Book Description

Endorsed by the Wildlife Conservation Society. Most travellers to Belize and Guatemala want to experience lush tropical forests and catch glimpses of exotic wildlife. This guide provides all the information you need to find, identify, and learn about the region's magnificent animal life. Beletsky selected approximately 500 of the animals you are most likely to see, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Also pictured are some of the highly endangered species of the area. You will want to have this easy-to-carry, entertaining, and beautifully illustrated book as a constant companion on your journey.Key Features:
* Illustrates the most commonly spotted animals and provides information on their identification, location, and conservation
* Provides extensive, up-to-date information on animals' ecology and behavior
* Covers Belize's famous coral reef and the animals seen by divers and snorkelers
* Presents the habitats of Belize and northern Guatemala and the most common plants visitors encounter

* Describes the region's most frequently visited parks and reserves ... Read more

Reviews (2)

BOOBY
Great book, but where's the picture of the red footed booby?

Excellent!
From Planeta journal:

An impressive first edition, not as much a tourist's guidebook as a naturalist's handbook. Color illustrations document native birds, mammals and reptiles. The author provides a brief eco-history of the region as well as background on environmental threats and conservation. Excellent! ... Read more

Book Description

The Sonoran Desert is one of the most wildly diverse andfascinating regions in the world. Covering southeastern California, the southernhalf of Arizona, most of Baja California, and much of the state of Sonora,Mexico, this vast area is home to an amazing variety of plants and animals. Itsterrain varies dramatically, from parched desert lowlands to semiarid tropicalforests and frigid subalpine meadows. A Natural History of the Sonoran Desertprovides the most complete collection of Sonoran Desert natural historyinformation ever compiled and is a perfect introduction to this biologicallyrich desert of North America. The authorsexperts in many fieldsbegin with a general look at the region'sgeology, paleoecology, climate, human ecology, and biodiversity. The book thenlooks in depth at hundreds of plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians,native fishes, and invertebrates that live in the northern part of the SonoranDesert. Throughout, the text is supplemented with anecdotes, essays, color andblack-and-white photographs, maps, diagrams, and 450 finely-rendered drawings.This comprehensive, accessible natural history is written for nonscientists andwill surely become an invaluable companion for nature enthusiasts, birdwatchers,hikers, students, and anyone interested in the desert Southwest. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Scholarly
Subjects are thoroughly covered and the information is written in a friendly and interesting manner. If you have a question about the Sonoran Desert, you will most likely find the answer here. Among other surprises, this book offered my first look at the "creeping devil cactus" - how interesting! I'd never even heard of it before. "A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert" is a book you will turn to for detailed information that can be trusted as well as entertainment. Very nice photographs and illustrations. A great book for a nature lover, even if the Sonoran Desert holds no particular interest to them.

Armchair nature watching
This is the ideal book to take along on trips to the Sonora Desert. Whether it is the Cailfornian , including Baja, Arizonian(it actually covers five states) or Mexican portions of the vast and diverse Sonara Desert, the details and complexities of this eco system are truly amazing. This book is an indespensible guide to all facets of this immense gift, including the many plants and animals that inhabit this harsh yet bountiful environment. It is a book to read before, as well as after the trips to the desert. Since it is so diverse and vast , covering some 100, 000 sq.mi., the amount of information given is quite a bit but done in such a mannner that one can easily navigate the text to the desired area of interest Inevitably one will stray into an area of new found interest. The little known facts are a lay persons path to knowledge about what the heck they just saw or are about to see. The black and white illustrations for the plants and animals you will or did encounter are excellent and extremely helpful for identification. There is a section with color photographs as well to further illustrate the beauty of the Sonora Desert. With contributions by some thirty five different experts in their pespective field this book is the ultimate guide. Do not hesitate to buy this book if you are visting the Sonora Desert as it will prove to be a valuble reference tool that can be used over and over. Since there is so much to learn about the Sonora Desert and it's inhabitants, this book can be read anytime, anywhere since it is nearly impossible to experience it all. Recommended for the tourist, naturalist or anyone interested in learning more about the 2000 species of plants, 550 species of verbrates and thousands of unknown invertebrate species who make the Sonora Desert home. This is truly fascinating material that only nature can provide so don't hesitate to purchase this book.

natural history of the sonoran desert
we agree with all of the other reveiws.... a great discovery and a great resource....Glad we got it...

