Extreme Nature (Smithsonian Institution) - Hardcover

Carwardine, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006082574X ISBN 13: 9780060825744

Publisher: HarperResource, 2005

Synopsis

A collection of wildlife profiles features animals and plants that push the limits of nature or possess the most outstanding characteristics of their kind, from the world's hungriest animal and the owner of the biggest footprints to the largest flock of birds and nature's most dangerous mating behaviors.

About this title

Review:

'The commentries may be pacey, bite-sized and sensational, but they are also intelligent and informed.'
BBC Wildlife

'A mind-blowing glossy hardback that would make for exciting viewing on any coffee table'
Royal Wings

'The text by marine biologist Mark Carwardine is the real star of the show...a wonderful fact-loaded book...you start reading, and you just can’t stop!'
Outdoor Photography

'The strange-but-true revelations in this beautifully presented book will fascinate'
Sunday Times Travel Magazine

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: HarperResource
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 006082574X
• ISBN 13: 9780060825744
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320