About this item
Oftentimes when we glimpse an animal in the wild, we have no idea what weve seen. We want to know, and field guides are an ideal aid for identification. But when we want to know more about the lives of these animalstheir natural histories, their place in the larger ecological community, and where to look for them in the futurewe can now turn to Behavior of North American Mammals. This exciting new addition to the Peterson Reference Guide series is highly readable and full of fascinating facts. For example, when an opossum plays dead it isnt pretending opossums actually do enter a catatonic deathlike state. Armadillos sequester air in their guts, blow up to twice their normal volume, and paddle across the water. And beavers stockpile food for winter by caching it in beneath a raft of branches, which gets frozen in place and keeps them well supplied until spring.
About the Author
NOBA award-winning author Mark Elbroch has contributed to numerous research projects in North America, from fishers to black bears. He currently directs the Puma (mountain lion) Program for Panthera (www.panthera.org) and lives in Washington State. He is a contributor to http://voices.nationalgeographic.com/author/melbroch/ and maintains the website http://markelbroch.com/.
