Focus on mammals, not dinosaurs
350083
Few works intended for a wide audience pay much attention to the effect of the CretaceousPaleogene transition on the mammals, our ancestors.  The focus is far too much on dinosaurs. Archibald's book is one of the few attempts to right the balance.
1716277
Animals In Translation has almost too much good information, if there is such a thing.  I find myself afraid that I will forget important things I have read because there is just so much to remember.  We just got our fourth dog (one at a time over more than 30 years). She's a four year old Beagle rescue.  Animals in translation had immediate relevance for her.  I wish I could have read this book 30 years ago when we began our journey as pet owners.  We have loved our dogs and this book would have made us that much better dog owners.  Ms. Grandin's and Ms. Johnson's writing style is enjoyuable. They pepper the book with illustrative and interesting anecdotes as well as results of scientific experiments and theory derived from a wide variety of sources from neuroscience to animal trainers.

This book touches on a wide variety of animals, from chickens to pigs and cows, to dogs and cats, to horses, to wolves, to lions, to elephants and more (even fish).  There is a lot of detail about dogs and cata as well as farm animals.  And all the different learnings from these species are nicely tied together in an integrated story about how animals think, feel, and behave.

Finally, it is all also integrated with the mind of the autistic person, who Ms. Grandin believes lies somwhere between the typical person's mind and the animal mind with similarities to both (e.g. she believes both animals and many autisitic people think in terms of pictures where typical people are more likely to think in terms of language).

Read it, it's great.
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.
1332980
My interest in anthrozoology has three main sources.
I had cats, clean and independent like all cats.
An uncle named Brandano was university professor of zootechnics and director of a department of agrarian sciences.
In 2005 in Italy I was involved in a research through questionnaire (267 interviews). My sample was well conceived, even if not probabilistic; and my contribution was recognized in an article published in 2007 in Anthrozoos, a review then directed by a researcher of zoology of Cambridge university. I published the Italian translation of Animal attitude scale in 2010 as a member of an Italian association of interpreters and translators for the publisher Simple of Macerata.
Csany is an emeritus professor of the university of Budapest. There zoophilia is a mental disease, as wherever. But it is not a crime, as in Great Britain it happens since the Middle ages. Instead, unluckily it is not a crime in Hungary, in Italy, in the United States as a federal State, in the federal district, in Texas and in other American States and in many other coutries. On the basis of my knowledge, until now no important zoologist, including Nobel prize winners, expressed a strong stand against zoophilia. Sometimes also known animalists who speak even of animal conscience, consciousness, empathy and intelligence are not animalist on this matter, avoiding any declaration about it. Despite my moderate anthropocentrism, I care about animals, and particularly companion animals, and moreover about human dignity. Will the Hungarian Csany be the first important zoologist to publicly condemn zoophilia? I hope so, even if this is not my main worry.
Like the musician and presumed scientist working in philosophy Laszlo, Csany is likely to extend the evolutionary theory to the humanities with a kind of naturalism that I don't like. However, I found this book useful because of my experience.
Why do some many persons in different countries live with companion animals? They have different functions, but not only economic or practical functions. They arouse natural emotions and instincts. And on the basis of scientific research women are kinder in their behaviour. However, anthrozoology is not a therapy which cures deseases, but only an activity, according to evaluations by biologists (Istituto superiore della sanit&agrave; dello Stato italiano, 2007; see also comparison and comparative method for my commentaries on an important experiment done in this area with a simple statistical technique).

Roberto Fideli
4705704
Is this some kind of torture chamber for little mammals?
Seriously, in this day and age, there are much more reliable forms of research that do not involve animals.  Their physical attributes are just too different from ours to make their use in research plausible.  Enough already.
3585824
Reviewed by Sabrina Williams

This is the story of a young orangutan that wanders off to prove his bravery after being teased by classmates. He vows to take on a tiger that his village fears, One-Fang Flossie. When he fails to return, everyone panics, believing he must have actually found Flossie, for whom he is no match. His father, King Tang, and Uncle Cinnamon set out to find Ori before it's too late.

Ori's fate actually lies in the hands of two human poachers, who have caged him and are prepared to take him far away from the forest. His animal friends and family unite to overcome the poachers and save Ori. The intention of the book is to draw attention to the threats of endangered species, hence the poachers. Other threats are mentioned throughout the story, such as logging and forest fires.

Stern develops the human qualities in the animals, giving each a name and describing how they live in communities and care for each other. The book opens and closes with a poem titled "Do Animals Cry?" It suggests that even though they might not shed tears as humans do, animals express their sadness in other ways.

