Wildlife Wars

Wildlife Wars serves up tales from Terry Grosz's early years as a game warden in the field for the State of California, where he matched wits with elk poachers, salmon snaggers, duck harvesters, and a host of other law-breakers.

Wildlife Wars serves up tales from Terry Grosz's early years as a game warden in the field for the State of California, where he matched wits with elk poachers, salmon snaggers, duck harvesters, and a host of other law-breakers.

In "Wildlife Wars," Terry Grosz serves up fascinating stories-alternately hair-raising, hilarious, and heart-wrenching-from his 30-year struggle to protect wildlife in America. A natural storyteller, Grosz writes about the remarkable characters he met-on both sides of the law-as he matched wits with elk poachers, salmon snaggers, commercial-market duck hunters, and a host of other law-breakers. Best of all, though, these stories are so remarkably entertaining you won't want to put them down. Wildlife Wars is the winner of the 2000 National Outdoor Book Award, Nature and the Environment Category.

This field guide offers a unique look at the creatures that populate the Star Wars galaxy. Packed with hundreds of detailed and colorful illustrations of exotic entities in a wide array of habitats—from the ice fields of Hoth and the pastures of Naboo to the concrete jungle of Coruscant—this entertaining and comprehensive classic also provides information on the mating habits, feeding patterns, and defense mechanisms of these incredible beasts.

In this engrossing memoir, one of the most controversial, influential, and inspirational figures in African politics today gives the full story of his crusade to save Kenya's natural resources, and specifically the African elephant--a crusade that set him against internal corruption, poverty, and dangerous criminals. Sometimes at the risk of his own life, Leakey's love of Kenya, and his convictions about the direction his country--and all of sub-Sahara Africa--must take to survive, have been unshakeable. Wildlife Wars is the odyssey of an extraordinary man in an extraordinary land.

Why our cats are a danger to species diversity and human health In 1894, a lighthouse keeper named David Lyall arrived on Stephens Island off New Zealand with a cat named Tibbles. In just over a year, the Stephens Island Wren, a rare bird endemic to the island, was rendered extinct. Mounting scientific evidence confirms what many conservationists have suspected for some time—that in the United States alone, free-ranging cats are killing birds and other animals by the billions. Equally alarming are the little-known but potentially devastating public health consequences of rabies and parasitic Toxoplasma passing from cats to humans at rising rates. Cat Wars tells the story of the threats free-ranging cats pose to biodiversity and public health throughout the world, and sheds new light on the controversies surrounding the management of the explosion of these cat populations. This compelling book traces the historical and cultural ties between humans and cats from early domestication to the current boom in pet ownership, along the way accessibly explaining the science of extinction, population modeling, and feline diseases. It charts the developments that have led to our present impasse—from Stan Temple's breakthrough studies on cat predation in Wisconsin to cat-eradication programs underway in Australia today. It describes how a small but vocal minority of cat advocates has campaigned successfully for no action in much the same way that special interest groups have stymied attempts to curtail smoking and climate change. Cat Wars paints a revealing picture of a complex global problem—and proposes solutions that foresee a time when wildlife and humans are no longer vulnerable to the impacts of free-ranging cats.

For four hundred years, explorers, traders, and settlers plundered North American wildlife in an escalating rampage, but in the twentieth century an incredible turnaround took place. Conservationists created wildlife sanctuaries, restored habitats, and imposed regulations on hunters and trappers. Over decades, they nursed many wild populations back to health. Then, after World War II, something happened that conservationists hadn’t foreseen: sprawl. People moved into suburbs, and then kept moving outward. All the while, well-meaning efforts to protect animals allowed wild populations to burgeon out of control, causing damage costing billions, degrading ecosystems, and touching off disputes that polarized communities. The result is a mix of people and wildlife that should be an animal-lover’s dream, but often turns into a sprawl-dweller’s nightmare. Deeply researched, eloquently written, and perceptively humorous, Nature Wars expresses the need for organic reconnection with our natural ecosystem by offering a provocative look at how Americans created an inadvertent mess.

Action, adventure, predators and peril - the bestselling first novel by BAFTA AWARD-winning DEADLY 60 TV presenter Steve Backshall. Deadly Adversaries. An Impossible Mission. Tiger Wars. Saker is on the run from the only life he knows. From India to the Himalayas and China he'll be pursued by hunting dogs, mercenaries, spies, thieves and assassins in his quest to set free the most majestic, lethal and valuable of all the predators - the tiger. With him, on every dangerous step of the adventure, is Sinter, a girl who has her own reasons for running away. Gripping adventure fiction perfect for fans of Anthony Horowitz and Charlie Higson. This is the first adventure in the Falcon Chronicles, filled with intrigue, adventure, exotic wildlife and dramatic locations. As Saker and Sinter rescue tigers or mountain gorillas, thwart shark finners and rainforest exploiters they come face to face with the world's most fascinating, majestic and lethal creatures. Steve Backshall is the hugely popular and fearless presenter of the BBC kids' series DEADLY 60 and LIVE AND DEADLY as well as star of BBC's Strictly Come Dancing 2014.