Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2019 - Science & Technology — Biology — Food and Agriculture

With almost 400,000 known species, beetles (order Coleoptera) represent the largest and most diverse group of living animals. As Marshall (Univ. of Guelph) emphasizes, the life histories and survival strategies of these remarkable insects are highly varied and intriguing. In this celebration of beetle diversity, he gathers together a wealth of information about these fascinating insects. Following a general discussion on fundamental aspects of beetle biology, Marshall examines the numerous families and subfamilies of beetles. Consideration is given to evolutionary relationships among different groups and to select features of natural history. Discussion is global in scope, with representative examples of fascinating lifestyles drawn from around the world. Marshall does an excellent job highlighting the rich diversity of these insects. An illustrated key to the major families of beetles is a useful addition. A brief discussion on collecting and photographing beetles is also included. This interesting, well-written volume is richly illustrated with thousands of high-quality photographs. Jargon is kept to a minimum, making the book largely accessible to general readers. It will be of considerable value to both professional and amateur entomologists, as well as to anyone with a serious interest in beetles.Summing Up: Essential. All readers.

Entomologist Adrian Hoskins, fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, has led expeditions to many parts of the world, allowing him to study and photograph thousands of butterflies and moths. Despite some anthropomorphic comments here and there, this striking work is more than a coffee-table book; it is also full of accurate, up-to-date taxonomic information. The first two sections of the book succinctly inform the reader on Lepidoptera origins, morphology, natural history, behavior, and ecology. The next section offers an overview of the Lepidoptera and presents the seven butterfly families. Brief descriptions and comments for all the subfamilies are well illustrated. Even though it is not comprehensive on species, the reader will easily grasp the many patterns of diversity found in butterflies. The last two sections include thoughts on climate change and the destruction of tropical forests, a useful glossary, and an index of genera and species depicted. This well-written, fully illustrated book not only will bring pleasure but undeniable and reliable knowledge to the amateur, the beginner, and the curious.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

The authors provide comprehensive biography of the man entomologists regard as the founder of modern entomology and biological control. Riley (1843-95) was a gifted and accomplished polyglot, artist, poet, writer, philosopher, naturalist, inventor, politician, teacher, and scientist. The book starts with Riley's beginnings as an illegitimate English Anglican minister's son educated in aristocratic European schools who immigrated to the US and became a farmer. His self-teaching and field training in natural history, combined with his artistic talents and keen experimental abilities, led to his becoming a state and, later, federal entomologist. Riley transformed the science of entomology from collecting and taxonomy to an applied management approach involving evolution, ecology, and behavior. His interdisciplinary strategies to study and handle important agricultural insect pests helped him become the highest ranked officer at the entomology division of the USDA and the curator of insects at the Smithsonian Institution. The final chapter recounts Riley's unfortunate early retirement and unexpected death at 52. A list of all insects mentioned, notes, and an index are included. This invaluable book also details the development and professionalization of entomology.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

For many people engaged in conservation, it can be easy not to query the quality of the world being created for endangered species and their guardians, perhaps because of the immediacy of the task at hand. Parrenas's impactful book has made this reviewer question the broader social context within which species conservation work is situated: is it really helping, or merely prolonging the inevitable at the cost of considerable suffering? Parrenas (womens's, gender, and sexuality studies, Ohio State Univ.) uses the theme of suspended autonomy in her analysis of stakeholders at an orangutan rehabilitation site in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, an impasse that mirrors the state's political relationship with Malaysia. Using this framework, Parrenas explores connections between and among caregivers and rehabilitant orangutans, male and female orangutans trapped in a too-small forest fragment, administrators (usually white) and workers (often local people), caregivers whose work is partly valued based on gender, and the entire system juxtaposed to volunteers from other countries paying comparatively large sums to labor on behalf of orangutans' return to "the wild." Parrenas details diverse assumptions and expectations participants bring to this complex network, thereby generating a unique and timely addition to the conservation literature.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

Under an overarching umbrella of examining contemporary research on ape language, this stimulating and provocative volume consists of five extended conversations between the two authors over a wide range of topics, including the levels and layers of language, degrees and kinds of consciousness, and the nature of personhood and humanity. The dialogues incorporate and interweave issues of content, such as what constitutes language learning and performance, as well as varied complexities of gauging consciousness; and also issues of method, such as how to fruitfully and verifiably investigate such topics. In addition, they address axiological dimensions that relate to matters of free will and types of determinism, as well as to social and moral assumptions and implications of the content and processes of ape language research. As they note, what is crucial is not merely what language (or consciousness) is, but what it does, such that concerns regarding intentionality, awareness, and thinking cannot be divorced from the lived social and personal experiences in which they are housed and relevant. Along the way, Dubreuil and Savage-Rumbaugh engage with a host of related scholars, such as Chomsky, Skinner, Tomasello, and Freud, among others.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students through practitioners.