What could be an issue for this book is that the reading difficulty is gauged for 9- to 12-year olds, but the story content, length, and book design would appeal to a much younger audience, probably age 4 to 8. It is interesting how each of the animals is personified, but again, that tactic would appeal to a younger reader, as well. It is a large picture book, but the colors of the illustrations are mostly the earthy greens and browns of the forest, not a color scheme that usually attracts the eye of a young child.

There is a page of factual information about the existence and survival of orangutans, scientific facts that would capture the attention of the middle reader (9-12). The author obviously attempted to include a wide range of ages.

Armchair Interview says: A book created to tell children about endangered animals.
4475356
A Plea for the Animals: The Moral, Philosophical, and Evolutionary Imperative to Treat All Beings with Compassion, by Matthieu Ricard, is both predictable and engaging.  It is predictable in that many of the examples of animal abuse pulled up by other authors are regurgitated again, and engaging because Richard writes well and discusses animal use and abuse issues with an eye to our evolution, our culture, and our lack of awareness of what really goes on in the animal world.

"This book invites us to face up to something: in spite of the sense of wonder the animal kingdom inspires in us, we are responsible for an ongoing massacre of animals on a scale unequaled in the history of humankind.  Every year, sixty billion land animals and a thousand billion marine animals are killed for our consumption... We maintain a kind of moral schizophrenia ghat has us lavishing pampering our pets and at the same time planting our forks in pigs that have been sent to the slaughter by the millions, even though they are in no way less conscious, less sensative to pain, or less intelligent than our cats and dogs" (p. 3-4).

"Everything is done to keep the consumer in ignorance" (p. 43).  What happens when this veil is lifted?  I recommend reading&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Consuming-Choices-Ethics-in-a-Global-Consumer-Age-Philosophy-and-the-Global-Context/dp/0742548147/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Consuming Choices: Ethics in a Global Consumer Age (Philosophy and the Global Context)</a>.

"You can get used to anything.  We have turned suffering into an acceptable commonplace, we have desensitized ourselves to the suffering of others" (p. 53).  Ricard then continues by investigating various forms of animal exploitation.

What to do?  Ricard makes some suggestions.  I also like the book (and recommendations) from&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Rough-Guide-to-Ethical-Shopping-Rough-Guides-Reference-Titles/dp/1843532654/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Rough Guide to Ethical Shopping (Rough Guides Reference Titles)</a>.  Vote with your dollars.  Advocate in the behalf of animals.  Volunteer at animal shelters.  And be wary of your diet.
4381720
This book is a history of the relationship between animals and humans. It's good to be reminded of this relationship because we tend to forget how dependent the development of human civilization was on animals. Humans today are probably more independent of and separated from other animals than at any other time in the history of human life on this earth. Today cars, trains and trucks transport goods including food to the cities where most people live. Eggs, milk and meat are eaten by most people with little thought about where these things come from.

This book begins with speculation about how and where first encounters between species occurred. DNA analysis has enabled scientist to determine the probable geographic locations of the first domestications of many animals. In many ways the development of tool usage and domestication of animals went hand in hand. Animals just happen to be tools that were alive.

One of my motivations for listening to this book was to see if the book supported one of my pet theories as to why modern humans prevailed over the Neanderthals. My theory is that modern humans more effectively used dogs as guards and hunters giving them a competitive edge. This book makes no mention of this, though the early use of dogs is certainly discussed.

One animal that gets high praise in this book is the donkey. The book refers to them as "the pickup trucks of early history." They enabled the development of international commerce during the Bronze Age. Their role was partly replaced a couple centuries before Christ by the camel. However, the camel was a relative late comer to the world of transport.

Of course the book mentions all the common farm animals such as sheep, pigs, and cattle. Horses take up a large part of the second half of the book. Cats and chickens are covered but their coverage is relatively short.

