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1001 Animals to Spot
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Chester Cricket's New Home
Crash! One minute Chester Cricket is calmly sifting inside his stump house. The next thing he knows, the roof is collapsing upon him! Left without a home, Chester is forced to move in with one neighbor after another in Tucker's Countryside. Nothing works out quite right--John Robin throws loud all-night parties, Henry and Emily Chipmunk are too tidy, and Donald Dragonfly's twig is much too small for both of them. Even his good pal Walter Water Snake can't help joking about Chester's predicament. All of his friends have found a happy home. Will Chester ever find a place to call his own?.
Price: $4.69
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A Log's Life
One stormy day a strong wind rages through the forest, causing an old oak tree to bend and sway. Lightning strikes; the tree crashes to the ground. Now it's a giant log.In this fascinating book, author Wendy Pfeffer and illustrator Robin Brickman introduce readers to they life cycle of a tree. The informative, lyrical text is complemented by stunning, three-dimensional paper sculptures that showcase the forest ecosystem, inspiring readers to take a close look at the trees -- and logs -- in their own backyards. .
Price: $3.17
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Architecture by Birds and Insects: A Natural Art
Influential American architect Philip Johnson once mused, “All architecture is shelter; all great architecture is the design of space that contains, cuddles, exalts, or stimulates the persons in that space.” But with just a small swap of a key word, Johnson could well have been describing animal nests. Birds and insects are nature’s premier architects, using a dizzying array of talents to build functional homes in which to live, reproduce, and care for their young. Recycling sticks, branches, grass, and mud to construct their shelters, they are undoubtedly the originators of “green architecture.” A visual celebration of these natural feats of engineering and ingenuity, Architecture by Birds and Insects allows readers a peek inside a wide range of nests, offering a rare opportunity to get a sense of the materials and methods used to build them. Here, we see the kinds of places where nests are built—for instance, the house wren has been known to occupy cow skulls, flower pots, tin cans, and the pockets of hanging laundry, while the uglynest caterpillar prefers rose bushes and cherry trees. Inspired by the vast nest collection at the Field Museum, which features specimens gathered throughout North and South America, Peggy Macnamara’s paintings are enhanced by text written by museum curators. This narrative provides a foundation in natural history for each painting, as well as fascinating anecdotes about the nests and their builders. Like so many natural treasures, nests are easy to ignore. But Macnamara’s gorgeous paintings will undoubtedly change that. Architecture by Birds and Insects at last gives the tiniest engineers their rightful moment in the spotlight, and in so doing increases awareness and encourages the protection of birds, insects, and their habitats. Readers will never look at a Frank Gehry design, or a treetop nest, the same way again. .
Price: $15.68
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Footprints in the Snow (Hello Reader!, Level 1)
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Animal Homes (Science Kids)
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Animal Architects: Building and the Evolution of Intelligence \
From two of the world's most distinguished experts in animal behavior, a radical, creative, and accessible new approach to understanding animal minds through the structures they build. Animal behavior has long been a battleground between the competing claims of nature and nurture, with the possible role of cognition in behavior as a recent addition to this debate. There is an untapped trove of behavioral data that can tell us a great deal about how the animals draw from these neural strategies: The structures animals build provide a superb window on the workings of the animal mind. Animal Architects examines animal architecture across a range of species, from those whose blueprints are largely innate (such as spiders and their webs) to those whose challenging structures seem to require intellectual insight, planning, and even aesthetics (such as bowerbirds' nests, or beavers' dams). Beginning with instinct and the simple homes of solitary insects, James and Carol Gould move on to conditioning; the "cognitive map" and how it evolved; and the role of planning and insight. Finally, they reflect on what animal building tells us about the nature of human intelligence--showing why humans, unlike many animals, need to build castles in the air..
Price: $4.02
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Built by Animals
From termite mounds and caterpillar cocoons to the elaborate nests of social birds and the deadly traps of spiders, the constructions of the animal world can amaze and at times even rival our own feats of engineering But how do creatures with such small brains build these complex structures? What drives them to do it? In this fascinating volume, Mike Hansell looks at the extraordinary structures that animals build--whether homes, traps, or courtship displays--and reveals what science can tell us about this incredible behavior. We look at wasp's nests, leaf-cutting ants, caddis flies and amoebae, and even the extraordinary bower bird, who seduces his mate with a decorated pile of twigs, baubles, feathers, and berries. We discover how some animals produce their own building materials, such as the silk secreted by spiders to weave an array of different web and traps, or the glue some insects produce to hold their buildings together. And we learn how a vast colony of social insects can create nests which may penetrate up to twenty feet into the ground and house millions of individuals--all built by tiny-brained animals repeating many simple actions as they roam randomly around the structure. Hansell also sheds light on how animal buildings have evolved over time, how insect societies emerged, how animals can alter their wider habitat, and even whether some animals have an aesthetic sense. Finally, he shows how animal structures may reveal clues to the origins of our own tool use and appreciation of beauty. Built by Animals offers a colorful account of a facet of animal behavior that will delight anyone interested in the natural world..
Price: $14.64
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