Everything you never wanted to know about camels
921867
Oh, my God. How on earth does this have 4.5 stars? It sounds like a free write, he redacts everything he says, and if I have to read the phrase "this will be discussed in a later chapter" ever again in my entire life I will scream.
3881137
This is not a fluffy book about fluffy....it's a fascinating book about cats - substantive, highly informative information that isn't commonly known, written in an engaging, story-like way, but incorporating a great deal of scientific information.  For example....are domestic cats close relatives of lions?  Are cats different from other domesticated animals (including not only dogs but camels, sheep, etc.)  Read the book to find out and to more thoroughly explore your feline's psyche than you ever thought possible.  I picked this up at the vet's and couldn't put it down, so I had to order it.  Oh, and from this seller the price was great, delivery reasonable, and the (new) book was really new.  Highly recommended.
478436
Almost everything you want/need to know about elephants is in this book!

How have elephants been used in the past? What are some of the battles they were used in? What about the Woolly Mammoth? How much do we know about this elephant?

Today, how is an elephant built? Where are the softest parts of an elephants body? You might be surprised at the answer. Do you know how many muscles are in an elephant's trunk? Approx. 150,000! As humans we have two nostrils? How many does an elephant have? Have you ever thought about how much one elephant tooth weighs? The answer to this may well blow your mind! Did you know that an elephant can purr like a cat?!

So many more great facts are in this book. It is a wealth of knowledge. I wouldn't recommend it for young children as there is a LOT of detail here but for kids in higher elementary all the way up through high school who have a school project to do or just want to know more about elephants, then this is a great resource.

Just so you know, evolution is presented as a fact, not a theory in this book.

If you are able to click on the link at the end of the book that takes you to the IP Factly website there you will find an amazing 14 videos to watch. No research to do yourself - IP has done it all for you!
4930303
Not content with retiring to a 'crazy mountain village' in Almeria; Victoria and Joe decide to brush off the Spanish cobwebs and move to even warmer climes to spend one last year teaching children in Bahrain. Swapping mules, chickens and kittens for camels, parrots and terrapins,

Live vicariously, plunge yourself into 'Two Old Fools on a Camel', meet her larger than life characters and eavesdrop in on her faultless dialogue.

Only Victoria Twead could pull something like this off - what's next? Koalas, Crocs and Kangaroos?
2293142
love animals, especially exotic animals & I truly enjoy learning about animals that I never knew existed.

This book is beautifully illustrated, informative & a delight to read. Although my nieces & nephews enjoyed the book, I would recommend the book for anyone doing research on wild animals from these areas.  Although, some of the words may be difficult for younger readers to pronounce & understand, I found myself consulting a dictionary/pronunciation guide one or twice.

Overall...it was a wonderful addition to my collection of reading material & I refer to it often.
259476
This collection of true encounters with dangerous animals is interesting and instructive and warns us of how unpredictable wild animals are, whether they are in the wild or in captivity. All of the familiar threats to man are documented here: sharks, crocodiles, wolves, bears and the great cats of Africa. Some individuals were lucky and survived or escaped from an attack, while others were not as fortunate and were maimed for life, if not taken as prey by the animals. Many people, especially young children, like to pet animals without giving any thought to the danger they're in when in close proximity to wildlife. Monkeys, wild pigs and even deer are just dangerous in their natural habitat as are the more ferocious species of the animal kingdom. This book is a must for campers, hikers and vacationers.
999331
This book is wonderful.  It is a must-have for anyone who is interested in cryptozoology.  I give this book 5 stars, it is a delightful, wonderful read.

