Did you know that horned lizards can shoot blood from their eyes? Discover other mind-blowing facts about animals!

Did you know that horned lizards can shoot blood from their eyes? Discover other mind-blowing facts about animals!

Did you know the planet Uranus smells like farts? Discover other mind-blowing facts about space!

Did you know that a flower in the rain forest smells like a dead body? Discover other mind-blowing facts about plants!

Did you know that lightning strikes Earth one hundred times each second? Discover other mind-blowing facts about the weather!

Did you know that Earth is a giant magnet? Discover other mind-blowing facts about the Earth!

Whether an animal is fighting to survive or trying to catch a meal, sometimes their best bet is a surprise attack. From hidden claws and tentacles to sideways fangs, other animals don't see these startling weapons and defenses coming.

Did you know that horned lizards can shoot blood from their eyes? Discover other mind-blowing facts about animals!

Whether their populations are perceived as too large, just right, too small or non-existent, animal numbers matter to the humans with whom they share environments. Animals in the right numbers are accepted and even welcomed, but when they are seen to deviate from the human-declared set point, they become either enemies upon whom to declare war or victims to be protected. In this edited volume, leading and emerging scholars investigate for the first time the ways in which the size of an animal population impacts how they are viewed by humans and, conversely, how human perceptions of populations impact animals. This collection explores the fortunes of amphibians, mammals, insects and fish whose numbers have created concern in settler Australia and examines shifts in these populations between excess, abundance, equilibrium, scarcity and extinction. The book points to the importance of caution in future campaigns to manipulate animal populations, and demonstrates how approaches from the humanities can be deployed to bring fresh perspectives to understandings of how to live alongside other animals.