Animal Biology

A cantankerous talking cactus reveals the significance of colors in flowers. Each different color means something to pollinators - bees, bats, birds, and more - to help them navigate and pollinate easily! This fun, nonfiction presentation of science combines our favorite pollinators and flowers to present new information that may surprise even some adults!

A vivid tour into the subterranean that encourages us to look downwards, revealing how the earth's most biodiverse frontier sustains all life above the soil surface The ground beneath us hums with a staggering abundance of winding roots, interconnecting fungal networks, wriggling creatures, and...

Chris and Chrissy Rouse, an experienced father-and-son scuba diving team, hoped to achieve widespread recognition for their outstanding but controversial diving skills. Obsessed and ambitious, they sought to solve the secrets of a mysterious, undocumented World War II German U-boat that lay...

An Expert's View of the Big Cat's Fight to Find Its Wild During a time when most wild animals are experiencing decline in the face of development and climate change, the intrepid mountain lion -- also known as a puma, a cougar, and by many other names - has experienced reinvigoration as well as...

Travel thirty miles north, south, or east of San Francisco city hall and you'll be engulfed in a landscape of thick traffic, fast enterprise, and six-dollar cappuccinos. Venture thirty miles due west, however, and you will find yourself on what is virtually another planet: a spooky cluster of...

In this intoxicating concoction of history, travelogue, and memoir, one of the perfume industry’s leading scouts of natural ingredients tells the story of the precious ingredients needed to make our favorite fragrances. Do you know how many flowers it takes to produce a kilo of rose oil? One...

“Every page of this book makes our shared universe feel larger and more interesting than ever before, a true gift of fascinating science and engrossing storytelling.” —Matt Bell, author of Appleseed A spellbinding exploration of alien life and the cosmos, examining how the possibility of...

""With When Death Becomes Life, Joshua Mezrich has performed the perfect core biopsy of transplantation—a clear and compelling account of the grueling daily work, the spell-binding history and the unsettling ethical issues that haunt this miraculous lifesaving treatment. Mezrich's...

Zombies rise from the dead. Some organisms in nature seem to do so as well. Listeners will learn about the creatures that shouldn’t be alive but are.

Regenerative animals are survivors. Species with this ability can regrow limbs, skin, organs, and more! Find out how these animals use regeneration to evade predators and stay alive.

You never know what is watching you! From butterflies and walking sticks to owls and lizards, the world is full animals that don't want to be seen. Using their abilities to camouflage, they blend in to survive.

The cutting-edge, scientifically accurate, definitive book on the most popular behavioral issues that cats face In the United States, one of the predominant reasons that owners abandon or give up their pets (often leading to euthanasia) is because of unwanted behaviors. Many have tried to...

Scientists have long counseled against interpreting animal behavior in terms of human emotions, warning that such anthropomorphizing limits our ability to understand animals as they really are. Yet what are we to make of a female gorilla in a German zoo who spent days mourning the death of her baby? Or a wild female elephant who cared for a younger one after she was injured by a rambunctious teenage male?

The vivid account of a world-leading conservationist’s efforts to find, study, and protect snow leopards, revealing the challenges facing a beautiful, fragile world in the midst of a major transition Snow leopards have a special grip on the human imagination, a symbol of the mysteries that...

“Crackling and bighearted...A powerhouse [that] echoes with the truth that we find harmony when we listen first to ourselves.” —Oprah Daily * “Takes off with magnificent speed and never lets up.” —The New York Times * “Revolutionary.” —NPR’s Morning Edition * A Los Angeles...

Ivory's Ghosts is the first comprehensive, contemporary look at the world's most treasured organic material, ivory. Using a wide range of historical and firsthand reportage, John Frederick Walker tells the astonishing and sometimes savage story of ivory's enormous impact on both human history and that of its most important source: the majestic African elephant.

“A necessary book for anyone truly interested in what we take from the sea to eat, and how, and why.” —Sam Sifton, The New York Times Book Review Acclaimed author of American Catch and The Omega Princple and life-long fisherman, Paul Greenberg takes us on a journey, examining the four fish...

The captivating, little-known true story of a group of scientists and the methods and technology they developed to uncover the secrets of avian migration. For the past century, scientists and naturalists have been steadily unravelling the secrets of bird migration. How and why birds navigate the...

A major new book overturning our assumptions about how evolution works Earth’s natural history is full of fascinating instances of convergence: phenomena like eyes and wings and tree-climbing lizards that have evolved independently, multiple times. But evolutionary biologists also point...

New York Times Bestseller The remarkable true story of an extraordinary relationship between psychologist Irene M. Pepperberg and Alex, an African Grey parrot who proved scientists and accepted wisdom wrong by demonstrating an astonishing ability to communicate and understand complex ideas...