A variety of animals common to North America pose for portraits against a white background while narrating distinctive aspects of their natural histories: animals such as the American bullfrog, American toad, blue jay, Ohio crawfish, goldfish, southern flying squirrel, big brown bat, fox snake, eastern screech-owl, gray treefrog, bush katydid, Virginia opossum, Chinese praying mantis, jumping spider, red flat bark beetle, black swallowtail, eastern spiny softshell turtle, red-eyed vireo, eastern box turtle, spotted salamander, monarch. Includes curious critters silhouettes quiz and answer key.

A variety of animals common to Florida pose for portraits against white backgrounds accompanied by brief natural history information.

The first edition of Florida's Living Beaches (2007) was widely praised. Now, the second edition of this supremely comprehensive guide has even more to satisfy the curious beachcomber, including expanded content and additional accounts with more than 1800 full-color photographs, maps, and illustrations. It heralds the living things and metaphorical life along the state's 700 miles of sandy beaches. The expanded second edition now identifies and explains over 1400 curiosities, with lavishly illustrated accounts organized into Beach Features, Beach Animals, Beach Plants, Beach Minerals, and Hand of Man.

Carnivores such as pumas, jaguars, and ocelots have roamed the neotropical forests of Central America for millennia. Enshrined in the myths of the ancient Maya, they still inspire awe in the region's current inhabitants, as well as in the ecotourists and researchers who come to experience Central America's diverse and increasingly endangered natural environment. This book is one of the first field guides dedicated to the carnivores of Central America. It describes the four indigenous families—wild cats, raccoons and their relatives, skunks and their relatives, and wild canids—and their individual species that live in the region. The authors introduce each species by recounting a first-person encounter with it, followed by concise explanations of its taxonomy, scientific name, English and Spanish common names, habitat, natural history, and conservation status. Range maps show the animal's past and current distribution, while Claudia Nocke's black-and-white drawings portray it visually. The concluding chapter looks to the carnivores' future, including threats posed by habitat destruction and other human activities, and describes some current conservation programs. Designed for citizens of and visitors to Central America, as well as specialists, this book offers an excellent introduction to a group of fascinating, threatened, and still imperfectly understood animals.

Did you know fawns have no scent, an evolutionary defense against predators? And that the eastern grey squirrel is a formidable swimmer, which makes them quite suited for the Sunshine State? And that, unlike other avians, Florida scrub jay families stay together for years, with older siblings helping to feed younger siblings? Florida Animals for Everyday Naturalists contains everything you want to know about Florida’s furry, feathered, scaled, and shelled friends. With lively personal essays and stunning photographs, Larry Allan introduces you to the array of wildlife you might encounter in your backyard, at the park, or on a jaunt at one of the state’s many wildlife refuges. Each chapter is dedicated to a specific animal, like the bobcat, the river otter, and the caracara, and paired with vivid photos to help you identify these creatures in the wild. Allan’s fascination with Florida fauna is contagious, and his reverence of nature is unmistakable. While sharing his whimsical, enlightening, and instructive anecdotes, he gently argues for wildlife preservation in Florida and for responsible human-animal interactions. Perfect for young naturalists, inquisitive trekkers through the Sunshine State, or armchair adventurers, this book will help you appreciate the abundance of life right outside your door.

In this hysterical #1 New York Times bestseller, one kid has to wrangle gators, snakes, bats that bite, and a reality show host gone rogue! This is Carl Hiaasen's Florida—where the creatures are wild and the people are wilder! When Wahoo Cray’s dad—a professional animal wrangler—takes a job with a reality TV show called Expedition Survival!, Wahoo figures he'll have to do a bit of wrangling himself to keep his father from killing Derek Badger, the show's inept and egotistical star. But the job keeps getting more complicated: Derek Badger insists on using wild animals for his stunts; and Wahoo's acquired a shadow named Tuna—a girl who's sporting a shiner courtesy of her father and needs a place to hide out. They've only been on location in the Everglades for a day before Derek gets bitten by a bat and goes missing in a storm. Search parties head out and promptly get lost themselves. And then Tuna's dad shows up with a gun . . . It's anyone's guess who will actually survive Expedition Survival. . . “Only in Florida—and in the fiction of its native son Carl Hiaasen—does a dead iguana fall from a palm tree and kill somebody.” —New York Post “Chomp is a delightful laugh-out-loud sendup of the surreality of TV that will be enjoyed by readers of all ages.” —Los Angeles Times

Wolves, grizzlies, beluga whales, and other awesome creatures roam their native habitats in this fun-to-color collection of 30 accurately rendered drawings.

Text and pictures of some of the animals, birds, and other creatures that can be found in New Jersey.

Bright photographs show animals from Michigan.

A fascinating and beautiful guide to Ohio's extraordinary wetland wildlife The Buckeye State's many ponds and vernal pools are populated by a dizzying variety of wildlife. Animals of Ohio's Ponds and Vernal Pools takes a close-up look at unique wetlands--from fascinating fish and amphibians to intriguing insects and birds--besides examining pond and vernal pool ecology, Ohio's geologic history influencing wetland formation, and hydrology and energy cycles. In prose that enlightens and entertains, author David S. FitzSimmons uncovers both the rare and common life-forms found in and around Ohio's ponds and vernal pools. First he discusses the Buckeye State's variety of small lakes, covering everything from managed farm ponds to glacially formed basins. He then turns to vernal pools, temporary waters that fill in the late winter or spring and dry up in the summer. His moving prose describing specialized amphibian breeding habitats includes vivid accounts of rainy spring nights when hundreds of mole salamanders slip into the filling waters while equal numbers of wood frogs "clack" loudly in the dark. Accompanying these scientifically accurate and poetic descriptions are Gary Meszaros's extraordinary photographs, including close-ups of multicolored dragonflies, underwater shots of fish, beautiful images of birds, and idyllic vistas of Ohio's serene ponds and secluded pools. Animals of Ohio's Ponds and Vernal Pools is a wonderful resource about the wetlands and wildlife that will inspire readers to learn about and protect their own natural environments.