Nature & Environment

From the milk we drink in the morning to the leather shoes we slip on for the day, to the steak we savour at dinner, our daily lives are thoroughly bound up with the cow. Yet there is a far more complex story behind this seemingly benign creature, which Hannah Velten explores here, plumbing the rich trove of myth, fact and legend surrounding the cow, bull and ox. From the plowing field to the rodeo to the temple, Velten tracks the constantly changing social relationship between men and cattle...

The tale--or tail?--of the canine has been fundamentally entwined with humanity since prehistory, and this ancient and fascinating story is told in Susan McHugh's Dog. This book unravels the debate about whether dogs are descended from wolves and moves on to deal with canines in mythology, religion, and health; explore dog cults in ancient and medieval civilizations as disparate as Alaska, Greece, Peru, and Persia; and trace correspondences between the histories of dogs in the Far East, Europ...

Although it might seem the most mundane of fish when pulled from the mud of creeks, ponds, rivers or the sea, the eel's life cycle is one of the most remarkable on the planet. Freshwater eels are born, according to current scientific theory, in remote ocean depths, and journey thousands of miles to fresh water where they spend their lives, before returning to the ocean to mate and die. A favourite food for humans since antiquity, feeding London's poor during the Middle Ages, and saving the Ma...

Its hooves were supposedly a cure for epilepsy, it is the mascot of the clothing company Abercrombie and Fitch, and its meat is a delicacy. The moose is a fascinating but elusive animal of the north, and its little-known natural history is the focus of Kevin Jackson's engaging new book. Moose explains the animal's behaviour, evolution and diet, and describes its natural environments around the world, including in the USA, Canada and Scandinavia, where the moose is the national animal of Swede...

People in most countries are familiar with the blue peacock. It is one of the very few bird species that will tolerate a person standing within a few feet of it, and appears to appreciate an audience when it unfurls its magnificent train into a 6 7-foot arc of glittering iridescent feathers. The train feathers with their eye-spots have been prized possessions for centuries. The first record of a peacock in the Middle East, taken there from its homeland in the Indus Valley, was when King Solom...

Every year, wild salmon travel hundreds of miles upstream. They fight fierce river currents, leap over rocks and small waterfalls, and die by the thousands of starvation, disease and exposure to cold. Even if they surmount these obstacles the fish risk becoming dinner for hungry predators like bears, birds and humans. Guided by a keen sense of smell, the survivors travel to their original hatching grounds, where they breed, spawn and die in a short space of time. Inspired by the remarkable ho...

For most of us, snails do not elicit feelings of warmth or affection. Apart from our repugnance at its appearance, our relationship with the snail has been influenced by the harm it has inflicted over the years on our garden seedlings. With Snail, Peter Williams wishes to change our perspectives on this little but much maligned creature. Beginning with an overview of our relationship with snails, slugs and sea-snails, Williams goes on to examine snail evolution; snail behaviour and habitat; s...

Of more than 8,000 bird species, the swan is surely one of the most easily recognised. Airborne, the swan is a majestic sight: with its long, slender neck outstretched, it glides gracefully with slow, strong wing-beats. Its large webbed feet and short legs, which make it awkward on land, propel it serenely and effortlessly through water. Swan is a comprehensive natural and cultural history of this most dignified of birds. Peter Young relates the natural history of the swan: its elegant exteri...