The Life of a Leaf by Steven Vogel

$20.00 NZD

Category: Natural History | Reading Level: very good

In its essence, science is a way of looking at and thinking about the world. In The Life of a Leaf, Steven Vogel illuminates this approach, using the humble leaf as a model. Whether plant or person, every organism must contend with its immediate physical environment, a world that both limits what organi sms can do and offers innumerable opportunities for evolving fascinating ways of challenging those limits. Here, Vogel explains these interactions, examining through the example of the leaf the extraordinary designs that enable life to adapt to its physical world. In Vogel's account, the leaf serves as a biological everyman, an ordinary and ubiquitous living thing that nonetheless speaks volumes about our environment as well as its own. Thus in exploring the leaf's world, Vogel simultaneously explores our own. ...Show more

The Horse: A Biography of Our Noble Companion by Wendy Williams

$16.00 NZD

Category: Natural History | Reading Level: very good

Horses have been our companions in work and leisure for thousands of years. As a species we have profited immeasurably from their resilience, strength and intelligence. In The Horse, Wendy Williams travels the globe to discover the history of our noble companion, one which stretches back fifty-six milli on years. From the streets of Vienna to the rugged terrain of Galicia, Williams demonstrates the horse's intelligence and strength. Blending profound scientific insights with remarkable stories, The Horse is a unique biography of the animal which has carried us across plains and into battle, and whose fascinating past and finely-nuanced mind are brought to life here in this masterful work of narrative non-fiction. ...Show more

Beautiful Minds - The Parallel Lives of Great Apes and Dolphins by Maddalena Bearzi; Craig B. Stanford

$10.00 NZD

Category: Natural History | Reading Level: very good

Apes and dolphins: primates and cetaceans. Could any creatures appear to be more different? Yet both are large-brained intelligent mammals with complex communication and social interaction. In the first book to study apes and dolphins side by side, Maddalena Bearzi and Craig B. Stanford, a dolphin biolo gist and a primatologist who have spent their careers studying these animals in the wild, combine their insights with compelling results. Beautiful Minds explains how and why apes and dolphins are so distantly related yet so cognitively alike and what this teaches us about another large-brained mammal: Homo sapiens. Noting that apes and dolphins have had no common ancestor in nearly 100 million years, Bearzi and Stanford describe the parallel evolution that gave rise to their intelligence. And they closely observe that intelligence in action, in the territorial grassland and rainforest communities of chimpanzees and other apes, and in groups of dolphins moving freely through open coastal waters. The authors detail their subjects' ability to develop family bonds, form alliances, and care for their young. They offer an understanding of their culture, politics, social structure, personality, and capacity for emotion. The resulting dual portrait--with striking overlaps in behavior--is key to understanding the nature of "beautiful minds." ...Show more

Brilliant Green: The Surprising History and Science of Plant Intelligence by Stefano Mancuso

$12.00 NZD

Category: Natural History | Reading Level: very good

In this book, a leading plant scientist offers a new understanding of the botanical world and a passionate argument for intelligent plant life. Are plants intelligent? Can they solve problems, communicate, and navigate their surroundings? For centuries, philosophers and scientists have argued that plant s are unthinking and inert, yet discoveries over the past fifty years have challenged this idea, shedding new light on the complex interior lives of plants. In Brilliant Green, leading scientist Stefano Mancuso presents a new paradigm in our understanding of the vegetal world. He argues that plants process information, sleep, remember, and signal to one another-showing that, far from passive machines, plants are intelligent and aware. Part botany lesson, part manifesto, Brilliant Green is an engaging and passionate examination of the inner workings of the plant kingdom. ...Show more

