Feral Animals in the American South

Feral Animals in the American South
Author: Abraham Gibson
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2016-08-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107156947

This book retells American southern history from feral animals' perspective, examining social, cultural, and evolutionary consequences of domestication and feralization.

Environmental Disaster in the Gulf South

Environmental Disaster in the Gulf South
Author: Ted Steinberg
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2018-01-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807167118

Hurricanes, floods, oil spills, disease, and disappearing wetlands are some of the many environmental disasters that impact the Gulf South. The contributors to Environmental Disaster in the Gulf South explore the threat, frequency, and management of this region’s disasters from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. Scholars from the fields of history, sociology, and anthropology examine the underlying causes of vulnerability to natural hazards in the coastal states while also suggesting ways to increase resilience. Greg O’Brien considers the New Orleans flood of 1849; Andy Horowitz, the Galveston storm of 1900; and Christopher M. Church, the 1928 hurricane in Florida and the Caribbean. Urmi Engineer Willoughby delves into the turn-of-the-century yellow fever outbreaks in New Orleans and local attempts to eradicate them, while Abraham H. Gibson and Cindy Ermus discuss the human introduction of invasive species and their long-term impact on the region’s ecosystem. Roberto E. Barrios looks at political-ecological susceptibility in New Orleans’s Lower Ninth Ward, and Kevin Fox Gotham treats storm- and flood-defense infrastructures. In his afterword, Ted Steinberg ponders what the future holds when the capitalist state supports an unwinnable battle between land developers and nature. These case studies offer new ways of understanding humans’ interactions with the unique, and at times unforgiving, environment of the Gulf South. These lessons are particularly important as we cope with the effects of climate change and seek to build resilience and reduce vulnerability through enhanced awareness, adequate preparation, and efficient planning.

Wild Pigs in the United States

Wild Pigs in the United States
Author: John J. Mayer
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2008-03-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 0820331376

With an estimated population of at least 500,000 distributed across nineteen states, the wild-living pig (Sus scrofa) is the most abundant free-ranging introduced ungulate in the United States. Until now, however, little has been known about the wild pig on a national scale, despite its abundance and significance as both a pest and a game animal. Whereas previous studies have been regional in scope, Wild Pigs in the United States is the most comprehensive work available on wild pig history, current status, comparative morphology, and other subjects important to the species' management and control. The information in this volume relates to the country's three prevalent wild pig types: the introduced Eurasian wild boar, the feral (once domestic, now wild) hog, and hybrids of the two. The first section of the book presents a history of wild pigs in this country-their origins; when, where, and by whom they were first introduced; and their subsequent dispersal. John J. Mayer and I. Lehr Brisbin, Jr. then develop specific criteria, based on taxonomic principles, for differentiating between the wild pig types. Employing numerous illustrations, graphs, and tables, they analyze and compare morphometric and discrete characters of the skull, external body dimensions and proportions, coat colorations patterns, and hair structure and form. A report on the status of wild pig populations in the United States (as of 1991) completes the volume. To profile the present ranges, habitats, and morphotypic makeups of wild pigs, the authors conducted two national surveys--in 1981 and 1988--among private individuals and federal and state personnel. Their report is also based on other recent wild pig studies and additional information from survey respondents. The book's reference section is particularly valuable, for its lists all sources consulted as well as the names and addresses of authorities the authors interviewed or with whom they corresponded. Aided by the book's wealth of current data, biologists and wildlife managers can make informed decisions about such issues as state versus private ownership of wild pig populations and the status of wild pigs as pests or game animals. In addition, hunters and sportsmen, zoologists, and even specialized historians and archaeologists will find Wild Pigs in the United States useful and informative.

Feral Empire

Feral Empire
Author: Kathryn Renton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2024-05-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316515079

Examines how horses shaped society, politics, and imperial control during the first century of conquest and colonization in Spanish America.

