Milking The Rhino

A gripping account of the environmental crusade to save the world's most endangered species and landscapes—the last best hope for preserving our natural home Scientists worldwide are warning of the looming extinction of thousands of species, from tigers and polar bears to rare flowers, birds, and insects. If the destruction continues, a third of all plants and animals could disappear by 2050—and with them earth's life-support ecosystems that provide our food, water, medicine, and natural defenses against climate change. Now Caroline Fraser offers the first definitive account of a visionary campaign to confront this crisis: rewilding. Breathtaking in scope and ambition, rewilding aims to save species by restoring habitats, reviving migration corridors, and brokering peace between people and predators. Traveling with wildlife biologists and conservationists, Fraser reports on the vast projects that are turning Europe's former Iron Curtain into a greenbelt, creating trans-frontier Peace Parks to renew elephant routes throughout Africa, and linking protected areas from the Yukon to Mexico and beyond. An inspiring story of scientific discovery and grassroots action, Rewilding the World offers hope for a richer, wilder future.

Previous edition: Chicago, Ill.: Lake Claremont Press, 1998, by Arnie Bernstein.

Two remarkable tales woven together - the story of the Kaokoveld, an arid eden in the remote north-west of Namibia, so nearly lost, but regained to become one of Africa's iconic wildlife tourism destinations, and also the story of a young man's search for an African way to do conservation in Africa. Garth Owen-Smith first visited the Kaokoveld in 1967. It was a life-changing experience. His unconventional ideas challenged both the conservation establishment and the former South African regime. Despite this, community-based conservation was pioneered in the Kaokoveld and today Namibia is a world leader in this field. But the early years - when the foundation for this ground-breaking approach to conservation was laid - are largely forgotten and untold. An Arid Eden: A Personal Account of Conservation in the Kaokoveld brings those years alive through the eyes of Owen-Smith, spanning four-and-a-half decades of extraordinary dedication, passion and achievement. The author and his partner Dr Margaret Jacobsohn have won some of the world's most prestigious conservation awards for their work in Namibia, which has always challenged convential wisdom. The NGO they founded continues to break conservation, agricultural and rural development paradigms.

"Chris Rush promised that if I gave him a favorable blurb, he would agree to be placed in a secure, isolated neuropsychiatric facility, away from the rest of us. Here goes: 'Chris's book is crammed with good, big, sick belly laughs.' Your turn, Chris." --George Carlin "I first saw Chris Rush thirty years ago, and he killed me. He has a bizarre, funny way of looking at things, and this book is proof of that." --Jay Leno "Chris Rush combines the stream-of-consciousness of a Lenny Bruce, a Monty-Pythonesque appreciation of the surreally absurd, and the mental energy of a Robin Williams." --New York Times "He is universal and intellectual without being elitist." --Variety Comedian Chris Rush was one of the original contributors to National Lampoon magazine. He can be heard on Sirius and XM satellite radio and on the Joey Reynolds radio show every Friday at 1 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. In Milking the Rhino, Rush uses a series of unforgettable surreal images to create hilarious verbal cartoons presented in a seductive list form to transport you into a world of nonstop laughter. Lists include: * Seven Examples of Truth in Advertising You Will Never See * Twenty-Five Really Lousy Jobs * The Ten Worst Pickup Lines * Ten Bizarre Hobbies * Fourteen Novelty Items That Never Took Off * Four Things You Shouldn't Do in Zero-Gravity Conditions * Four UFO Incidents That Are Weirder Than Usual

“The animals that one culture likes are often hated in the next, and it seems that the animals themselves know it well. Basically, one culture’s animal partner is often another culture’s nightmare from hell. “Naturally, I wonder how relations between people and animals got to be so different around the world. How did it happen that some cultures treat bats, snakes, wolves, or ravens as embodiments of evil, while other people treat the same animals with affection or even reverence?” Our wars with the animals go way back. Beyond the light cast by our prehistoric campfires, the eyes glowing in the night seemed to represent a great hostile force. As we began to cultivate crops and husband a few favoured animals, we generally regarded other creatures as threats to our chosen few. Using the logic of war, we sought to maximize the populations of certain creatures, and the destruction of others. In the past, that war effort was our great crusade for the advancement of civilization as we knew it. The war had a frontier, a front line, and an ongoing battle on the home front. Expanding outward from our various cradles of civilization, we progressively “tamed” the forests and grasslands, converting them to monocrop plantations or pastures. Then we had to defend our monocrops from encroaching weeds, insects, and wild animals. In this immediately engaging, story- and fact-filled page-turner of a book, Brian Griffith looks at the range of ways we relate to animals and the stories we tell about them. He asks how we choose whether buddyhood, fearful respect, businesslike predation, or genocidal war is the most appropriate response to each species we meet. He watches how our treatment of “inferior beings” affects our treatment of “inferior people,” and traces some of the chain reactions we unleash when we try to weed out species we don’t like. “Without much hope of making animals fit my personal preferences,” he writes, “I wonder how good our relations can get.”

Rhinos are interesting, fun to watch, and endangered of becoming extinct. This book is first about how scientists study rhinos, and then information is presented on rhino taxonomy, distribution, ecology, fossil history, behavior, reproduction, and conservation, including poaching. But there is a lot more to rhinos than just the above, there are also sections on rhinos in history, rhinos in art, rhino companies, logos and products, as well as lists of rhino books, toys, and conservation organizations.

A Rhino in the bathroom: Living with Jimmy ▪ Survival Kit for Adventurers: Sure you’re ready for the bush? ▪ Shooting Hell’s Gate: Fishing in spectacular Mozambique ▪ The Parable of the Warthog and the Wildebeest: Learning to wait for the best ▪ River Danger: Bilharzia in Africa ▪ Diana in Africa: Lady hunters on the dark continent ▪ Destinations: Central Kalahari ▪ The Ancient Craft:Knifemaking in South Africa ▪ African Bush Cuisine: Impala Sosaties and Morogo ▪ True North: A Nice Guy

"After drawing its first breath every newborn mammal turns his or her complete attention to obtaining milk. This simple act was once thought to stem from a basic fact - milk provides the initial source of calories and nutrients for all mammalian young. That truth, however, is only a piece of the story. Milk, it turns out, is an extremely complex biochemical cocktail. The authors of this fascinating book, biologists Michael L. Power and Jay Schulkin, reveal milk's ancient history and show how the ingredients of mother's milk have evolved over many mammalian generations. Power and Schulkin walk us through the evolutionary origins of the mammary gland and describe the incredible diversification of milk among the various mammalian lineages, culminating in a discussion of the history of humans and milk. Once the roots of lactation are revealed, the authors describe the long list of substances that naturally occur in milk. They discuss all of the biological functions of milk - functions that reach far beyond being a baby's first food. Mothers, it turn out, pass along numerous biochemical signals to their babies through milk. The authors describe how milk boosts an infant's immune system, affects an infant's metabolism and physiology, and even helps inoculate and feed the baby's gut microbiome. Throughout the book the authors weave in stories from studies of other species, explaining how comparative research sheds light on human lactation. The authors then turn their attention to the fascinating topic of cross-species milk consumption"--