This introductory volume provides an overview about the history and current status of European mammals, as well as management strategies. The remaining volumes cover comprehensive overviews of each species’ biology including paleontology, physiology, genetics, reproduction and development, ecology, habitat, diet, mortality and age determination. Their economic significance and management, as well as future challenges for research and management are also addressed. Each chapter includes a distribution map, a photograph of the animal and key literature. This authoritative handbook provides a timely and detailed description of all European mammals and will appeal to academics and students in mammal research, as well as to professionals dealing with mammal management, including control, use and conservation.

Carnivores have always fascinated us, even though they make up only 10% of all mammalian genera and only about 2% of all mammalian biomass. In Greek mythology most of the gods adorned their robes and helmets with depictions of carnivores, and the great hero Hercules' most famous feat was killing the "invulnerable" lion with his bare hands. Part· of our fascination with carnivores stems from fright and intrigue, and sometimes even hatred because of our direct competition with them. Cases of "man-eating" lions, bears, and wolves, as well as carnivores' reputation as killers of livestock and game, provoke communities and governrpents to adopt sweeping policies to exterminate them. Even President Theodore Roosevelt, proclaimer of a new wildlife protectionism, described the wolf as "the beast of waste and desolation. " The sheer presence and power of carnivores is daunt ing: they can move quickly yet silently through forests, attaining rapid bursts of speed when necessary; their massive muscles are aligned to deliver powerful attacks, their large canines and strong jaws rip open carcasses, and their scis sor-like carnassials slice meat. Partly because of our fear of these attributes, trophy hunting of carnivores has been, and to a certain extent still is, a sign of bravery and skill. Among some Alaskan Inuit, for example, a man is not eligible for marriage until he has killed a succession of animals of increasing size and dangerousness, culminating with the most menacing, the polar bear.

Jake McGowan-Lowe is a boy with a very unusual hobby. Since the age of 7, he has been photographing and blogging about his incredible finds and now has a worldwide following, including 100,000 visitors from the US and Canada. Follow Jake as he explores the animal world through this new 64-page book. He takes you on a world wide journey of his own collection, and introduces you to other amazing animals from the four corners of the globe. Find out what a cow's tooth, a rabbit's rib and a duck's quack look like and much, much more besides.

Modern science and western culture both teach that the planet we inhabit is a dead and passive lump of matter, but as Stephan Harding points out, this wasn't always the prevailing sentiment and in Animate Earth he sets out to explain how these older notions of an animate earth can be explained in rational, scientific terms. In this astounding book Harding lays out the facts and theories behind one of the most controversial notions to come out of the hard sciences arguably since Sir Isaac Newton's Principia or the first major publications to come out of the Copenhagen School regarding quantum mechanics. The latter is an important parallel: Whereas quantum mechanics is a science of the problem--it gave rise to the atomic bomb among other things--Gaia Theory in this age of global warming and dangerous climate change is a science of the solution. Its utility: Healing a dying planet becomes an option in a culture otherwise poised to fall into total ecological collapse. Replacing the cold, objectifying language of science with a way of speaking of our planet as a sentient, living being, Harding presents the science of Gaia in everyday English. His scientific passion and rigor shine through his luminous prose as he calls us to experience Gaia as a living presence and bringing to mind such popular science authors as James Gleick. Animate Earth will inspire in readers a profound sense of the interconnectedness of life, and to discover what it means to live harmoniously as part of a sentient creature of planetary proportions. This new understanding may solve the most serious problems that face us as a species today.

A group of special interest to mammalogists, taxonomists, and systemicists, ungulates have proven difficult to classify. This comprehensive review of the taxonomic relationships of artiodactyls and perissodactyls brings forth new evidence in order to propose a theory of ungulate taxonomy. With this straightforward volume, Colin Groves and the late Peter Grubb cut through previous assumptions to define ungulate genera, species, and subspecies. The species-by-species accounts incorporate new molecular, cytogenetic, and morphological data, as well as the authors’ own observations and measurements. The authors include references and supporting arguments for new classifications. A starting point for further research, this book is sure to be discussed and hotly debated in the mammalogical community. A well-reasoned synthesis, Ungulate Taxonomy will be a defining volume for years to come.

Sika deer, the graceful spotted deer of Japanese and Chinese art, originally were native to Asia from far-east Russia to Vietnam to the islands of Japan and Taiwan. They are widely raised in captivity to supply velvet antler for traditional medicine. They also were introduced to Europe, North America, and New Zealand, where they compete or interbreed with native deer. Sika deer typically occupy lowland hardwood forests with low winter snow depths, where they thrive in sites disturbed by fire, storm, or logging. In high numbers they can severely impact vegetation though overgrazing, stripping bark from trees and damaging crop fields and forest plantations. Their numbers are high in many parts of Japan, moderate in Russia, and reduced or extinct in the wild in China, Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan. This book explores their basic biology, behavior, and ecology, including management for sport hunting, conservation or recovery of threatened populations, and resolution of conflict with humans in native and introduced lands.