Toward the end of the book there's discussion about how animals have been treated and continue to be treated. Needless to say, they have not always been treated well. But humans haven't always been treat well either. So let's just say they human/animal history is not all sugar and spice and things nice.
3685678
There was a time when elephants weren't endangered. In fact in certain parts of Africa they still aren't. Having lived a couple years in Botswana as a kid, my earliest memories include many elephants, that and my dad testing just how fast a Land Cruiser could go in reverse as we were being charged by a bull elephant.
Alas though, elephant hunting isn't a politically correct topic of discussion even among most hunters. Many think this sport was nothing more than shooting blindly into a herd of large animals and hacking off the tusks. That may happen in some areas of the world, but that isn't hunting elephant, not the way Denis D. Lyell describes it. Maybe his days are over, but thankfully they are recorded in this book for the rest of us.
He describes what it is like to hike through miles and miles of bush living off the land in pursuit of elephant. He didn't just shoot elephants, he stalked them. And they aren't that easy to stalk. Many a hunter lost his life to the elephant he was pursuing. It isn't an easy thing to sneak in within shooting distance of a big bull in the midst of a herd and "brain" the animal with a shot through the eye, or ear with a relatively small caliber rifle for the job. And when you have finished doing that, you have to also keep clear of the stampede you created.
This is a great book chronicling what the days of the "great white hunter" were like. Denis D. Lyell also does much to talk about the need for conservation, and sportsmen etiquette. The language is sometimes a bit uncouth for our day, and a bit harsh to hear even for my ears. In some respects you are happy the days are bygone. Yet it is fascinating story telling, filled with suspense and pluck.
1398364
I have a versatile hunting dog, but as a pet only. I want him to exercise his instincts, so I guessed that a hunting training book would be relevant. I did get a lot of good tips, but most of the book assumes you live in the country with open access to a lot of land, and a good amount of the book is dedicated to infrastructure, e.g., raising training birds. It is very informative, and since there is not a book about raising a versatile hunting dog as a pet, I would still recommend.
3101941
We hear a lot these days about raw diets for dogs. It's true that dogs share almost the same DNA as wolves, "almost" being the key word here. The fact is, dogs are not wolves, and DNA doesn't tell the whole story. It doesn't account for environmental evolution, which, contrary to popular belief, doesn't take a million years.

Dogs have steadily been distancing themselves from their wild relatives through thousands of years of domestication. Further, the catch-all term "dog" comprises numerous breeds with many similarities and just as many differences. True, some dogs can and do turn feral and can exist quite well in a wild state, but many breeds would quickly die under the same circumstances. By the same token, some dogs might do well on a raw diet, but others won't.

While the recipes in this book are cooked, they head toward the opposite extreme and therefore, IMO, need to be tweaked. Dogs are highly carnivorous animals, thanks to their wild ancestry, and do best on a protein-heavy diet. The recipes given by Ms. Brown are grain-heavy. No matter which kind you use, grains aren't a natural food for either dogs or wolves. Ms. Brown suggests a 40 percent ratio of protein to 60 percent grains/vegetables. This might work therapeutically for a sick animal for a short duration, but healthy dogs need a higher percentage of animal protein in order to thrive. I suggest reversing the ratio, limiting the grain to 10 percent since it's mostly filler.

Having made a composite of one of the recipes (turkey, sweet potato, millet, squash, carrot, and sea veggies), I would recommend reducing the grain (or leaving it out entirely) and increasing the meat content accordingly. Garlic is neither necessary nor desirable for dogs and should be omitted. I would also suggest adding a tiny amount of salt. Most animals do need some salt for optimal health. Since turkey is very low-fat, a steady diet of it should include the daily addition of a bit of healthy oil (olive, cod liver, etc.) drizzled over the food prior to giving it to the dog. Don't be afraid to use a little fish oil or a smidge of rendered bacon fat.
3455729
Don't expect this to be the be all, end all of paleontology, but enjoy it as a concise, well-represented overview of significant species.
2772983
This is not really, of course, a Guinea Pig's History, although Guinea Pigs do figure prominently in one long chapter.  This is a book about discovery, and the roles that certain plants, animals, insects, and bacteria played in that discovery.  Most of these creatures (we'll use the term very loosely here) would be regarded as useless by most people in society--no great loss if they disappeared off the face of the earth.  But for different reasons, each had a vital role to play, and this may make you stop and pause before we readily consign another species to extinction.

Take, for example, the lowly mouse-ear cress:  no obvious benefit to anyone, not harmful so that one wants to eradicate it.  Perhaps "the most forgettable plant I've ever met" in Reader's Digest.  But as the book notes, scientists may be able to use it to feed the hungry and combat global warming:  who would have thunk it?  Fruitflies were long considered a minor annoyance--at least they didn't bite humans.  But they have been vital in genetic research.  The same with Guinea pigs:  they are docile because the ancient Incas bred them to be docile--catching them and eating them was easier.  Guinea pigs are one of the very few species, along with humans, that cannot synthesize vitamin C, for example.

