Animal Science

California’s coast redwoods are Earth's tallest living beings, some reaching more than 350 feet high. They can also live for more than 2,000 years, outlasting entire civilizations. In this episode, we spend an evening with an ancient tree. Below ground, its roots tap into a forest-wide network; above ground, its branches harbor life in its many forms.

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.

Red pandas have thick bushy ringed tails like raccoons, but they aren’t related to panda bears or raccoons—in fact, they have no close relatives anywhere on Earth. In this episode, we wander the Himalayas with a red panda and her cubs as they munch on bamboo, practice walking in the treetops, and settle in to nap together as the first snowfall of the year covers their forest home.

Axolotls are nature's ultimate Peter Pan—amphibians that never transform past the larval stage. Found only in Mexico’s ancient lake system of Xochimilco, they've survived since the time of the Aztecs, a people who considered them sacred. In this episode, we glide through the cool, dark water with an axolotl, meandering through the floating gardens these charming creatures call home.

Soren and his band are sent to the mysterious Northern Kingdoms to gather allies and learn the art of war in preparation for the coming cataclysmic battle against the sinister Pure Ones. Meanwhile, in the Southern Kingdoms, St. Aggie's has fallen to the Pure Ones, and they are using its resources to plan a final invasion of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree.

Beneath a shadowed moon in a cloud-streaked sky, the sacred orb splits and a hatchling is born. It is Nyroc, son of Kludd, fallen leader of the Pure Ones, and his evil mate, Nyra. Born from evil, trained to evil, Nyroc is destined to fulfill his father's terrible plan: the oppression of all owldom under the vicious talons of the Pure Ones.

From the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and global phenomenon Three Women, comes an “intoxicating” (Entertainment Weekly), “fearless” (Los Angeles Times), and “explosive” (People) novel about “what happens when women are pushed beyond the brink, and what comes after the...

Own an unruly horse? Thinking about purchasing a horse but don't exactly know what to expect once you do? Ever wondered what and how a horse thinks? Mark Rashid tells stories that provide horse owners and potential buyers with the best training solutions - straight from the horse's mouth. By considering the horse's point of view, he explores a variety of solutions to common training problem like head tossing, trailer loading, mounting problems, and more.

Kinsley never thought she would go home. She left Coventry and didn't look back. But after a divorce, she packed up her stuff and drove toward the only place that she knew would accept her. Life hadn't been easy for Kinsley since she left town. She'd spent her entire adult life rebelling against what she was, and that meant hiding her true self from the world. Kinsley left Coventry on a mission to be ordinary. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans.

A tale of chaos, betrayal, and nachtmagen unfolds in the second of three ancient legends. It is no idle history, for hidden in its pages are the truths about the great promise—and great danger—that lies just ahead for the Guardians. And so Soren, Coryn, and the members of the Band read on.

It began as a dream, a quest for the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, a mythic place where each night an order of owls rises to perform noble deeds. There Soren, Gylfie, Twilight, and Digger hope to find inspiration to fight the evil that dwells in the owl kingdom. The journey is long and harrowing. When Soren and his friends finally arrive at the Great Ga'Hoole Tree, they will be tested in ways they never dreamed and face challenges they never imagined.

Dog owners know that dogs can be trained, but the idea of training rarely crosses cat owners' minds. But as best-selling anthrozoologist John Bradshaw and cat expert Sarah Ellis show, not only can cats be trained, but they absolutely should be to ensure a happy and healthy relationship between pet and owner. Once we comprehend cats' emotions and needs, we can train them to overcome their natural fears and anxieties.

Ever since Soren was kidnapped and taken to the St. Aegolius School for Orphaned Owls, he has longed to see his sister, Eglantine, again. Now Eglantine is back is Soren's life, but she's been through an ordeal too terrible for words. Deep within Soren's gizzard, something more powerful than knowledge tells him there's a connection between these mysterious events.

Nyroc has exiled himself from the Pure Ones. He flies alone, feared and despised by those who know him as Kludd's son, hunted by those whose despotism he has rejected, and haunted by ghostly creatures conjured by Nyra to lure him back to the Pure Ones. He yearns for a place he only half believes in - the great tree - and an uncle - the near-mythic Soren - who might be a true father to him. Yet he cannot approach the tree while the rumor of evil still clings to him.

Some animals have minds of their own. This is certainly the case for Mariska, the horse escape artist; Milkshake, the charging cow; and Pony, the runaway goat! When these animals put their minds to something, they can't be stopped - especially when they are causing mischief. In Horse Escape Artist, you'll find out how these determined animals caused chaos in three hilarious stories.

In the misty Puerto Rican El Yunque rainforest, coquí frogs no larger than your thumb fill the air with their distinctive two-note song: “co-quí, co-quí.” They alternate routines—one night singing to attract potential mates, the next hunting to fuel up for tomorrow’s performance. In this episode, we follow a singer and a hunter amid the vibrant nighttime chorus.

In this next adventure, Hoole reclaims the throne of his father and goes on to wage a war against the forces of chaos, greed, and oppression led by the powerful warlord-tyrants. Grank, the first collier, uses his skills with fire and metals to forge weapons for battle. With great trepidation, Hoole uses the power of the ember in the final, decisive battle and wins. At the dawn of a new era of peace, Hoole searches for the ideal place to establish not a kingdom but an order of free owls - and finds the Great Tree.

As the climate veers toward catastrophe, the innumerable losses cascading through the biosphere make vividly evident the need for a metamorphosis in our relation to the living land. For too long we've inured ourselves to the wild intelligence of our muscled flesh, taking our primary truths from technologies that hold the living world at a distance. This audiobook subverts that distance, drawing listeners ever deeper into their animal senses in order to explore, from within, the elemental kinship between the body and the breathing Earth.

What is it like to be a dog? A bat? Or a dolphin? To find out, neuroscientist Gregory Berns and his team began with a radical step: they taught dogs to go into an MRI scanner - completely awake. They discovered what makes dogs individuals with varying capacities for self-control, different value systems, and a complex understanding of human speech. And dogs were just the beginning. In What It's Like to Be a Dog, Berns explores the fascinating inner lives of wild animals from dolphins and sea lions to the extinct Tasmanian tiger.

Animals bring out the goodness, humanity, and optimism in people and speak directly to our souls. This joyous, inspiring, and entertaining Chicken Soup collection relates the unique bonds between animals and the people whose lives they've changed: such as the dolphins who helped a paralyzed woman heal when doctors offered little hope; the dog who brought life into a failing marriage; the kitten who helped a mother mourn; and the flying squirrel who taught a man the power of laughter.