Animal Engineers

Animals build structures to shelter their young, catch prey, and even communicate. Some animals even change their environment to suit their needs. This awesome book reveals the amazing ways that certain animals engineer structures and ecosystems in order to survive.

"Animals build structures to shelter their young, catch prey, and even communicate. Some animals even change their environment to suit their needs. This awesome book reveals the amazing ways that certain animals engineer structures and ecosystems in order to survive"--

"Describes the different types of homes animals build in the wild"--

Explains the process and materials that beavers use to build dams. This book’s colorful photos, clear text, and “A Closer Look” feature highlight the engineering that makes this structure such a marvel and helps beavers survive in the wild.

From an engineer’s perspective, how do specialized adaptations among living things really work? Writing with wit and a richly informed sense of wonder, Denny and Alan offer an expert look at animals—including humans—as works of evolutionary engineering, each exquisitely adapted to a specific manner of survival.

By cutting trees and building dams, beavers shape landscapes and provide valuable wetland homes for many plants and animals. These radical rodents were once almost hunted to extinction for their prized fur, but today we are building a new relationship with them, and our appreciation of the benefits they offer as habitat creators and water stewards is growing. Packed with facts and personal stories, this book looks at the beaver’s biology and behavior and illuminates its vital role as a keystone species. The beaver’s comeback is one of North America’s greatest conservation success stories and Beavers: Radical Rodents and Ecosystem Engineers introduces readers to the conservationists, scientists and young people who are working to build a better future for our furry friends.

Explains the process and materials that birds use to build nests. This book’s colorful photos, clear text, and “A Closer Look” feature highlight the engineering that makes this structure such a marvel and helps birds survive in the wild.

Providing alternatives to animal testing is one of the hottest topics in biomedical research, and this groundbreaking volume addresses this critical issues head on. This unique book presents techniques and methods at the forefront of scientific research that have the potential to replace certain whole animal tests. Moreover, this book provides a platform where other widely accepted techniques and scientific advancements can be collated into a concise set of methods that can be implemented within both academic and industrial communities.