There are some things in this book that I would have left out, such as the Beast of Gevaudan, the megalodon, or piasa.  However, there were many creatures I found fascinating, such as Mokele-mbembe, kongamato, the pygmy elephant, and the many types of monkey-men, such as Yeti, Bigfoot, Yeren, and the Skunk Ape and others mentioned in the book.
1886446
I fear I am at a loss for words regarding Deadly Equines.  I received my copy yesterday and began to read it immediately and did not put it down until I had finished it.  Then I returned to review sections I found of most interest.  To say the least, CuChullaine O'Reilly's exhaustive research and personal experience is beyond measure.  He have brought into the light a truth which many find very uncomfortable, that has been ignored, denied, and hidden and he have done so without emotion or glossing over.  This truth shatters humans fantasies and fairy tales regarding an animal that has long been anthropomorphized.  Shortie October 29, 2016
2412224
This book will give you and your children incredible knowledge of both science and animals while never having to worry about evolution theories popping up in the text.  This title does not compromise God's Word and in fact, it stands firm on the truth of creation.  This would make great supplemental material in homeschooling, be a wonderful reference book and children from elementary to high school students can use it and enjoy it.  You will explore over 1,000 of God's most extraordinary creatures in this 256 full-color book.  You will examine the diverse anatomy, behavior and habitats of all types of animals. It includes information about the smallest microscopic worms to the largest animals God ever created, the whales.  Filled with fascinating facts and intriguing animal records this book will teach you and your child all about the amazing animals God created. Our children love to learn about animals and are fascinated by their behaviors, habitats and lives.  We often found the kids sitting in the floor reading this book together.  This book covers simple animals, worms/snails/starfish, insects & other anthropods, fish, amphibians and reptiles, birds and mammals. The kids learned interesting things about animals like:  The giant clam, tridacna, lives in Pacific Ocean and its shell can be over 4 feet in length and it can weigh as much as 725 pounds!  Our 6 year old loved the Giant Anteater information as that is currently his favorite animal.  And want to know which animal our kids were most intrigued by so far?  Look up "Gulper Eel" ~ The picture of it in this book was so fascinating to them we actually spent a whole afternoon looking up more about it online!
2108554
The Animal Rights Movement is now the major social progressive movement in the country. Among the leaders of this movement is PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) One of the major institutions of animal abuse is the (non-)scientific technique called vivisection. This involves experimenting on live animals in laboratories with experiments that are often horribly painful and cause as good deal of suffering. Often, at the end of the experiment the animals are killed, often by having their heads cut off. Animals used include monkeys, cats, dogs, mice, rats, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, gerbils, squirrels, and many, many other species. Until recently, and to some extent still, chimpanzees are used. Many medical people, including myself, believe that vivisection is nothing more than animal torture, and as a scientific method is useless because it cannot predict any given finding in humans. The modern antivivisection movement began in 1980 with the Silver Spring Monkey case, which involved a group of monkeys kept in horrendous condition in a laboratory in Maryland. The two individuals who broke the case were Ingrid Newkirk and Alex Pacheco, the founders of PETA. This book is the complete and detailed story of the case, written by Kathy Guillermo, who has been with PETA for many years. It shows how the animal experimentation fraternity, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), went to great lengths and did whatever possible to distort the facts of the case, conceal the gruesome details, and cover vivisection with a silver mantle. The lies, distortions, and cruelty of the vivisection fraternity are revealed. Although some sections of the book are difficult to read if one care about animals and is upset about their suffering, in general the book reads like a detective story and holds your interest from beginning to end. Anyone interested in where the 15.5 billion dollars that Congress allots to NIH each year would find this book illuminating. He/she would find that this money constitutes a welfare system for scientists, who, using animals to find out about humans, are using a method that is conceptually invalid, scientifically unsound, and indescribably cruel. This is the story of the dozen and a half or so monkeys whose lives were stolen from them, and the two brave individuals who exposed animal experimentation for what it is........a cruel waste.
3527621
I have always thought prehistoric mammals and birds got the shaft when compared to dinosaurs, but I have also thought they were every bit as fascinating.  I never thought I would see these creatures brought to print and screen as they are portrayed in this book and the accompanying television program.  If you were a fan of "Walking with Dinosaurs" (and you should be), you will enjoy this as well.  I learned a great deal that I did not previously know, even though I consider myself fairly well-read on the subject.  It is a story that has been crying out for years to be told: What happened AFTER the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago, in the intervening 64 million + years.  The book starts out at 49 million years ago, after the earth had recovered from the asteriod KT event, and ends only a few thousand years ago.
1466428
This books goal is to set the record straight about animals that have been mythologized or misunderstood throughout history.  As Cooke states in her conclusion, The urge to anthropomorphize trips us up and obscures the truth.  Each chapter features a different animal and there are fascinating tidbits throughout.  I most enjoyed the anthropological aspects, like why humans are historically hostile towards hyenas.

Here are some fascinating things I learned  Hyenas are surprisingly intelligent and have highly developed social structures.  A hippos closest relative is a whale.  Though hippos are indigenous to Africa, there is a burgeoning population of them in South America thanks to Pablo Escobar.  A vulture tagged by Israeli scientists was detained is Saudi Arabia for suspicion of being a Mossad spy.

My only qualm was that Cooke incorporated some long-winded diatribes of historical naturalists who were so far off the mark, they came off as a bit ridiculous.  Overall, it was an interesting read, and I appreciate books like this that give me cocktail party topics that I will put to good use.
3647861
God's creatures aren't just great and small.  Many of them are also wacky, wild, and weird!

My animal loving (to an extreme!) 4 year old couldn't hardly contain himself as we pulled Jungle Jack Hanna's The Wackiest, Wildest, Weirdest Animals In The World from the box.