As human populations continue to increase, the ability of terrestrial farmers to meet the increased demand for food is slowly decreasing. As an alternative, humans are relying more and more on the oceans for food. However, most fish stocks are showing signs of being overfished, with many expected to be depleted by 2050. In Eat Like a Fish, Smith (a commercial fisher turned award-winning ocean farmer, inventor, and ecologist) provides a first-person account of his change from commercial fisher to ocean farmer, arguing along the way that humans need to view oceans as more than just producers of fish. The book comprises 20 chapters divided into six parts that describe how the author pioneered restorative 3-D ocean farming and detail his quest to move humans from fishers to farmers of the ocean. Smith makes a compelling argument for farming the oceans and for using ocean organisms other than fish as primary sources of human nutrition. Because the writing is nontechnical, this book is appropriate for all readers interested in oceans, ocean restoration, and ocean farming. Bibliographical references stand in for a bibliography.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

This attractive, oversized book surveys all 68 eagle species found in the world. The highlight is its 198 spectacular color photographs, many by renowned wildlife photographer Tipling, and many of which span a full spread. The text is substantive: coverage for each species includes an informative essay as well as key details on the bird's appearance, size, distribution, and conservation status. While there are countless fine books on birds of prey,The Empire of the Eagle is one of few that covers all eagle species. Unwin's text contains many surprising nuggets of information. It would be improved with demarcated sections on distinct topics, such as behavior, nesting details, prey items, etc., instead of one undifferentiated summary. Many of the photographs reveal eagles with prey, contextualized with their surrounding habitat (soaring in the midst of majestic mountain ranges, for example), or confronting competing predators. Another excellent Unwin-Tipling collaboration is Enigma of the Owl (CH, Jun'17, 54-4725). The Empire of the Eagle is sumptuous and dramatic; it would make a striking coffee table book as well as an academic resource. The scholarly apparatus includes a basic glossary, selected references, and a list of organizations.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

The essays of Equestrian Cultures, edited by two English scholars at the University of Northern British Columbia, at once demonstrate the depth and sophistication of the current literature on human-animal relations and how boundless this scholarship may yet prove to be. The collection deliberately extends previous works on human-horse relations of earlier times and different places to the modern West. Twelve topical contributions appear under three headings: science and technology, commodification and consumption, and national identity. Given the centrality of modernity in this volume, all three sections evince another theme: subject and subjectivity. Many of the universally persuasive and insightful essays included here demonstrate the reciprocal making of selves and species in a profoundly modern context. Grounded in the humanities, the range of subjects is dizzying. Especially noteworthy are Kristen Guest's essay on the phenomenon of thoroughbred racehorse biographies, Rune Gade's subtle reading of the collaboration involved in Charlotte Dumas's photographs, and Charlotte Carrington-Farmer's fascinating study of Colonial Rhode Island's Atlantic horse trade. Readers with a disciplinary interest in literature, art history, and history will benefit from the collection; every student of human-animal relations should consider it required reading.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates and above.

Extreme Conservation is not a textbook. It is a well-written account by a respected biologist that chronicles his many years of work studying and conserving large mammals that live in extreme climates--arctic and high-altitude regimes. Berger (Colorado State Univ.) conveys a consistent message: the animals that survive in these extremes have done so because of natural selective adaptations over many millennia. Their margin for survival is limited because they are highly specialized to their environment, and therefore human interference in these vulnerable environments poses a serious threat to these species--both directly through habitat conversion and indirectly through factors such as global warming. Berger conveys this message in narrative form, relating adventures and misfortunes as he embarks on research involving species such as musk oxen and yaks in remote areas of the world. The book is entertaining and informative as the author weaves together the trials and tribulations of travel, permitting, and the rigors of working in remote foreign lands with the unique ecology of the animals he is studying. A compelling work for readers at any level.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

