Animal Science

Cats have been popular household pets for thousands of years, and their numbers only continue to rise. Today there are three cats for every dog on the planet, and yet cats remain more mysterious, even to their most adoring owners. In Cat Sense, renowned anthrozoologist John Bradshaw takes us further into the mind of the domestic cat than ever before, using cutting-edge scientific research to explain the true nature - and needs - of our feline friends. Tracing the cat’s evolution from solitary hunter to domesticated companion, Bradshaw shows that cats remain independent, predatory, and wary of social contact.

As the snow melts and the spring approaches, the animal kingdom awakens. In Summer World, Bernd Heinrich, the best-selling author of Winter World, brings us an up-close and personal view of that awakening and rebirth.

Now, the choice is yours. Would you rather be covered in feathers or scales? Would you want to be an oak tree or a giant water lily? Would you choose to talk to animals or understand plants? It's your turn to pick this or that!

What do you use your teeth for? Just like us, animals use their teeth for lots of different things in order to survive! Learn how animal teeth differ from humans and how they are special to each kind of animal, depending on what they eat! See all the different kinds of teeth that animals can have all over the world. Who do you think has the scariest teeth?

Disbelief and shock fill eleven-year-old Jake when a stranger grabs his beloved dog. Jake and his twin Ava chase the scruffy teen down their suburban street, but the thief simply vanishes. So … what is this ancient-looking skeleton key Jake finds in the street? Turning it in the air takes the twins—somewhere else!

Englishman Edward Prendick finds himself shipwrecked on the open ocean. When a passing ship takes him aboard and revives him, things are starting to look less gloomy for the young scientist. Yet little does he know things about to get much worse. He is taken to an abandoned island occupied only by Dr. Moreau, a disgraced English scientist for his unethical treatment of live creatures. Prendick finds that the Doctor has been up to old habits, using the island's animals to create animal-human hybrids.

Consciousness is the most fascinating but tantalizingly difficult topic in biology. Although many people now believe that mammals, birds, and possibly all vertebrates are conscious, there are also claims that many other animals such as crabs and insects may be conscious too. Such claims, if true, would have major implications for what we eat, how we control pests, and for our relationship with the animal world. Now, more than ever, it is important to question the evidence and ask: what do we really know about animal consciousness?

I see dead people. And I'm not the only one. They're even on Facebook. The dead are rising, and if we don't stop them before the infection spreads any further, we're going to be knee-deep in the zombie apocalypse before you can say mmm, brains. The only problem is, we don't know why they're rising, who started it, or how to stop them. But G & C London, Private Investigators, are on the case. Just as soon as we get through dealing with disapproving reapers, irate magicians, zombie-fied chickens, and a small internal case of undeadness. Trust us.

For generations, the noble polar bears have ruled the Northern Kingdoms. But now, their society is on the brink of collapse. A group of power-hungry bears has seized control, and darkness is creeping across the snow. Cubs First and Second don't know any of this. Although they're twins, they couldn't be more different. First loves imagining stories, while his adventurous sister, Jytte, wants to live them. When their mother is taken prisoner, the cubs' world falls apart. They know they have to rescue her, but how can two cubs who've barely learned to hunt survive a treacherous journey across the ice?

After the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, Susannah Charleson was so impressed by the newspaper photo of an exhausted handler and his search-and-rescue dog that she decided to train a dog of her own. A dog lover and pilot with search experience herself, Charleson got Puzzle, a strong, bright Golden Retriever, who from the start, exhibited a unique aptitude for search-and-rescue work. But the puppy’s willfulness challenged even Susannah, who had raised dogs for years.

This audiobook examines a variety of animal skin, noting how they look different and function in different ways. Animals shown include a poison frog, a porcupine fish, a sea otter, an armadillo, a coral snake, a snowy owl, and a caterpillar.

Cats don’t really have nine lives, but they can visit nine different lives, anywhere, anytime. This is the secret Jason’s cat, Gareth, tells him. When Jason hears this, he begs to go along. Soon cat and boy find themselves in ancient Egypt on the first of nine fantastic adventures. With the wink of an eye, Jason and Gareth are transported to alluring settings in world history. On their travels they meet interesting and famous people, such as St. Patrick, and Leonardo Da Vinci. Whether the destination is Renaissance Italy or revolutionary America, their appearance never fails to cause a stir.

During the Great Depression, Seabiscuit captured American hearts from the soup kitchens to the White House. In this classic story, Ralph Moody recounts the true story of a plucky horse that refused to quit, a down-on-his-luck jockey determined to help his horse win, and the trainer who brought out the best in both.

Follow the journey of Nitro, a tiger kept in captivity in Kansas. His story starts when the county sheriff visits a Kansas property and decides to confiscate all big cats from their owner. Lions are sent to a Detroit zoo and Nitro and his friend, Apache, to the Carolina tiger rescue. As Nitro adjusts to his new home, things go terribly wrong.

As recently as 11,000 years ago - "near time" to geologists - mammoths, mastodons, gomphotheres, ground sloths, giant armadillos, native camels and horses, the dire wolf, and many other large mammals roamed North America. In what has become one of science's greatest riddles, these large animals vanished in North and South America around the time humans arrived at the end of the last great ice age.

When the opossum feels threatened, she becomes paralyzed. Her body temperature plummets, her breathing and heart rates drop to a minimum, and her glands simulate the smell of a putrefying corpse. Playing Possum explores what the opossum and other creatures can teach us about how we and other species understand mortality, and demonstrates that the concept of death, far from being a uniquely human attribute, is widespread in the animal kingdom.

In this New York Times best seller, a naturalist probes the forest to comprehend the secret lives of owls. Leigh Calvez takes listeners on an adventure into the world of owls: owl-watching, avian science, and the deep forest - often in the dead of night. These birds are a bit mysterious, and that's part of what makes them so fascinating.

The world is full of furry, cuddly-looking animals. They often seem harmless at first glance. But don’t try to snuggle with these fuzzy creatures. Many of them can be very dangerous. Some have razor-sharp claws and teeth. Others are incredibly strong. Still others are poisonous or carry deadly diseases. Prepare to meet some of the world’s cuddliest killers.

Amazing animals live all over our world. But which ones are the strongest, hairiest, or fastest? Listeners will learn all about the most extreme animals living on our planet.

A pig that does math tricks. A parrot that seems to know what she's saying. A flying pig...um, pug. These animals know what it means to be in the spotlight. Meet Mudslinger the superstar pig, Einstein the parrot genius, and Otis the skydiving dog. Hear the stories of these three amazing animal superstars in Parrot Genius.