Wild and Exotic Animal Ophthalmology

Wild and Exotic Animal Ophthalmology
Author: Fabiano Montiani-Ferreira
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 584
Release: 2022-06-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030812731

This Volume 2 of a two-volume work is the first textbook to offer a practical yet comprehensive approach to clinical ophthalmology in wild and exotic mammals. A phylogenetic approach is used to introduce the ecology and importance of vision across the entire diversity of mammal species before focusing on both the diverse aspects of comparative anatomy and clinical management of ocular disease from one animal group to the next. Edited by three of the most esteemed authorities in exotic animal ophthalmology, this two-volume work is separated into non-mammalian species (Volume 1: Invertebrates, Fishes, Amphibians, Reptiles, and Birds) and Mammals (Volume 2: Mammals). Wild and Exotic Animal Ophthalmology, Volumes 1 and 2 is an essential collection for veterinary ophthalmologists and other veterinary practitioners working with wild and exotic animals.

Animal Histories of the Civil War Era

Animal Histories of the Civil War Era
Author: Earl J. Hess
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2022-03-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 0807177156

Animals mattered in the Civil War. Horses and mules powered the Union and Confederate armies, providing mobility for wagons, pulling artillery pieces, and serving as fighting platforms for cavalrymen. Drafted to support the war effort, horses often died or suffered terrible wounds on the battlefield. Raging diseases also swept through army herds and killed tens of thousands of other equines. In addition to weaponized animals such as horses, pets of all kinds accompanied nearly every regiment during the war. Dogs commonly served as unit mascots and were also used in combat against the enemy. Living and fighting in the natural environment, soldiers often encountered a variety of wild animals. They were pestered by many types of insects, marveled at exotic fish while being transported along the coasts, and took shots at alligators in the swamps along the lower Mississippi River basin. Animal Histories of the Civil War Era charts a path to understanding how the animal world became deeply involved in the most divisive moment in American history. In addition to discussions on the dominant role of horses in the war, one essay describes the use of camels by individuals attempting to spread slavery in the American Southwest in the antebellum period. Another explores how smaller wildlife, including bees and other insects, affected soldiers and were in turn affected by them. One piece focuses on the congressional debate surrounding the creation of a national zoo, while another tells the story of how the famous show horse Beautiful Jim Key and his owner, a former slave, exposed sectional and racial fault lines after the war. Other topics include canines, hogs, vegetarianism, and animals as veterans in post–Civil War America. The contributors to this volume—scholars of animal history and Civil War historians—argue for an animal-centered narrative to complement the human-centered accounts of the war. Animal Histories of the Civil War Era reveals that warfare had a poignant effect on animals. It also argues that animals played a vital role as participants in the most consequential conflict in American history. It is time to recognize and appreciate the animal experience of the Civil War period.

Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo

Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo
Author: Daniel Vandersommers
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2023-09-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0700635696

Founded amid the urban commotion of Washington, DC, before the dawn of the twentieth century, the National Zoological Park opened to “preserve, teach, and conduct research about the animal world.” Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo is a study of this important cultural landmark from 1887 to 1920. Centered on the animals themselves, each chapter looks from a different angle at the influential science of popular zoology in order to shed new light on the complex, entangled relationships between humans and animals. Daniel Vandersommers’s goal is twofold. First, through narrative, he shows how zoo animals always ran away from the zoo. This is meant literally—animals escaped frequently—but even more so, figuratively. Living, breathing, historical zoo animals ran away from their cultural constructions, and these constructions ran away from the living bodies they were made to represent. The author shows that the resulting gaps produced by runaway animals contain concealed, distorted, and erased histories worthy of uncovering. Second, Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo demonstrates how the popular zoology fostered by the National Zoo shaped every aspect of American science, culture, and conservation during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Between the 1880s and World War I, as intellectuals debated Darwinism and scientists institutionalized the laboratory, zoological parks suddenly appeared at the heart of nearly every major American city, captivating tens of millions of visitors. Vandersommers follows stories previously hidden within the National Zoo in order to help us reconsider the place of zoos and their inhabitants in the twenty-first century.