This book offers an important defense of the claim that nonhuman animals are ends in themselves and so have moral standing--in other words, that people have moral obligations toward them. Korsgaard grounds this claim in the fact that animals, like people, have a good of their own. Their lives can go well or poorly, they can flourish or fail to do so. But she also distinguishes between two ways in which a thing can be an end in itself, such that humans' obligations to other humans and those toward animals are not symmetrical. In part 2, she suggests that Kant misunderstood how his own moral theory applied to animals. In part 3, she looks at the practical implications of her views for issues in environmental ethics and animal ethics, such as eating and hunting animals and using them as work and service animals. Korsgaard offers compelling arguments for these views. She is one of the preeminent contemporary scholars of Kantian moral theory, so this is a significant book that will need to be referenced by anyone working on these issues. It is a must have for any college or university library.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

In this book, McKenna (philosophy, Univ. of Oregon) examines multiple facets of the ethics of livestock husbandry using primarily pragmatist and ecofeminist lenses. In addition to literary analyses of the portrayals of animals who are raised for food, McKenna also relies on interviews and ethnographic observation of farms that span the spectrum from industrial to free range to organic, incorporating words from farmers as well as imagery to support and provoke the philosophical analysis she conducted. Each chapter presents several core ethical questions, with philosophical grounding, that focus the reader on one particular type of livestock, such as cows, pigs, or chickens. The result is a rigorous and cross-disciplinary work that is accessible and highly effective at sparking discussion and reflection about the animals that are called "livestock." This text would shine as a core reading for a course about animal ethics or food ethics that incorporates philosophy and/or case studies. Ample references to related works offer opportunities for supplementary reading and connections to foundational literatures. The writing itself is approachable for introductory-level students while presenting sophistication appropriate for higher-level readers.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

In this volume, eminent primatologist Frans de Waal explores the topic of emotions in nonhuman animals. As a taking off point, he discusses the implications of the "last hug" between Jan van Hooff and a dying chimpanzee matriarch, from which the book gets its title. De Waal then progresses through a discussion of various areas of comparative psychological inquiry, including laughter, empathy, shame, guilt, politics, warfare, fairness, and free will, drawing connections between humans and nonhumans and separating myth from science. Overall, this is a highly readable, engrossing discussion of some of the cognitive--and, as the author argues, emotional--similarities and continuities between humans and nonhuman primates, especially our closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos. As with all of de Waal's books, this is excellent fodder for an upper-level undergraduate seminar course or a stand-alone read.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.

This book documents the remarkable recovery, partly through worldwide human activities, of a cosmopolitan, "iconic megafaunal" species. Because the osprey's large size enabled it to carry battery-powered satellite trackers in the technology's earliest days, its migration routes and behavior are better known than those most species. The osprey occupies inland lakes, rivers, and seacoasts on most continents throughout the year. Poole (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) previously documented the DDT-caused population crash of ospreys in the 1950s through 1970s; the present volume charts their subsequent restoration. Once the pesticides were banned, ospreys began to recover, abetted by protection and the widespread erection of artificial nesting platforms. Poole calls it "osprey gardening." Tolerant of humans and of each other, this unique, fish-eating eagle has recolonized most of its former range. Eight chapters introduce the osprey's unique structural adaptations, diet, nesting and breeding ecology and behavior, chick rearing, global distribution and population recovery, migration and wintering ecology, ongoing threats, and its rosy future. This is a well-documented and much needed conservation success story laced with optimism for the future. The book is a rich source of information and inspiration, illuminated by spectacular photographs of every facet of osprey life.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

Clampitt, an independent scholar, presents a multidisciplinary homage to the pig, the first animal to be domesticated as a source of food and the most commonly eaten meat across the globe. The text first explores the global history of the pig, from its early domestication to its prominence in the American Midwest. Following this is a detailed overview (including recipes) of pork in cuisine. The final chapters assess the current status of the pig, drawing on interviews with pork industry leaders, chefs, and advocates, a consideration of popular culture, and a nod to food system problems related to pork production. Clampitt combines a review of secondary sources, archival research, field visits, and interviews to produce a highly readable, engaging consideration of the history and culture of pork. Extensive endnotes, a bibliography, and source list will satisfy the scholar, while the journalistic methods, photos, and engaging storytelling will appeal to the general reader. Clampitt emphasizes in the introduction that her aim "is not to promote the consumption of pork, but rather to underscore the impact of food and agriculture on world events." This book serves as a broader complement to Barry Estabrook's excellent Pig Tales: An Omnivore's Quest for Sustainable Meat (CH, Jan'16, 53-2209).Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.

