Birds, Beasts and Relatives

Birds, Beasts and Relatives
Author: Gerald Durrell
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2016-10-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1504041666

The follow-up to My Family and Other Animals and the inspiration for The Durrells in Corfu: A naturalist’s memoir of his family’s time on a Greek island. In the years before World War II, Gerald Durrell’s family left the gloomy shores of England for the sun-drenched island of Corfu. Against this picturesque backdrop, Durrell fondly recalls his family’s disorderly household and outrageous antics, including their interactions with locals of both human and animal varieties. After a boyhood spent studying zoology and acquiring the island’s exotic insects, reptiles, birds, mammals, and sea creatures as pets, Durrell’s budding naturalism would later bloom into a passion for conservation that would last a lifetime. Filled with clever observations, amusing anecdotes, and childlike wonder, Birds, Beasts and Relatives is half nature guide, half coming-of-age tale, and all charmingly funny memoir. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Gerald Durrell including rare photos from the author’s estate.

Birds, Beasts, Critters and Creatures

Birds, Beasts, Critters and Creatures
Author: Jimmy Lynn
Publisher:
Total Pages: 42
Release: 2018-11
Genre:
ISBN: 9781949474206

Take a deep look inside the "Belly of the Beast," and uncover how the animals lived inside Noah's remarkable Ark. Children and parents, alike, will have endless fun flipping through 40 pages of beautifully hand-drawn illustrations, all while taking a look at one of the Bible's oldest tales.

Renaissance Beasts

Renaissance Beasts
Author: Erica Fudge
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2010-10-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0252091337

Animals, as Lévi-Strauss wrote, are good to think with. This collection addresses and reassesses the variety of ways in which animals were used and thought about in Renaissance culture, challenging contemporary as well as historic views of the boundaries and hierarchies humans presume the natural world to contain. Taking as its starting point the popularity of speaking animals in sixteenth-century literature and ending with the decline of the imperial Ménagerie during the French Revolution, Renaissance Beasts uses the lens of human-animal relationships to view issues as diverse as human status and power, diet, civilization and the political life, religion and anthropocentrism, spectacle and entertainment, language, science and skepticism, and domestic and courtly cultures. Within these pages scholars from a variety of disciplines discuss numerous kinds of texts--literary, dramatic, philosophical, religious, political--by writers including Calvin, Montaigne, Sidney, Shakespeare, Descartes, Boyle, and Locke. Through analysis of these and other writers, Renaissance Beasts uncovers new and arresting interpretations of Renaissance culture and the broader social assumptions glimpsed through views on matters such as pet ownership and meat consumption. Renaissance Beasts is certainly about animals, but of the many species discussed, it is ultimately humankind that comes under the greatest scrutiny.

100 Animals That Can F*cking End You

100 Animals That Can F*cking End You
Author: Mamadou Ndiaye
Publisher: Voracious
Total Pages: 226
Release: 2022-07-05
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0316453870

A wittily informative field guide to the deadliest animals on Earth from "AnimalTok" star @mndiaye_97 Ever wonder how to tell if a moose is about to subtract you? Curious why you should be terrified of cassowaries, the “velociraptor that time forgot?” Questioning whether that cute baby hippo is actually a homicidal maniac in the making? Yea, so was Mamadou Ndiaye . . . and now he's got your answers. 100 Animals That Can F*cking End You is the ultimate countdown to merk by animal, featuring everything from tiny bugs that can turn you into a hashtag to animals so massive they can murder you by accident. These include: • The massive Southern elephant seal, which "is built like a truck with the personality of a Spring Break frat boy" • Sperm whales with a call so strong it can vibrate you to death • A golf-ball-sized octopus that can erase twenty-six people with one bite • Hyenas, which have no qualms eating their prey while it is still alive • A snake so quick it can strike you three times before you blink You’ll learn not only which animals to avoid, but which ones can beat you in a footrace, which ones create surprisingly high body counts, and which ones will give you a good reason never to venture into the ocean. Mamadou also offers the occasional survival tip, even if it is just to make peace with your higher power. This dynamic, fact-filled, occasionally disturbing book is perfect for animal lovers and anyone perplexed by the natural world.

The Big, Bad Book of Beasts

The Big, Bad Book of Beasts
Author: Michael Largo
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 611
Release: 2013-04-16
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0062087460