Reading Cats and Dogs

Reading Cats and Dogs
Author: Françoise Besson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2020-12-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1793611076

Throughout the world, people spend much of their time with animal companions of various kinds, frequently with cats and dogs. What meanings do we make of these relationships? In the ecocritical collection Reading cats and Dogs, a diverse array of scholars considers the philosophy, literature, and film devoted to human relationships with companion species. In addition to illuminating famous animal stories by Beatrix Potter, Jack London, Italo Svevo, and Michael Ondaatje, readers are introduced to the dog poems of Shuntarō Tanikawa, a Turkish documentary on stray cats as neighborhood companions, and the representation of diverse animal companions in Cameroonian novels. Focusing on “Stray and Feral Companions,” “The Usefulness of Companion Animals,” and “Problematizing Companion Animals,” Reading Cats and Dogs aims both to confirm and topple readers’ assumptions about the fellow travelers with whom we share our lives, our streets and fields, and our planet. Fifteen contributors from various countries reveal the aesthetic, ethical, and psychological complexities of our multispecies relationships, demonstrating the richness of ecocritical animal studies.

Invasive Wild Pigs in North America

Invasive Wild Pigs in North America
Author: Kurt C. VerCauteren
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 493
Release: 2019-12-12
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1351869892

Throughout North America, non-native wild pigs have become an ecologically and economically destructive invasive species. Though they are regarded as a popular game species by some, provide economic benefits to others, and are even engrained into societal heritage in some areas, wild pigs are responsible for an extraordinary amount of damage in both natural and anthropogenic systems throughout North America. As the density and range of wild pig habitat have substantially increased over the last several decades, the magnitude and diversity of their negative impacts are not yet fully realized or quantified. With various conflicts continually emerging, wild pig management is difficult and expensive to achieve. As a result, wild pigs represent one of the greatest wildlife management challenges North America faces in the 21st century. Invasive Wild Pigs in North America: Ecology, Impacts, and Management addresses all aspects of wild pig biology, ecology, damage, and management in a single comprehensive volume. It assimilates and organizes information on the most destructive introduced vertebrate species in the United States, establishing a foundation from which managers, researchers, policy makers, and other stakeholders can build upon into the future. The book provides comprehensive coverage of wild pig biology and ecology, techniques for management and research, and regional chapters. It is an asset to readers interested in wild pigs, the resources they impact, and how to mitigate those impacts, and establishes a vision of the future of wild pigs in North America. Features: Compiles valuable knowledge for a broad audience including wild pig managers, researchers, adversaries, and enthusiasts from across North America Addresses taxonomy, morphology, genetics, physiology, spatial ecology, population dynamics, diseases and parasites, and the naturalized niche of wild pigs Includes chapters on damage to resources, management, research methods, human dimensions and education, and policy and legislation Contains full color images and case studies of interesting and informative situations being created by wild pigs throughout North America Includes a chapter on wild pigs at the wildland–urban interface, a more recent and especially challenging issue

Introduced Mammals of the World

Introduced Mammals of the World
Author: John L Long
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
Total Pages: 612
Release: 2003-08-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0643099166

Winner in the Scholarly Reference section of the 2004 Australian Awards for Excellence in Educational Publishing. Introduced Mammals of the World provides a concise and extensive source of information on the range of introductions of mammals conducted by humans, and an indication as to which have resulted in adverse outcomes. It provides a very valuable tool by which scientists can assess future potential introductions (or re-introductions) to avoid costly mistakes. It also provides tangible proof of the need for political decision makers to consider good advice and make wise and cautious decisions. Introduced Mammals of the World also provides a comprehensive reference to students of ecological systems management and biological conservation. This book is a companion volume to Introduced Birds of the World, by the same author, published in 1981, and which remains the premier text of its kind in the world more than twenty years after it was published. Introduced Mammals of the World provides the most comprehensive account of the movement of mammals around the world providing details on the date(s) of introduction, the person/agency responsible, the source populations, the location(s) of release, the fate of the introductions, and the impact if known, for over 300 species of mammal.