So this book presents us with heroes:  the biological heroes, and the humans who recognized their potential to advance the frontiers of knowledge.  Endersby has a wonderful writing style:  he combines an ease with prose with a fine sense of humor, and you never get bogged down in endless dry technical details.  A thoroughly enjoyable book!
3322340
In many ways, the title of this book really sums things up:&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Some-We-Love-Some-We-Hate-Some-We-Eat-Why-It-s-So-Hard-to-Think-Straight-About-Animals/dp/0061730858/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals</a>.  I once wrote a paper titled "Why bad things happen to good animals."  I've been interested in this topic for a long time.

Author Hal Herzog asks, "What is it about human psychology that makes it so difficult for us to think consistently about animals?" (p. 39).  He delves into cuteness, the notion of pets versus food, hunting and hoarding, and even has a chapter titled "The Moral Status of Mice."

This is a scholarly, yet readable discussion of our strange relationship with animals.  There are a number of books that deal with a similar topic (such as&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Why-We-Love-Dogs-Eat-Pigs-and-Wear-Cows-An-Introduction-to-Carnism/dp/1573245054/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism</a>), but Herzog hits the nail on the head.  Why eat pigs and not horses?  Why cuddle dogs yet poison coyotes?  Why save whales but turn our homes into barren ecosystems?  Why preserve non-native ring-necked pheasants for hunters, killing native foxes and other mesopredators in the process?

What is it about us, that makes us comfortable with these decisions?

Real this book to find out!
3827720
This book covers the history of mammals since the fall of the dinosaurs, but focuses mostly on humans and our impact on the world - especially for the last 30,000 to 60,000 years.

Starting with a short overview history of Earth and the movements of the continents, Mr. Tudge works methodically to his ultimate goal for this great book... What has been our impact on this planet, how much momentum have we gathered and how far will we go before we reign ourselves back into the natural world.

Did humans cause the Pleistocine Overkill?  Were our ancestors 30,000 years ago merely the most voracious hunters, or were we proto game managers?  Are the large scale extinctions occurring in our own time our fault?

Mr. Tudge uses solid science, archeology, paleontology, etc. to create a framework of investigation and then isn't affraid to interject some of his own conclusions and provocative thoughts along the way.  This book makes a create compliment to Jarred Diamond's Guns, Germs & Steel giving us a very deep picture of who we are and where we are going.

>>>>>>><<<<<<<

A Guide to my Book Rating System:

1 star = The wood pulp would have been better utilized as toilet paper.
2 stars = Don't bother, clean your bathroom instead.
3 stars = Wasn't a waste of time, but it was time wasted.
4 stars = Good book, but not life altering.
5 stars = This book changed my world in at least some small way.
3524965
Hi, I just bought a copy of this book: Animals of the Serengeti. The fundamental reason why I buy this book is because I am very interested with the animal life in Serengeti as well as Ngorongoro. Perhaps I am influenced by watching wildlife series about this
area of Kenya and also the series of books I've read. Of special interest is the classic film: Year of the Wilderbeests, photographed
by Alan Root and his wife Joan. This yearly migration is nature's way to enable all grass browsers to have enough to eat during
the dry season. And also enable the carnivors or big cats to be supplied with plentiful supply of food. This Serengeti is perhaps God's Eden in which many forms of wildlife coexist. Travellers and visitors in this region are intrigued by the abundance of wildlife on the move...the yearly migration. Let's hope that Serengeti will never vanish in view of the fast dwindling nature in other parts of the world.
Indeed, the world would be very poor without the sight and viability of all these animals in Serengeti...keeping in mind that else where the gentle giants of our southern ocean (whales) are being "murdered" in large numbers every years for the fictitious "scientific research." Certainly the Japanese have a way to preserve the culinary culture, isn't it...Bingo!
2815473
The first thing you notice about this book is the beautiful photographs by Michael H. Frances.  May you take a single photograph in your visit that is as gorgeous as any of these!

Wilkinson provides a few pages of information about each of the charismatic megafauna in the parks: bison, wolves, elk, cougars, lynxes, and so on.  These "chapters" are easily accessible and written at about a middle-school level.  The book as a whole is very kid-friendly, though it wasn't necessarily written that way.

The book has very good advice for how, where, and when to spot mammals in these parks.  The section on each animal concludes with "where to find bighorn sheep" (or whatever). We've successfully spotted most of these animals, initially relying on the advice here, though we now have a few secrets of our own.

Our favorite charismatic megafauna are bears, wolves, and cougars.  We haven't spotted a cougar yet, and we haven't read as much about them.  We do have a Wolf Freak in the household, though.