavenger once graced the skies of the Pacific Northwest, from northern California to British Columbia. This important volume documents the condor's history in the region, from prehistoric times to the early twentieth century, and explores the challenges of reintroduction.
Jesse D'Elia and Susan Haig investigate the paleontological and observational record as well as the cultural relationships between Native American tribes and condors, providing the most complete assessment to date of the condor's occurrence in the Pacific Northwest. They evaluate the probable causes of regional extinction and the likelihood that condors once bred in the region, and they assess factors that must be considered in determining whether they could once again thrive in Northwest skies.
Incorporating the newest research and findings and more than eighty detailed historical accounts of human encounters with these birds of prey, California Condors in the Pacific Northwest sets a new standard for examining the historical record of a species prior to undertaking a reintroduction effort. It is a vital reference for academics, agency decision makers, conservation biologists, and readers interested in Northwest natural history. The volume is beautifully illustrated by Ram Papish and includes a number of previously unpublished photographs.
IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A MUST have for anyone with an interest in the California Condor.
Lever, Christopher. The Mandarin Duck. 2013. T & A D Poyser. Hardbound: 192 pages. Price: $80.00 U.S./£50.00. [Guardian bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US].
SUMMARY: The Mandarin Duck is a small and (in the case of the males) spectacularly colourful species of waterfowl. Widely kept in aviaries around the world, populations often escaped to form wild colonies. One of the largest and best-studied is in southern England. Although declining and nowadays surprisingly hard to find, Britain's wild Mandarin population is probably more numerous than that of the duck's true home, China and the Russian Far East, where it is now endangered.
This Poyser monograph is a detailed account of this beautiful duck's lifestyle and biology, with particular emphasis on invasive populations in Britain and overseas. It is a superb addition to the long-running and acclaimed Poyser series.
IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A MUST have for those with an interest in the species.
Suzuki, Mamoru. Birds' Nests of the World. 2001 (English edition: 2013). Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. Hardbound: 73 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S. [Amazon US].
SUMMARY: Mr. Mamoru Suzuki was born in Tokyo in 1952. He attended Tokyo College of the Arts, and is a professional artist and keen student of the birds of the world. Mr. Suzuki is a renowned author and illustrator for multiple Japanese artistic books on nature, including The Book of Birds' Nests; Nest Poems: A collection of poems and illustrations; and the Black Cat Sangoro series. He has published essays about his own collection of birds' nests, and has exhibited both his artwork and his nests in cities all over the world.
In the 1990s, Mr. Suzuki began visiting the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology (WFVZ), a non-profit natural history museum in southern California, to draw and paint bird egg and nest materials in the collections. Mr. Suzuki's artistic books on birds caught the attention of the Staff of the WFVZ, and in 2010, Dr. Linnea Hall (Director of the WFVZ) and Mr. René Corado (Collections Manager) discussed the possibility of translating Mamoru's 2001 book -- "Birds' Nests of the World" -- from Japanese into English, and the current project was born.
The book contains breeding information for hundreds of birds of the world, depicted creatively and scientifically. It will serve as a wonderful family learning book, as well as a scientific reference for ornithologists and bird watchers who want to learn more about the nesting and breeding habits of the birds of the world.
IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A well illustrated introduction to bird nesting behavior. The book is available here.
Chacon, Federico Munoz and Richard Dennis Johnston. Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: A Pocket Guide. 2013. Cornell University Press. Paperback: 172 pages. Price: $14.95 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US].
SUMMARY: Costa Rica is a remarkable place for amphibians and reptiles. Known for its biological diversity, conservation priorities, and extensive protected lands, this small country contains 418 herpetological species including the dangerous fer-de-lance and black-headed bushmaster, the beloved sea turtles, and numerous dink, foam, glass, and rain frogs. Additional species are thought to be nearing extinction while others have been introduced only recently.
Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica is the perfect introductory guide to this diverse herpetofauna in a format that makes it easy to carry into the field. The focus is on identification with entries for all species in the country, including scientific and English common names, as well as the older names for the many species that have been recently reclassified. Key ID marks are noted as well as adult sizes. Range maps identify the region(s) where species are known to be present. Color photographs and drawings are provided for over 80 percent of the species, representing those that are most likely to be encountered. Designed with ease of use in mind, this guide will be a great aid to the observer in identifying the specimen at hand.
IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those with an interest in the herpetofauna of the region.
LeBuhn, Gretchen and Noel Pugh. Field Guide to the Common Bees of California: Including Bees of the Western United States. 2013. University of California Press. Paperback: 175 pages. Price: $21.95 U.S. [Guardian bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US].
SUMMARY: This engaging and easy-to-use natural history guidebook provides a thorough overview of native and honey bee biology and offers tools for identifying the most common bees of California and the Western United States. Full-color illustrations introduce readers to more than 30 genera of native bees, noting each one's needs and habits and placing them in their wider context. The author highlights bees' ties to our own lives, the food we eat, and the habitat we provide, and suggests ways to support bees in our own backyards.
