If you’re fascinated by flora and fauna, our natural history section has everything you need. This list updates when we add new titles to the collection.
Book
It's often said that the British are a nation of nature lovers; but what does that really mean? For some it's watching racer snakes chase iguanas on TV as David Attenborough narrates, a visit to the zoo to convene with the chimps; for others it's a.....
The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals is the only definitive reference on all the land-breeding mammals recorded in the New Zealand region (including the New Zealand sector of Antarctica). It lists 65 species, including native and exotic, wild and feral,...
The first modern anthology of Scottish nature writing which acknowledges the realities of our times, edited, curated and introduced by the award-winning author of Findings. The first ever modern collection of contemporary Scottish writing on nature a...
Presents a collection of essays about humanity's relationship with nature, exploring subjects ranging from captivity and immigration to ostrich farming and the migrations of songbirds from the Empire State Building.
Inside the epic quest to find life on the water-rich moons at the outer reaches of the solar system. Where is the best place to find life beyond Earth? We often look to Mars as the most promising site in our solar system, but recent scientific missions...
Collection of essays on the natural world during a year spent in the Blue Ridge Mountains reflects the author's interactions with her wilderness surrounding.
Life is all around us, abundant and diverse. It is truly a marvel. But what does it actually mean to be alive, and how do we decide what is living and what is not? After a lifetime of studying life, Nobel Prize-winner Sir Paul Nurse, one of the world's...
This wide-ranging and lavish book, substantially updated and adapted for this new large-format edition, presents an expert survey of the incredible floral diversity of the different regions of the world. More than 1730 species are featured, arranged ...
An evocative and richly illustrated exploration of flowers and how, over the centuries, they have given us so much sustenance, meaning, and pleasure.
An anthropologist visits the frontiers of genetics, medicine, and technology to ask: Whose values are guiding gene editing experiments? And what does this new era of scientific inquiry mean for the future of the human species? At a conference in Hong...
A whistling of whio? A loot of weka? A tussock of takahe? These collective nouns reveal something about the character of our birds, so we can get to know them better. Birds of New Zealand: Collective Nouns also contains information on how our birds live,...
Living at the border between life and non-life, fungi use diverse cocktails of potent enzymes and acids to disassemble some of the most stubborn substances on the planet, turning rock into soil and wood into compost, allowing plants to grow. Fungi not...
Never before have mushrooms generated so much interest, for their health benefits and medicinal properties, as well as a new understanding of their crucial role in a healthy environment and ability to regenerate damaged ones. If you are a newcomer, m...
"The alpine zone is usually defined as the area on a mountain between the upper limit of tree growth, the treeline, and where permanent snow begins. New Zealand's alpine land includes parts of the Southern Alps in the South Island, and the central No...
The forests near to where Russia, China and North Korea meet in a tangle of barbed wire are the only place on earth where brown bears, leopards and tigers co-exist. They are also home to one of nature's rarest birds, the Blakiston's fish owl. A chanc...
In Unfit for Purpose, biologist and broadcaster Adam Hart explores the mismatch between our fundamental biology and the modern world we have created. In each chapter Adam reveals the many ways in which biological adaptations that evolved to help us survive...
From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction--a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.
Why are we alive? Most things in the universe aren't. And if you trace the evolutionary history of plants and animals back far enough, you will find that, at some point, neither were we. Scientists have wrestled with this problem for centuries, and no...
Who are we? What do we value? How do we live here? Guided by parents, carers, teachers and siblings, we learn to answer these questions as we grow up. But it's not just us. Many animals must learn to answer them too. In Becoming Wild, Carl Safina reveals...
A companion volume to the award-winning and monumental 'New Zealand's Native Trees', this field guide is the perfect companion to take into the outdoors. Compact enough to fit in a day-pack, it contains detailed information on all native trees found on...
We are not alone. We are not alone on the planet. We are not alone in the countryside. We are not alone in cities. We are not alone in our homes. We are humans and we love the idea of our uniqueness. But the fact is that we humans are as much members...
"Peter Coburn offers a rare glimpse into the world of this lesser-known species. His photography captures the character of the inquisitive birds in their natural habitat."--Publisher.