Modoc: The True Story of the Greatest Elephant That Ever Lived by Ralph Helfer

$10.00 NZD

Category: Natural History | Reading Level: very good

On a quiet morning in 1896, in a small German circus town, a boy and an elephant were born. The boy was named Bram, the elephant was named Modoc. Bram was the son of a local elephant handler, and even as a child he showed signs of becoming a master handler. Modoc grew impressively beyond anyone's imagin ation--exceptional intelligence, massive size, and a gentleness surpassing that of even the kindest elephants. The two were raised as siblings, and when news came that the circus was being sold, thirteen-year-old Bram did the only thing he could imagine: He stowed away to be with Modoc. Weeks into their voyage to the United States, they were caught in a catastrophic storm at sea, and Modoc single-handedly saved the lives of Bram and thirty sailors. Taken to shore in India, Modoc and Bram were heroes to the elephant-loving Indian people. Their unexpected detour lasted many years, as Bram studied under the legendary mahout elephant trainers of the Far East while Modoc--fully grown and with Bram at her side--became a master harvester in the remote teak forests of rural India. In the 1930s they finally arrived in New York, where for the next two decades Modoc rose to great performing fame in the center ring of the world's most popular circus. Known as "The Golden Elephant," she was the only elephant of her time who could dance and perform without a trainer. Modoc was a major American celebrity. Then a tragedy stuck, and the lives of Modoc and Bram were forever changed. On a routine stopover between circus towns, Modoc vanished from under Bram's protective watch. Weeks of searching turned into years, but he never lost hope that he would see Modoc again... Modoc is an epic for the ages, destined to be a classic, and sure to be cherished by readers young and old. The Greatest elephant story ever told, lovingly recreated by Modoc's owner during the last twenty years of her seventy-eight-year life, Modoc spans eight decades and three continents. It is a tale of love, loss, and the deep spiritual bond between a man and his extraordinary nine-thousand pound companion. ...Show more

Bird Sense: What It's Like to Be a Bird by Tim Birkhead

$10.00 NZD

Category: Natural History | Reading Level: very good

What is it like to be a swift, flying at over one hundred kilometres an hour? Or a kiwi, plodding flightlessly among the humid undergrowth in the pitch dark of a New Zealand night? And what is going on inside the head of a nightingale as it sings, and how does its brain improvise? Bird Sense addresses q uestions like these and many more, by describing the senses of birds that enable them to interpret their environment and to interact with each other. Our affinity for birds is often said to be the result of shared senses - vision and hearing - but how exactly do their senses compare with our own? And what about a birds' sense of taste, or smell, or touch or the ability to detect the earth's magnetic field? Or the extraordinary ability of desert birds to detect rain hundreds of kilometres away - how do they do it? Bird Sense is based on a conviction that we have consistently underestimated what goes on in a bird's head. Our understanding of bird behaviour is simultaneously informed and constrained by the way we watch and study them. By drawing attention to the way these frameworks both facilitate and inhibit discovery, it identifies ways we can escape from them to seek new horizons in bird behaviour. There has never been a popular book about the senses of birds. No one has previously looked at how birds interpret the world or the way the behaviour of birds is shaped by their senses. A lifetime spent studying birds has provided Tim Birkhead with a wealth of observation and an understanding of birds and their behaviour that is firmly grounded in science. ...Show more

A Buzz in the Meadow by Dave Goulson

$10.00 NZD

Category: Natural History | Reading Level: good

From the author of the Samuel Johnson Prize-shortlisted Sunday Times bestseller A Sting in the Tale In 2003 Dave Goulson bought a derelict farm in the heart of rural France, together with 33 acres of surrounding meadow. Over the course of a decade, he created a place for his beloved bumblebees to thrive along with myriad insects of every kind. In this book you will learn how a deathwatch beetle finds its mate, about the importance of houseflies, why butterflies have spots on their wings, about dragonfly sex, bed-bugs and wasps. But it is also a wake-up call, urging us to cherish and protect life on earth in all its forms. A Buzz in the Meadow is a captivating look at our natural world and a call to arms for nature-lovers everywhere. 'Glorious' The Times'Captivating' Independent ...Show more

Places for Plants: What to Plant Where in New Zealand by Sparrow, Jacqueline

$15.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

Cultivating Myths by Helen Leach

$20.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

Picturesque cottage gardens, with toweringhollyhocks in front of the thatched dwellings in humble cottagers...Formal herb gardens set out in knots, with box-edged comaprtments overflowing with culinaryherbs...colourful ornamental potagers...Rambling wilderness tamed to romantic wild gardens...Are these the reality of our garden heritage or are we being decieved by a rose-tinted view? Cultivating Myths examines aspects of garden history and fashion. It traces the development of some key themes from their earliest origins to their present-day manifestations. Along with the cottage garden, the potager and the 'natural' garden, it delves into the history of the lawn., investigates walled pleasure gardens and outdoor rooms, and discusses the love-hate relationship gardeners have with variegated plants. Bringing to light the results of much fascinationg detective work on centuries-old gardening books, and illustrated with beautiful historic line drawings from original sources, Cultivating Myths is a challenging and engrossing bedside book for gardeners around the world. ...Show more

The Looking-Glass Garden : Plants and Gardens of the Southern Hemisphere by Peter Thompson

$30.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: near fine

The Nature of Landscape Design by Nan Fairbrother

$25.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good

Penelope Hobhouse's Gardening Through the Ages - An Illustrated History of Plants and Their Influence on Garden Styles - From Ancient Egypt to the Present Day by Penelope Hobhouse

$20.00 NZD

Category: Gardening | Reading Level: very good