Animal Science

Whales whistle, fireflies glow, and skunks spray—that’s how they communicate! Find out how mammals, reptiles, birds, and other animals send messages and signals to stay safe, make friends, and care for their young. Accessible and fun K–3 level information reveals the animal world to young listeners and researchers in this Pebble Explore title from the Animal Societies series.

Building Beehives for Dummies is the follow-up book to the best-selling Beekeeping for Dummies. It provides everything you need to learn how to build some of the world's most popular hives and beekeeping accessories. For each design the book includes a detailed materials list (what lumber, hardware, and fasteners you'll need) and step-by-step building instructions.

Every cow just wants to be happy. Every chicken just wants to be free. Every bear, dog, or mouse experiences sorrow and feels pain as intensely as any of us humans do. In a compelling appeal to reason and human kindness, Matthieu Ricard here takes the arguments from his best sellers Altruism and Happiness to their logical conclusion: Compassion toward all beings, including our fellow animals, is a moral obligation and the direction toward which any enlightened society must aspire.

Effective altruism is built upon the simple, but profound, idea that living a fully ethical life involves doing the "most good you can do". Such a life requires an unsentimental view of charitable giving: To be a worthy recipient of our support, an organization must be able to demonstrate that it will do more good with our money or our time than other options open to us. Singer introduces us to an array of remarkable people who are restructuring their lives in accordance with these ideas and shows how living altruistically often leads to greater personal fulfillment.

Did you know that a rattlesnake’s rattle is made up of segments of keratin? These segments knock against each other to produce a buzzing or rattle-like sound. Rattlesnakes use their rattles to distract their prey or to warn a predator to stay away! Each time a rattlesnake sheds its skin, it adds another segment to their rattle. Have you ever wondered why snakes stick out their tongues? They use their tongues to pick up scents. As they move their tongues back inside their mouths, a special “taste-smell” organ helps them locate their next meal.

Dive deep into the world of sharks, the most fascinating and misunderstood marine animals on the planet, in this stunning new edition of The Shark Handbook, written by Shark Week expert, Dr. Greg Skomal.

Why do mandrills have blue faces? What makes a parrot's feathers so bright? Learn these answers and more about some of nature’s most colorful creatures in Science Behind the Colors.

A leading neuroscientist offers a history of the evolution of the brain from unicellular organisms to the complexity of animals and human beings today Renowned neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux digs into the natural history of life on earth to provide a new perspective on the similarities between us...

In Anima, Kapka Kassabova introduces us to the "pastiri" people—the shepherds struggling to hold on to an ancient way of life in which humans and animals exist in profound interdependence. Following her three previous books set in the Balkans, and with an increasing interest in the degraded state of our planet and culture, Kassabova reaches further into the spirit of place than she ever has before. In this extraordinary portrayal of pastoral life, she investigates the heroic efforts to sustain the oldest surviving breeds of our domesticated animals,.

Amir and his ragtag team of arcanists have made it the second round. All the weak competitors have been eliminated, and only teams with synergy and strategy remain. Some teams overwhelm their opponents with dragons. Some use illusions and trickery. If Amir only had to focus on the fighting, perhaps things wouldn’t be so difficult, but problems outside the tournament also need his attention. Sage’s brother might get executed. Master Elias’s old rivals come calling. And one of the competitors might have hired an assassin…

A mouse with a human ear on its back. Cats that glow in the dark. Giant super salmon. These animals are just the stuff of gross-out stories and horror movies. They are real animals that have been altered by scientists. And some of these animals are alive today.

When a young white fox named Dilah discovers a human family, he begins to dream of being human himself. But when his parents are assassinated, long-held secrets and a legend about a miraculous treasure rise to the surface. A treasure with the power to make animals human.... The clues to its location are contained in a moonstone buried beneath their den. But evil blue foxes seek the treasure, too, and Dilah must race to find it first. Along the way, he meets all sorts of other creatures: a friendly seal, an ancient tortoise, and a fierce leopard - but can he stay one step ahead?

The Navy SEAL teams' elite K9 warriors do it all - from detecting explosives to eliminating the bad guys. These powerful dogs are also some of the smartest and most highly skilled working animals on the planet. Mike Ritland's job is to train them. This is the tale of how Ritland discovered his passion and grew up to train these elite dogs. After becoming a SEAL, he was on combat deployment in Iraq when he saw a military working dog in action, and he instantly knew he'd found his true calling.

Faolan's made it back to his clan as a gnaw wolf, the lowest ranking pack member. And the hardships are just beginning. Framed for murder of a wolf pup, he must find the culprit and prove his worthiness in the clan.

Bald eagles, bees, and bats all fly. But a bee is an insect. A bat is a mammal. And a bald eagle is a bird! Why are these animals sorted into different groups? Let’s investigate animal classification!

Well-respected, go-to pet expert Zazie Todd demystifies the feline-human relationship, breaking down the scientific research on cats' health and happiness to make it applicable for ordinary cat owners, and tackles contentious issues in cat ownership with thoughtfulness and expertise. He explains how we can give our purring companions the happiest life possible, through enriching their play, diet, exercise, reducing their anxiety, and more.

The world of Erdas will be changed forever. Conor, Abeke, Meilin, and Rollan were once ordinary kids. Then they discovered that they had spirit animals - wise and powerful partners who granted them with amazing gifts...and a legendary responsibility. Together the team has journeyed across Erdas, racing to stop a merciless foe. They have laughed and fought together. They've won challenges and lost friends. Some have even lost themselves.

“Every James Rollins delivers mach-speed mayhem, throat-clutching suspense, high-style adventure, and a terrific story told terrifically.” —Steve Berry, author of The Romanov Prophecy The thriller king praised for his “edge-of-your-seat excitement” (San Francisco Chronicle), James...

Furnace Penitentiary: the world's most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth's surface. Convicted of a murder he didn't commit, sentenced to life without parole, "new fish" Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries.

Oscar the cat has a very special skill. An otherwise ordinary cat—he'd sooner give you his back or a sideways glance than curl up on your lap—Oscar has the uncanny ability to predict when people are about to die. Adopted by staff members at Steere House nursing home when he was a kitten, the three year-old cat has presided over the deaths of more than twenty-five nursing home residents thus far.