A wonderful book
This is great book and a must-have for anyone interested in the American deserts. Thorough and well-written. This is the second book that I've bought that was published by the Arizon Sonora Desert Museum and I love both of them.

Thorough and Well-Written
An extraordinary book on an extraordinary place, A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert is well written for both the layperson and expert alike. Each of the diverse chapters is written by the expert(s) on those subjects, who not only know their subjects well, but also write clearly and enthusiastically. Chapters cover the expected topics -- geology, climate, human cultures, plants, and animals -- and the unexpected -- the uniqueness of the desert's air and light and its "deep" history. The Sonoran Desert is enthralling, and this book will heighten your awareness of the desert's beauty and complexity and will provide you with information on where to visit and what to expect during each of the Sonoran Desert's five seasons. ... Read more

Book Description

Presents the first comprehensive guide to the analysis of spatial data. Each chapter covers a particular data format and the associated class of problems, introducing theory, giving computational suggestions, and providing examples. Methods are illustrated by computer-drawn figures. Serves as an introduction to this rapidly growing research area for mathematicians and statisticians, and as a reference to new computer methods for research workers in ecology, geology, archeology, and the earth sciences. ... Read more

Book Description

Generations of plant scientists have been fascinated by alpine plant life - with the exposure of organisms to dramatic climatic gradients over a very short distance. This comprehensive text treats a wide range of topics: alpine climate and soils, plant distribution and the treeline phenomenon, physiological ecology of water-, nutritional- and carbon relations of alpine plants, plant stress and plant development, biomass production, aspects of reproductive biology, and human impacts on alpine vegetation. Geographically the book covers all parts of the world including the tropics.This new edition of Alpine Plant Life has been fully updated. It now includes over a hundred new references, new diagrams, revised and extended chapters, and a geographic index. ... Read more

Book Description

Comforting terms such as "sustainable development" and "green production" frame environmental debate by stressing technology (not green enough), economic growth (not enough in the right places), and population (too large). Concern about consumption emerges, if at all, in benign ways--as calls for green purchasing or more recycling, or for small changes in production processes. Many academics, policymakers, and journalists, in fact, accept the economists view of consumption as nothing less than the purpose of the economy. Yet many people have a troubled, intuitive understanding that tinkering at the margins of production and purchasing will not put society on an ecologically and socially sustainable path.

Confronting Consumption places consumption at the center of debate by conceptualizing "the consumption problem" and documenting diverse efforts to confront it. In Part 1, the book frames consumption as a problem of political and ecological economy, emphasizing core concepts of individualization and commoditization. Part 2 develops the idea of distancing and examines transnational chains of consumption in the context of economic globalization. Part 3 describes citizen action through local currencies, home power, voluntary simplicity, ad-busting, and product certification. Together, the chapters propose "cautious consuming" and "better producing" as an activist and policy response to environmental problems. The book concludes that confronting consumption must become a driving focus of contemporary environmental scholarship and activism. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Best Book in Global Environmental Affairs
This award-winning book ("The Best Book in Global Environmental Affairs" according to the International Studies Association) offers an accessible and engaging analysis of the 800 pound gorilla in the living room that environmentalists find difficult to talk about with force: overconsumption. The early portion of the book documents the problem; the middle chunk offers a set of mental lenses for making sense of our quandry; and the final chapters offer real-life stories of actors and movements (the voluntary simplicity movement, for example, and the home power and local currency movements too) challenging the upward escalating trajectory of the consumption of "stuff."

