Extreme Nature - Hardcover

Carwardine, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0007207689 ISBN 13: 9780007207688

Publisher: Collins, 2005

Synopsis

A beautiful and fascinating portrait of the world’s most extreme wildlife, from the sexiest beast to the smelliest plant.

The world's most devious plant, the largest flock of birds, the biggest drug user, the most dangerous love-life...here is a mind-blowing guide to the weirdest and most remarkable wildlife on our planet. Lavishly illustrated, this is a beautiful book to own as well as an unputdownable read.

The entries are quirky yet informative, focusing on single species with bizarre lifestyles and impressive adaptations. The main book consists of over 150 entries, organised into four sections: Extreme Growth, Extreme Abilities, Extreme Movement and Extreme Families.

Intelligently written, it is aimed at all those with an interest in wildlife. While assuming no prior knowledge on the part of its readers, it is still scientifically rigorous enough to captivate every expert. Big in format and scope, it is a gorgeous and fascinating portrait of the natural wonders of our planet.

About this title

Review:

· First serial in The Guardian Weekend Magazine on September 10th

· 2nd serial in the Metro

From the Author:

Extreme Nature is about some of the most intriguing, supernatural, out of the ordinary and extreme plants and animals on the planet. A fish that can change sex, a frog that gives birth through its mouth and a flower that smells so bad it makes people faint in the motley collection of weird and wonderful creatures included in the book.

Extreme Nature was written with the invaluable help of over 150 scientists working in all corners of the globe. With their generous assistance, in just a few sentences it's been possible to summarise some of the highlights of many years, sometimes decades of research. Thanks to them, if you've ever wondered which animal has the best colour vision, if a millipede really does have a thousand legs, how fast a falcon can swoop, or which is the world's most dangerous snake, this is the place to look.

Any such study of extreme nature is inevitably full of surprises and when it comes to superlatives there is always another record-breaker just round the corner. But while there is little doubt that few of the records we've included are the absolutes, in one way or another all animals and plants have something exceptional about them that deserves our attention.

Ultimately, the aim of the book is simply to revel in these other-worldly creatures and their outlandish behaviour. We hope you enjoy being wowed by some of their exploits.

About this edition

• Publisher: Collins
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0007207689
• ISBN 13: 9780007207688
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320