happens when the highest link in a food chain is removed. The resultant population growth, food shortage, and starvation affect every member of the chain. A family of wolves leave their island environment. Although, at first, their absence is unnoticed, nature's delicately balanced ecosystem comes undone over a period of months, and the mice, rabbits, squirrels, and even owls fight for survival. Finally, the accidental return of the wolf family to their home restores the island habitat to health. Celia Godkin's dramatic, full colour illustrations will inspire readers of all ages. Her scientific portrait of an ecosystem and its component species will not be easily forgotten.  (less)

Faulkner. Published in New York in 1929, Thomas Wolfe's novel was considered striking and important-a work by a genius with a grand, compelling personality. It is a novel in the American romantic tradition, meant to contain Wolfe's own ""American experience"" as represented by his alter ego, Eugene Gant. In the seventy-four years since it was published, the novel has received steadily less critical attention. Wolfe's initial editor, Maxwell Perkins, cut sixty thousand words from its original text to make it more readable, but many recent critics and readers continue to find Look Homeward, Angel a hugely sprawling text that is sometimes clearly bombastic. Some are also offended by what it says about race and gender. These elements have led to a decline in Wolfe's reputation and a reevaluation of his importance to the literary movement of his time. Nevertheless, Wolfe's first novel remains very important to the twentieth-century American tradition, and Wolfe generally retains his contemporary reputation as a unique genius. The best critical approach to his work is one that understands it firmly within its time and place. It is a novel with a strong sense of autobiography, a Bildungsroman (novel of development), an attempt at a comprehensive display of life in the American South from 1900...."  (less)

and fellow musicians and on the letters, diaries, and documents he uncovered to create a portrait of this headstrong and fascinating man.  (less)

the myths and fables of many lands.  (less)

unmolested by humans, Denali wolves have flourished in this massive and beautiful wilderness. For over nine years these wolves have been the subject of intense research by a group of renowned scientists led by L. David Mech. The results of their work provide the most comprehensive study on a population of wolves and their prey ever available, now made public in this accessible and fascinating book.PThe Wolves of Denali is the story of more than thirty wolf packs monitored for nine years. Using aerial radio tracking, Mech and his colleagues monitored 147 individual wolves. In order to explore the interactions between wolves and caribou, the authors also simultaneously tracked 653 individual caribou following the herds around Denali park.PFrom this remarkable research comes a vivid portrait of the Denali wolf and its prey. Written in an engaging manner and extensively illustrated, the authors explore everything from pack competition for space and food, to the story of individual wolves fighting each other or dispersing hundreds of miles. The Wolves of Denali provides important new information for researchers and general readers, and will appeal to wolf enthusiasts across the world.  (less)

currently secretary of the Sierra Club's Oregon chapter and lives in Ashland, Oregon.Bears are unique. Although they are the world's largest carnivores, their diet is primarily vegetarian. They combine immense physical power with one of the keenest intelligences in the animal kingdom. They refuse to knuckle under to any kind of human domination. That is why we are tremendously fascinated by bears and tremendously fearful of them.brbrBears: Their Life and Behavior is a superb photographic study by Art Wolfe, one of the world's foremost nature photographers. He vividly portrays in their wilderness retreats and typical habitats all of the three North American bear species -- brown (grizzly) bears, black bears, and polar bears -- over 170 of his stunning photographs of bears in action: working and playing, food gathering, romping, fighting, and courting. There is an awe-inspiring close-up portrait of an Alaskan grizzly gaping at the camera. A brown bear catches salmon. A grizzly shows its speed chasing squirrels. Black bear cubs huddle against a tree. A polar bear feeds on kelp. A polar bear crosses an iced-over lagoon. Standing to full height on its hind legs, a polar bear checks out an intruder.brbrWilliam Ashworth has written an enlightening text based on exhaustive research and a working life spent primarily in bear country. In an introductory chapter he explores the human fascination with bears and their highly distinctive anatomy and physiology. Then he covers in great detail the three specific North American bear species -- where each one lives, their migration patterns, their summer and winter ranges, their habitat requirements, and the unpredictability of bear behavior and the reasons to be wary of them. Finally, h?Р (less)