The world's wildest collection of animal knowledge and lore! Lions, and tigers, and bears . . . and dinosaurs, dragons, and monsters. Oh my! For hundreds of years, the most popular books in the Western world next to the Bible were "bestiaries," fanciful encyclopedias collecting all of human knowledge and mythology about the animal kingdom. In these pages, eagles and elephants lived next to griffins and sea monsters. Now, in The Big, Bad Book of Beasts, award-winning author Michael Largo has updated the medieval bestsellers for the twenty-first century, illuminating little-known facts, astonishing secrets, and bizarre superstitions about the beasts that inhabit our world—and haunt our imaginations. You'll learn about the biggest bug ever, the smallest animal in the world, and the real creatures that inspired the fabled unicorns. You'll discover how birds learned to fly, why cats rub against your legs, and a thousand other facts that will make you look at nature in a wonderfully new way. Did you know? The fastest animal in the world is the peregrine falcon, which reaches speeds of over 200 miles per hours. Circus ringmaster P.T. Barnum fooled many when he displayed a "mermaid" carcass that was later proved to be monkey bones sewed together with the body of a fish. Discovered in a remote volcanic crater in New Guinea, the Bosavi wolly rat grows to the size of a cat. President Andrew Jackson bought an African gray parrot to keep his wife company. The bird outlived them both and was removed from Jackson's funeral for cussing in both English and Spanish. A to Z: From Aardvark to Zooplankton! For all ages! Includes 289 illustrations!

Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside

Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside
Author: Brad Steiger
Publisher: Visible Ink Press
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2010-09-01
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1578593476

Over 250 of the most bloodcurdling and bone-chillingly fascinating and true monster stories. Not recommended for reading just before bedtime! Monsters have been spotted everywhere, not just slithering under a child’s bed or lurking in the closet. Paranormal researcher extraordinaire Brad Steiger, an author of thousands of books and articles on the mysterious and unknown, collects some of the scariest, most unbelievable but true monster stories in his latest collection, Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters and Beasts from the Darkside. From slightly demented humans to spine-tingling paranormal encounters, each outlandish occurrence is detailed with thorough research and recounted with a storyteller’s crafted voice. This bold telling of verified monster sightings taken from historical records and first-person accounts features: The British scientists’ discovery of a tuft of hair in the Himalayan mountains containing DNA that cannot be matched with any known animal—the most convincing proof yet that Yetis are real; The “Mothman” sighted in West Virginia that some believe to be a harbinger of death; The monstrous creature, complete with horns and tail, that still lurks in the shadows of the Big Easy; The expectant mother examined by the strange praying-mantis entities aboard a UFO; and The couple walking near a lake in British Columbia, Canada, astonished to see a reptilian humanoid emerging from the lake's depths; UFO abductors seeking to create human-alien hybrids; Lake monsters, lizardmen, and creepy mermaids troll the waters for prey; Dinosaurs terrorize the jungles; Yeti and Bigfoot leave clues that they live in the mountains; Big cats, black dogs, and giant snakes prowl neighborhoods; And many, many more hair-raising stories! Highlighting news articles, historical accounts, and first-person interviews, this chronicle of human interactions with monsters will convince even the most hardened skeptic of the existence of the bogeyman, Bigfoot, shadow people, devils, mutant animals, swamp creatures, and all kinds of heinous beasts. Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters and Beasts from the Darkside will leave you constantly looking over your shoulder and wondering about the things that go bump and howl and screech in the night.

Kickle Snifters and Other Fearsome Critters

Kickle Snifters and Other Fearsome Critters
Author: Alvin Schwartz
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Total Pages: 68
Release: 1992
Genre: Animals, Mythical
ISBN: 9780064461290

Brief text and illustrations introduce such strange creatures from American folklore as the snawfus, billdad, lufferlang, and tripodero.

The Creature Garden

The Creature Garden
Author: Zanna Goldhawk
Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2018-05-29
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0760364206

The Creature Garden takes you on a step-by-step expedition through the natural world, teaching you how to draw and paint 50 animals in a whimsical folk-art style. Your guides on this journey are the husband-and-wife illustrator team Harry and Zanna Goldhawk, the founders of Papio Press, who will teach you how to make vibrant paintings of beasts—both real and imagined. Learn to create: MAMMALS, including big cats, wolves, sloths, and red pandas MARINE LIFE, including whales, sea dragons, narwhals, and giant Pacific octopi BIRDS, including peacocks, cranes, owls, and flamingos INSECTS, including butterflies, moths, bumblebees, and damselflies MYTHICAL CREATURES, including mermaids, unicorns, and dragons AND MORE! Each project takes you through every step of the artistic process, from creating an outline to adding a realistic animal pattern, along with suggestions for materials and helpful techniques. Full of lush warmth and fairy-tale wonder, The Creature Garden is a wonderful addition to the repertoire of both seasoned artists and novices alike.

Animots

Animots
Author: Matthew Senior
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 2015-01-01
Genre: Foreign Language Study
ISBN: 0300206658

The latest volume of Yale French Studies addresses French-inspired theoretical and philosophical concerns centered on animals and animality. Contributors from France, the United Kingdom, and North America discuss animal-related topics in the French philosophical and literary tradition, offering a wide range of perspectives on animals, ethics, and the future of animal studies. Essays question the reducibility of animal lives to rights discourse on the one hand and scientific empiricisms on the other, and examine whether and how the advent of the posthuman will affect the standing and the future of the nonhuman animal.