animal

This is the first in a series of books associated with the Boone and Crockett Club, an organization founded by Theodore Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, and others. The Boone and Crockett Club was dedicated to balancing both the conservation of wildlife and natural resources and the preservation of hunting traditions.

Samuel Fallours was working for the Dutch East India Company in the early 1700s on the island of Ambon (part of present day Indonesia) as a clergyman’s assistant. Having an artistic talent, he made drawings of local fish, crustaceans, and other marine organisms from the Indian Ocean. The illustrations he drew, so vivid and bright, even surrealistic, are considered to be among the finest natural history illustrations ever made.

Many of us may think of Old Bay and/or butter when we think of shrimp, lobster, and crabs, but for the scientists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC), these creatures are viewed as part of food webs, as ecological invaders, or as proxies for understanding ecosystem dynamics.

The fifth edition of this important book provides comprehensive, illustrated information about the tests that are necessary for diagnosing and treating the animals at the National Zoological Park. Additionally, it is required reading for the American College of Veterinary Pathologists, Anatomic Pathology Certification Examination for which the National Zoological Park's pathology fellows are often preparing.

All living things need energy to survive and thrive. Ultimately, all food energy starts with the sun (or, rarely, deep sea hydrothermal vents). Plants make their own food, through photosynthesis, from the energy of the sun. Things eat plants, and other things eat the things that eat the plants. And so on.

Abraham Dee Bartlett (1812-1897) was a prominent taxidermist and superintendent of the London Zoological Gardens. He was in regular correspondence with Charles Darwin, and served Queen Victoria by taking care of her pet birds. Bartlett left a mixed legacy. He was a well-respected and influential scientist who was a noted expert on the care and keeping of wild animals, ultimately becoming a household name. However, he was also responsible for the sale of Jumbo, the African elephant, to P. T. Barnum, despite widespread protests. Bartlett later died on the zoo grounds.

When you visit a buffet, do you have a favorite strategy for filling up? What if instead of a long, single table, there are 3-4 stations? Only a handful of people at the buffet? Long lines? What if there were Tupperware available, so you could save food for later? How might each of these circumstances change your strategy? What if a hungry lion was in the room? How might that threat change things? As this book’s preface states “Foraging behavior has always been a central concern of ecology.