Ridgway Public Library

Reveals how ecosystems are sculpted and sustained by animals eating, pooping, and dying-and how these fundamental functions could help save us from climate catastrophe.

This story of Alex, a famous African Grey parrot, documents his thirty-year relationship with his trainer and the ways in which his life has changed scientific understanding about language and thought.

"Some people insist that culture is strictly a human feat. What are they afraid of? This book looks into three cultures of other-than-human beings in some of Earth's remaining wild places. It shows how if you're a sperm whale, a scarlet macaw, or a chimpanzee, you too experience your life with the understanding that you are an individual in a particular community. You too are who you are not by genes alone; your culture is a second form of inheritance....

"A non-fiction look at the sounds that animals make and the reasons behind them."--

"When a good friend with a severe illness wrote, asking if he might have his "green burial" at Bernd Heinrich's hunting camp in Maine, it inspired the acclaimed biologist/author to investigate a subject that had long fascinated him. How exactly does the animal world deal with the flip side of the life cycle? And what are the lessons, ecological to spiritual, raised by a close look at how the animal world renews itself? Heinrich focuses his wholly...

"Woody Bookman hasn't spoken a word in his eleven years of life. Not when his father died in a freak accident. Not when his mother, Megan, tells him she loves him. For Megan, keeping her boy safe and happy is what matters. But Woody believes a monstrous evil was behind his father's death and now threatens him and his mother. And he's not alone in his thoughts. An ally unknown to him is listening. A uniquely gifted dog with a heart as golden as his...

The Peterson's new foster puppy is Patches. He's a cute beagle with long, floppy ears and a mournful howl. His owners leave him tied up all day and Charles tries to help.

If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal overturns everything we thought we knew about human intelligence, and asks the question: would humans be better off as narwhals? Or some other, less brainy species? There's a good argument to be made that humans might be a less successful animal species precisely because of our amazing, complex intelligence. All our unique gifts like language, math, and science do not make us happier or more "successful" (evolutionarily...

A rat named Remy dreams of becoming a great chef despite his family's wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in a decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hero. Despite the apparent dangers of being an unwanted visitor in the kitchen of one of Paris' most exclusive restaurants, Remy forms an unlikely partnership with Linguini, the garbage...

"A globetrotting voyage of discovery celebrating the navigational superpowers of animals -- by land, sea, and sky. Animals plainly know where they're going, but how they get there has remained surprisingly mysterious -- until now. In Supernavigators, award-winning author David Barrie catches us up on the cutting-edge science. Here are astounding animals of every stripe: Dung beetles that steer by the light of the Milky Way. Ants and bees that rely...