What's especially helpful about the book -- in addition to its "something for everyone" flavor -- is that it moves beyond simplistic prescriptions to "squash advertising" or "buy recycled products." Indeed, it is rather skeptical of these measures, which it tends to view as diversionary activities meant to take our eye off the underlying forces at war with the planet. Instead, it offers strategies for coming together collectively to challenge broader powers and structures that make it so difficult for people worried about the future of the planet to live more with less. ... Read more

Book Description

The mythology of "gifted land" is strong in the Park Service, but some of our greatest parks were "gifted" by people who had little if any choice in the matter. Places like the Grand Canyon's south rim and Glacier had to be bought, finagled, borrowed - or taken by force - when Indian occupants and owners resisted the call to contribute to the public welfare. The story of national parks and Indians is, depending on perspective, a costly triumph of the public interest, or a bitter betrayal of America's native people.

In Indian Country, God's Country historian Philip Burnham traces the complex relationship between Native Americans and the national parks, relating how Indians were removed, relocated, or otherwise kept at arm's length from lands that became some of our nation's most hallowed ground. Burnham focuses on five parks: Glacier, the Badlands, Mesa Verde, the Grand Canyon, and Death Valley. Based on archival research and extensive personal visits and interviews, he examines the beginnings of the national park system and early years of the National Park Service, along with later Congressional initiatives to mainstream American Indians and expand and refurbish the parks. The final chapters visit the parks as they are today, presenting the thoughts and insights of superintendents and rangers, tribal officials and archaeologists, ranchers, community leaders, curators, and elders. Burnham reports on hard-won compromises that have given tribes more autonomy and greater cultural recognition in recent years, while highlighting stubborn conflicts that continue to mark relations between tribes and the parks.

Indian Country, God's Country offers a compelling - and until now untold - story that illustrates the changing role of the national parks in American society, the deep ties of Native Americans to the land , and the complicated mix of commerce, tourism, and environmental preservation that characterize the parks system. Anyone interested in Native American culture and history, the history of the American West, the national park system, or environmental history will find it a fascinating and engaging work.

... Read more

Reviews (1)

The best way to understand the history of conservation!
Incredible story of a difficult struggle to gather support for the creation of our national forests. I learned that people don't change. It is ironic that the book covers how over 100 years ago, many miners, land developers were so violently opposed to any land being protected-I see the same thing happening today with sprawl.

A MUST READ. It made me really feel fortunate that we have our national forests to enjoy because we almost didn't. I had trouble putting this book down. It is very long, but oh so good if you have any interest in conservation. ... Read more

Book Description

Monitoring Ecological Impacts provides the tools needed to design assessment programs that can reliably monitor, detect, and allow management of human impacts on the natural environment. The procedures described are well-grounded in inferential logic, and the statistical models needed to analyse complex data are given. Step-by-step guidelines and flow diagrams provide clear and useable protocols which can be applied in any region of the world, a wide range of human impacts, and any ecosystem. In addition, real examples are used to show how the theory can be put into practice. ... Read more

Book Description

A suddenly single father--and nationally known environmental reporter--takes his children on a world tour of some of the world's rare and endangered life forms while reckoning with loss, change, and the challenges of parenting in this frank, funny, moving memoir.

After the death of his brother and the sudden end of his marriage, and after his ex-wife moved to another state leaving him alone with their two young children, Dan Glick embarked on single fatherhood in an unusual way: he took his kids on a journey around the world. The idea was to go see some of the world's rare life forms before they disappeared from the planet, and to do it before the kids themselves would grow up and chart their own paths.

In the summer of 2001 Dan, Zoe, and Kolya took off from Colorado for a six-month journey on which they would see the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, the orangutans of Borneo, Javan Rhinos in Vietnam, the tigers of Nepal, and more. Meeting countless challenges--emotional, logistical and physical--the threesome shared experiences they could not have imagined and would not soon forget. Glick weaves accounts of their encounters with the natural world--and each other--with intimate reflections on his own reckoning with loss, change, and fatherhood, illuminating the commonalities between our relationships with each other, and our relationship with the earth we inhabit. For anyone who dreams of travelling to the world's most exotic places, for anyone already navigating that wild journey called parenting, Monkey Dancing is by turns fascinating, funny, and wise. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