"Wild horses have been an important part of wildlife on Earth for centuries, yet many herds now face serious threats -- and very few people can claim to have seen them galloping free across the plains, or scaling mountain passes. Kelly Wilson has. For...
We are not alone: plants make up 80 per cent of the total biomass of Earth, while humans are only 0.0001 per cent. The forest is an intimate part of our lives and continues to play a central role in creating a liveable planet. From making the air we ...
How might the origins of our species inform the way we think about our planet? At a point of unparalleled crisis, can human ingenuity save us from ourselves? Much-loved writer Ramona Koval travels the globe in a quest for answers, and encounters the....
Genes, we all have them and we're all affected by them, often in unknown ways. Whether directly inherited or modified by our environment, genes control or significantly influence almost every aspect of our lives, from the success of our conception and...
Whether you're looking to save the planet or learn more about your local environment, 30-Second Ecology introduces you to the diversity, behaviours and challenges within our ecosystem. Part of the 30-Second series, this introductory guide to ecology is...
The beauty and fascination of birds is unrivalled. Every day of the year, immerse yourself in their world with an entry from A Bird of Day, where Dominic Couzens offers an insight into everything from the humble Robin to Emperor Penguins, who are in the...
Companion volume to The Country Diary of a New Zealand Lady. Written in a style engaging to the general reader, The Country Camera focuses on definitive aspects of the birds' daily lives and expands on the subject photographically. The images are int...
The Inside Out of Flies is a look under the bonnet at the astonishing mechanics of fly anatomy. Erica McAlister reveals the engineering miracles embodied in each species of fly and some of the fascinating implications they hold for human technology. ...
How did life begin? Why are we here? These are some of the most profound questions we can ask. For almost a century, a small band of eccentric scientists has struggled to answer these questions and explain one of the greatest mysteries of all: how and...
Dive into this uniquely elegant visual exploration of the sea. An informative and utterly beautiful introduction to marine life and the ocean environment, The Science of the Ocean book brings the riches of the underwater world onto the printed page. ...
An enthralling exploration of the biologically richest island on Earth, featuring more than 200 spectacular color images by award-winning National Geographic photographer Tim Laman In this beautiful book, Bruce Beehler, a renowned author and expert on...
Stuffed with a wonderfully weird collection of taxidermy from across the globe, Taxidermy goes wild will leave you both amused and confused. Revel in scenes of musical mice, basket-balling bengals, gun-toting rodents and lawn-mowing moles. Bringing t...
3.8 billion years and counting -- there's a lot to know about the fundamentals of life. This friendly, jargon-free guide takes you from the primordial soup to the present, explaining how specialized cells have given rise to everything living, from the...
This photographic identification guide to 239 bird species in New Zealand, including the most commonly seen, unique and endemic species, is perfect for resident and visitor alike. High-quality photographs from one of New Zealand's youngest nature pho...
Right now, spacecraft are circling Mars, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium and Mare Sirenum, on the brink, perhaps, of a discovery that would inspire humankind as much as any in our history. With poetic precision, Sarah S...
In April 2019, Lord Ashcroft published the results of his year-long investigation into South Africa's captive-bred lion industry. Over eleven pages of a single edition of the Mail on Sunday, he showed why this sickening trade, which involves appalling...
James Canton spent two years sitting with and studying this unique tree. It was an exercise in discipline- he needed to slow down in order to appreciate it fully, to tune in to it, to connect with the ecosystem that lives around, inside and under it....
"A a botanist, Robion Wall Kimmerer has been trained to ask questions with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces the notion that plants and animals are our oldest teachers. [Here], Kimmerer brings these lenses...
A leading palaeontologist discovers the missing link in human evolution. Somewhere west of Munich, Madelaine Bohme and her colleagues dig for clues to the origins of humankind. What they discover is beyond anything they imagined. The fossilised bones...
Companion to the film Fantastic Fungi. Contributions from Michael Pollan, Andrew Weil, Eugenia Bone, and many more expterts make Fantastic Fungi an awe-inspiring visual journey through the exotic, little-known realm of fungi and its amazing potential...
This is the riveting and illuminating story of Australian writer Anthony Ham's extraordinary journey into the world of lions. Haunted by the idea that they might disappear from the planet in our lifetime, he ventured deep into the African wilderness,...
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