In addition to helping readers understand and distinguish among major groups of bees, this guide reveals how bees are an essential part of healthy ecosystem and how many plants, including important crop plants, depend on the pollination they provide. As growing evidence points to declining bee populations, this book offers critical information about the bond between plants and pollinators, and between humans and nature. Thoroughly researched and full of new insights into the ancient process of pollination, Field Guide to the Common Bees of California; Including Bees of the Western United States is invaluable for the window it opens onto the biodiversity, adaptive range, and complexity of invertebrate communities.
IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A well illustrated introduction to the bees of the region.
D'Amato, Peter. The Savage Garden, Revised: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants. 2013. Ten Speed Press. Paperback: 374 pages. Price: $25.99 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US].
SUMMARY: For fifteen years, The Savage Garden has been the number one bestselling bible for those interested in growing carnivorous plants. This new edition is fully revised to include the latest developments and discoveries in the carnivorous plant world, making it the most accurate and up to date book of its kind.
You may be familiar with the Venus flytrap, but did you know that some pitcher plants can -- and do -- digest an entire rat? Or that there are several hundred species of carnivorous plants on our planet? Beautiful, unusual, and surprisingly easy to grow, flesh-eating plants thrive everywhere from windowsills to outdoor container gardens, in a wide variety of climates. The Savage Garden is the most comprehensive guide to these fascinating oddities, gloriously illustrated with more than 200 color photos. Fully revised with the latest developments in the carnivorous plant world, this new edition includes:
• All the basics -- from watering and feeding to modern advances in artificial lighting, soil, and fertilizers.
• Detailed descriptions of hundreds of plants, including many of the incredible new species that have been recently discovered and hybridized.
• Cultivation and propagation information for all the plant families: pitcher plants, Venus flytraps, sundews, rainbow plants, bladderworts, and many other peculiar plants from the demented mind of Mother Nature.
Whether you're a beginner with your first flytrap or an expert looking for the latest exotic specimen, this classic book has everything you need to grow your very own little garden of horrors.
IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A MUST have for anyone with an interest in these plants!
Mapes, Lynda V. and Steve Ringman. Elwha: A River Reborn. 2013. The Mountaineers Books. Paperback: 176 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S. [Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US].
SUMMARY: In the fall of 2011, the Times was on hand when a Montana contractor removed the first pieces from two concrete dams on the Elwha River which cuts through the Olympic range. It was the beginning of the largest dam removal project ever undertaken in North America -- one dam was 200 feet tall -- and the start of an unprecedented attempt to restore an entire ecosystem. More than 70 miles of the Elwha and its tributaries course from the mountain headwaters to clamming beaches on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Through interviews, field work, archival and historical research, and photojournalism, The Seattle Times has explored and reported on the dam removal, the Elwha ecosystem, its industrialization, and now its renewal. Elwha: A River Reborn is based on these feature articles.
Richly illustrated with stunning photographs, as well as historic images, graphics, and a map, Elwha tells the interwoven stories of this region. Meet the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, who anxiously await the return of renowned salmon runs savored over the generations in the stories of their elders. Discover the biologists and engineers who are bringing the dams down and laying the plan for renewal, including an unprecedented revegetation effort that will eventually cover more than 700 acres of mudflats.
When the dam started to come down in Fall 2011 -- anticipated for more than 20 years since Congress passed the Elwha Restoration Act -- it was the beginning of a $350 million project observed around the world. Elwha: A River Reborn is inspiring and instructive, a triumphant story of place, people, and environment striving to come together.
IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: For anyone with an interest in the history of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.
Spawls, Stephen and Glenn Mathews. Kenya: A Natural History. 2012. Bloomsbury/ T & A D Poyser. Hardbound: 448 pages. Price: $95.00 U.S./£50.00. [Guardian bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US].
SUMMARY: For its size, Kenya probably has the most diverse range of habitats of any country in Africa, if not the world. Within its borders there are alpine peaks, montane forests, high plateaux, savannas, lowland forests, coastal woodlands and wetlands, and a string of varied lakes in the Great Rift Valley. The range of wildlife to be found in the region is correspondingly diverse. this book explores the wildlife and habitats in great detail and gives a thorough overview of Kenya's natural history.
IAN'S RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those with an interest in Kenyan natural history.
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This invited guest piece was assembled by Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen and formatted by GrrlScientist.
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Ian "Birdbooker" Paulsen is an avid book collector who is especially well-known to the publishing world. Mr Paulsen collects newly-published books about nature, animals and birds, science, and history, and he also collects children's books on these topics. Mr Paulsen writes brief synopses about these books on his website, The Birdbooker Report.
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Grrlscientist can also be found here: Maniraptora. She also lurks on social media: facebook, G+, LinkedIn, Pinterest and of course, she's quite active on twitter: @GrrlScientist
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