"There is only so much one can do to conserve the animals one studies by only studying them." So writes Stanislav Lhota in a chapter devoted to proboscis monkey conservation. This book marks a primatological pivot from field research focused on theoretical topics to incorporation of conservation dimensions into every aspect of what primatologists do. The editors (all scholars of biological or evolutionary anthropology) question long-standing traditions of studying primates in pristine habitats. If such environments ever existed, they are vanishing and now rare--and this mandates a shift in primatologists' work. This book provides examples of models of best conservation practices in the field. Each chapter begins with narratives of the contributing author's conservation-related field experiences and how those experiences changed the author professionally and personally. Essays are grouped according to three themes: locations where human and nonhuman primates live together; primates' responses to human activities, for example, logging and habitat fragmentation; and how climate change influences primates' ecology, demography, and behavior. The volume is balanced with respect to primate species presented and countries in which they range, and some essays are topical and synthesize and summarize literature on diverse species and locations.Summing Up: Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

As Fudge (English studies, Univ. of Strathclyde, UK) outlines in the preface, this book deals with the "actual face-to-face encounters between individual humans and animals that made up so constant a part of early modern life for so many" and relies upon wills, literary sources, and manuals for evidence. By applying the methods and perspectives of animal studies, she hopes to explore the social and emotional worlds that animals and humans shared. The latter perspective includes qualitative behavioral assessment, which rejects the mechanistic approach dominant since Descartes and maintains that "animals drive their own activities" and experience them in ways similar to humans. Thus animals live in "sequential time" and are able to "remember, respond and affect changes that reflect their own desires." Fudge uses the example of a cow that refused to be milked unless sung to by a milkmaid. Fudge argues that the depersonalization of animals that arose in modern industrial farming would have been difficult in an age when animals had individual names. Yet, the author concedes that anthropocentrism prevailed in the early modern era just as in the modern age: the needs and desires of humans overrode those of animals.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates through faculty.

With wildlife populations estimated to have lost 60 percent or more of their total numbers in the last 40 years according to the World Wildlife Fund's 2018 Living Planet Report, the need for a conservation paradigm that promotes wildlife and ecosystem services has never been greater. This edited volume provides a conceptual framework for the emerging field of "rewilding." Initially focused on the trophic value of reintroduced carnivores (see Foreman's Rewilding North America, CH, Apr'05, 42-4633), ideas of rewilding now vary from passive abandonment of old farm fields to actively re-creating Pleistocene landscapes and megafauna. These approaches all share a focus on encouraging ecological processes and establishing a trajectory toward wildness. Many of the chapters in this edited volume emphasize that rewilding is distinct from but could include restoration, the re-creation of a particular goal. The book's 20 chapters cover topics including the philosophical and aesthetic, the top-down impact of carnivore introductions, rewilding cities and countries, assessing success, conflict resolution, and the danger of unforeseeen ecological interactions, among others. Well supported with cited studies, this is an essential distillation of an emerging field of conservation by professionals in that field.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty and professionals.

Histories of animals continue to proliferate with the ongoing "animal turn" in the humanities and social sciences. Ravalli's Sea Otters: A History joins these still-swelling ranks, contributing significantly to our understanding of the contingent nature of the historical experiences of one animal species and human's relationships with it. In particular, Ravalli's deft reading of the history of the sea otter (Enhydra lutris) as a history of a global Pacific, and especially the trade in highly valued sea otter pelts, demonstrates how global events might affect a raft of otters and regional otter populations. Likewise, the long chronological scope of Ravalli's study affords the opportunity to see how otter populations were managed much earlier than we might imagine, a topic also largely unexplored in previous scholarship. Ravalli (history, William Jessup Univ.) is laudably candid on the limitations of this brief work, noting areas deserving of further research. The fifth and final chapter, "Nukes, Aquaria, and Cuteness," which addresses the elevation of sea otters to the pantheon of contemporary celebrity mammals, is his most engaging, original, and provocative; like the entire work itself, it would make for an exceptional text in undergraduate courses that treat global environmental history.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All academic levels.

Wild Migrations is a profound and timely publication, chronicling pioneering work by the Wyoming Migration Initiative that has recently inspired an order by the secretary of the interior to expand the study to include 11 western states. Richly illustrated with photographs and state-of-the-art maps, this volume can be appreciated by everyone from lay readers to experienced scientists. The atlas is organized into six major sections: an introduction, which covers basic biology, global perspectives on migration, and each species of ungulate in Wyoming; "History," which chronicles what is known from ancient times to the present about these animals as well as how they have been managed; "Science," which gets into the details of how the migrations were discovered and the scientific approach used to document and map them; "Threats," which gives details of the barriers and other factors that disrupt the migrations; and "Conservation," which provides examples of the efforts to protect the migration corridors. This beautiful book can sit equally well on a coffee table or an academic library shelf.Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.