How the Earthquake Bird Got Its Name and Other Tales of an Unbalanced Nature

In the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould, H. H. Shugart entertains and enlightens with parables from the amazing world of birds and mammals Although people have been altering earths landscapes to some extent for tens of thousands of years, humankind today is causing massive changes to the planet. Such widespread environmental change is accompanied by accelerating rates of species extinction. In this book, noted ecologist H. H. Shugart presents important ecological concepts through entertaining animal parables. He tells the stories of particular birds and mammalsthe packrat, ivory-billed woodpecker, penguin, dingo, European rabbit, and othersand what their fates reveal about the interactions between environmental change and the extinctions or explosions of species populations. Change is the root of many planetary problems, but it is also an intrinsic feature of our living planet. Shugart explores past environmental change, discusses the non-existence of a balance of Nature, and documents how human alterations have affected plants, soils, and animals. He looks with hope toward a future in which thoughtful people learnand useecological science to protect the landscapes upon which terrestrial creatures depend.