Brutal Honesty for Better and for Worse
"Monkey Dancing" is a brutally honest account of a father's trip with his two children to some exotic parts of the world in an effort to find some healing following devastating family tragedies. Glick demonstrates tremendous courage by revealing so much about himself and his family, about losing to cancer an older brother he always looked up to and losing a wife and co-parent who discovered late in life that she was a lesbian. But honest and accurate reporting can sometimes be tedious. For example, those of us who have travelled with children have all experienced bickering and whiny kids. Unfortunately, Glick recounts more of such bickering and whining than is necessary or desirable. In addition, since the journey was one of self discovery and healing from family tragedy, I found the reporter's lens focused more on himself and his children and less on the places they visited. I look forward to Dan Glick's next travel book as he moves further away from the hurt that inspired Monkey Dancing.

A Trip With Glick
If you like travelogues (this one takes you around the world through Australia, Indonesia, India and Europe), intimate moments of other people's lives, struggles with loss, death and illness, then this book is for you.
Daniel Glick, journalist and seasoned traveler, takes his two children, Kolya, 13 and Zoe, 9, on a five month trip around the world to see four disappearing species and their habitats. At the same time he is creating personal space to deal with a divorce and a brother's death, he is renewing his relationship with the two kids.
His ability to be a single Dad is just one of the traits you will admire in the author, as well as his honesty, vulnerability and his tendency to weep. I personally would have preferred more on the endangered species encounters and less with the squabbling kids, but that's just me who has had twenty years of squabbling experience and zilch in traveling around the world.
But in any case, thanks for the trip, Glick!

Now THAT'S a great book
This was a lovely book, beautifully weaving together personal tragedy and our place in the world. I thoroughly enjoyed the author sharing his fatherly moments with his kids, both the closeness and the bickering. Incidentally, while I was backpacking in Africa about 8 years ago, my group was joined for a time by a single father and his two kids from Colorado (hi Ari and Anna!), traveling around the world in the aftermath of a personal tragedy. What a brave and original way of forming a new bond, new memories and experiences.
At times, this book was so personal, I almost felt like a voyeur into their private life. Thank you, Daniel, for sharing your experiences and adventures with us, the readers. I was deeply touched, and wish you and your loved ones only all of the best.

Top Amazon.com editor pick of 2003
Many thanks to the Amazon.com editors for picking this book as one of their top picks for 2003, otherwise I would not have found it. Monkey Dancing is a charming story of a father and his two pre-teen children as they make their way through forming a new family dynamic, all the while touring some of the world's most endangered plants and animals.

The author tells about how he and his family were dealt a double upheaval-the death of his brother from breast cancer and his wife decided that she wanted to leave her marriage and family to start a new one with another women. The writing is clear and flows fluently all the while weaving a tale of vanishing forest, eat exotic foods, and dealing with the forming of a new family.

The mixed focus here doesn't allow any story depth
Let's start with what I liked about this book. In contrast to many of the readers, I enjoyed hearing the details about the author's children and their day to day life. I have read accounts of so called family travel where it seems that the children of the family play a very small part---they are along for the ride, but seem to be farmed off often. Here, the children are omnipresent. I also loved hearing about various cities in the Far East---what the hotels are actually like, what is eaten, the nitty gritty travel details.

However, the book is really at least 5 books intertwined. One is the travel story. Another is the sad story of the author's brother's death from breast cancer. The third is the story of of the author's divorce, which he seems far from over. Still another focuses on endangered animals. There is of course also the part about the perils of raising a 13 and 9 year old as a single father. I often found it jarring to move suddenly from one focus to another---shifts sometimes even involving a change of fonts.

Although I appreciate the author's true honesty, I know I'm probably not alone in disagreeing with many of his parenting decisions, especially involving drug use and his young son. I also kept wanting to reach through the pages and tell his children to be a little more grateful for the unbelievable experience they were having---they both seemed world-weary and easily bored beyond their years. Did they realize how few children would belong to families with the inclination AND funds for such a trip??

All in all, I'm glad I read this, and I did feel it was well written, with an honest voice. ... Read more