A Russian tortoise launched into space during the Cold War. A Lebanese parrot abandoned on the doorknob of a pet store during Israel’s 2006 bombing of Beirut. A US Navy-trained dolphin called to serve in the Second Gulf War. These are some of the protagonists in Only the Animals, Ceridwen Dovey’s captivating collection of short …
In A Buzz in the Meadow: The Natural History of a French Farm by Dave Goulson, insects are given the respect they are due. For it is insects, in all their weird and wild ways, that keep this planet, and us, alive. The book tells the story about the author’s adventures after having purchased a French farm …
The planet has survived five mass extinctions, but it’s the sixth that we should be worried about. Elizabeth Kolbert’s wonderful book The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History outlines the human impact on the globe by following researchers who are studying not only the past but today’s resources and species currently at risk, from the oceans …