A brightly colored cover with clear, bold photographs inside appealed not only to him, but me as well.  (And a 20 minute DVD with Jack Hanna full of bloopers and behind-the-scenes footage was icing on the cake!)

We immediately sat down and read interesting and entertaining children's book.

Some of the things we learned included:  A young hyena is called a whelp; Cape Buffalo can weigh up to 1,000 pounds; The plate on each armadillo's head is unique just like human fingerprints; An octopus has three hearts.

As a Thomas Nelson reviwer, I found this book not only to be an attention-catching children's book, but an excellent learning tool; especially for the curious preschooler or early elementary student.
4775920
I have never heard of most of these amazing strange creatures - great pictures and interesting facts, with a nice glossary at the end. Would be great for homeschooling, I think! My kids were awed and grossed-out and all those good things looking at these!
3930392
This book is the premier introduction to the Ice Age, and its now-extinct animals, for the uninitiated reader.  It is also an excellent work for the serious student or teacher.  The art work is superb, the photographs and diagrams are well chosen, and have the additional bonus of actually following the well-written, easily readable text.  This saves the reader the burden of having to leaf back and forth as the book is studied.  In short, whether you want to read about the Ice Age for serious study or just have pleasure learning about fascinating animals and times, this your book.
Now to content:  Although the book's title and cover seem to indicate it is about animals only, the first half of the book covers, in a lively, interesting fashion, the various ways the Ice Age may have started, what the glaciers did and how they form, move, and melt, what the climate was like, and a hundred other things that are necessary to truly understand what occurred during this significant period of geological time.  Well-chosen inserts explain particular matters.
The second half of the book covers the mammals of the Ice Age, with particular emphasis on those living in North America.  In addition to the inevitable mammoths and saber-toothed cats, such relatively unknown creatures as the giant short-faced bear, scimitar cat, American lion, Florida cave bear, shrub ox, giant camel, and stag-moose, among many others, are each afforded extensive treatment.  The section on toothless animals such as the giant armadillo, the various kinds of enormous ground sloth, etc., is simply one of a kind.  You will be amazed and thrilled as you read about each creature in turn, especially as to its size, its diet, where it lived, and its appearance.
The book closes, somewhat sadly, with a broad, yet concise examination on why many of these creatures went extinct so suddenly, and man appears to be a primary culprit.  Other potential causes are addressed as well.
A particularly fine feature is a comprehensive list of museums, parks, and sites across the United States where you may go to see the remains of these animals or learn more about them.  An excellent bibliography is supplied at the end.
I have read about, and been fascinated by, Ice Age animals for many years, and I can assure you this is the most enjoyable book I have ever seen on the matters I have discussed.  The information presented incorporates the latest studies, and is painstakingly accurate.  Authors Lange and Norton are to be highly commended on a great book.  I recommend it highly.
2626552
This book is really interesting. It's a full encyclopedia with decent amounts of information on more than 1,000 entries of cryptozoological creatures. Most books I've read, typically focus primarily on the Loch Ness Monster and the damn Sasquatch and that's about it. However, this book contains viable information for each of its entries. The ones that have more history behind them will have more information than some others, which offer only a short paragraph about it, but it will at least give you an "awareness" of some of the rarer creatures. So if you want more information on those, using the internet sometimes comes in handy. But you'll most likely not find much more information on them anyways as modern man does not know as much about them as the ancients did. This is by far the LARGEST and most comprehensive collection of mythical animals and creatures I have ever seen. It's THICK, too. with 643 pages of creatures, plus a bibliography and index. The print is large as well, plus there are big margins to write in notes if you like, with extra information you may have found about the beasts elsewhere (This is what I do). I only wished that it was illustrated. It does have a few drawings in there, but they are very random and not specified towards any certain creature, nor are they labled. I believe that a pronunciation guide for the names of the creatures would have been a nice feature as well as I struggle to pronounce the names as they are written, but overall, John and Caillin Matthews did a terrific job on compiling and writing this fantastic book, which has no equal or rival in my search for books like this. If I could rate it higher than 5 stars, I would. Pliny the Elder and Younger would both be very impressed with this excellent book.
3882301
I originally rented this book from the library based on a recommendation from a friend, and had to buy my own copy to share with friends and family members. I am astounded to learn that euthanized companion animals and roadkilll are processed into pet food, and I firmly believe that the average pet owner would never intentionally feed their animals such disgusting (literal) canned garbage that pet food companies label and sell as digestible pet food if the consumers knew the truth. This book reveals the truth and I am using it to tell everyone I know about what they can do to feed their animals with healthy pet food that doesn't contain their own kind ground up into it.