What do wild animals mean to humans? Will they survive both rampant habitat loss and extinction caused by human encroachment and, as ecotourists, our enthusiasm for them? With ecotourism now the fastest growing segment of tourism, and encounters with wild animals - be it swimming with dolphins, going on safari or bird watching - ever more popular, these are critical questions. Yet until now little has been known about why people crave encounters with wild animals and the meaning for the ecotourism industry, conservation efforts and society at large. Facing the Wild is the first serious empirical examination of why people seek out animals in their natural environment, what the desire for this experience tells us about the meanings of animals, nature, authenticity and wilderness in contemporary industrialized societies, and whether visitors change their environmental perspectives and behaviour, as the custodians of wildlife parks would like them to. The book explores the contradictions and ambivalence that so many people experience in the presence of 'wild nature' - in loving it we may diminish it and in the act of wanting to see it we may destroy it. Ultimately the book makes a case for 'respectful stewardship' of a 'hybrid nature' and provides insight for both practitioners and ecotourists alike.

Wild Pigs: Environmental Pest or Economic Resource? presents the beneficial and adverse effects on forests of wild pigs. This book provides the formulation of policies for the management or control of wild pigs. Organized into 10 chapters, this book begins with an overview of relevant worldwide aspects of wild pigs and provides information about feral pigs in Australia. This text then examines the difficulties of controlling wild pigs in agriculture and evaluates the economic damages to landholders. Other chapters consider the methods of assessing the hunting value of a species for recreational purposes. This book discusses as well the value of wild pigs in Australia and the relative significance of various species for hunting purposes in Australia. The final chapter deals with the adverse effects of wild pigs on agriculture, wildlife, forestry, and natural ecosystems. This book is a valuable resource for agricultural economists, agriculturalists, conservationists, foresters, recreational hunters, and pastoralists.

"Weather is the oldest story in the world-one we want to keep on telling each other when we meet, as though it were part of who we are, a story that wants to keep on telling itself, and affecting us, whether we like it or not. We breathe it in; we see embodied in it our fears and desires; it falls on our heads. And we'd better take care of it: our lives are in its hands." Marrying photographs from the collection of the National Library of Australia with an evocative and contemplative essay by poet Mark Tredinnick, Australia's Wild Weather is a lyric field guide to Australia's climate. Tredinnick considers what it means to be living at time when weather is no longer small talk; it is most of the news. Beautifully written, the author contemplates what weather means to us and how it affects our daily lives.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Children of Wild Australia" by Herbert Pitts. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.