Nigel – Page 6 – Hoopoe

8 Natural Areas Awarded UNESCO World Heritage Status

8 natural areas have just been awarded UNESCO World Heritage Status. These are the most up to date books on these area’s flora & fauna.

Lagoons of New Caledonia: Reef Diversity and Associated Ecosystems (France)
Reef and Shore Fishes of the South Pacific: New Caledonia to Tahiti and the Pitcairn Islands
Les Gorgones des Recifs Coralliens de Nouvelle-Caledonie – Coral Reef Gorgonians of New Caledonia
Lonely Planet Travel Guides: Vanuatu & New Caledonia

Surtsey (Iceland)
Surtsey: Ecosystem Formed
Plants and Animals of Iceland

Saryarka – Steppe and Lakes of Northern Kazakhstan (Kazakhstan)
The Birds of Kazakhstan

Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (Mexico)
Nomads of the Wind: The Migration of the Monarch Butterfly and Other Wonders of the Butterfly World
The Monarch Butterfly: Biology and Conservation
Collins Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Central America

Mount Sanqingshan National Park (China)
Wild China DVD
A Guide to the Mammals of China
Wildlife Conservation in China: Preserving the Habitat of China’s Wild West

Socotra Archipelago (Yemen)
Socotra: A Natural History of the Islands and their People

Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona (Switzerland)
No books that we can find. Any suggestions?

Joggins Fossil Cliffs (Canada)
Nothing specifically on this, although Fossil Ecosystems of North America: A Guide to the Sites and their Extraordinary Biotas is a thorough introduction to fossil hotspots.

New Checkout System on www.nhbs.com

Top 10 Species For the last two weeks we have been in the process of upgrading our IT system. The first customer facing aspect of this ‘went live’ last night in the form of a new shopping basket and checkout procedure. The whole checkout process is faster, there is much more information and you can save your billing and shipping address information for future orders.

In the near future you will be able to set up wish lists, check open orders, spend gift vouchers, view completed orders and manage your information from our site. We look forward to announcing new developments as they happen.

Top 10 New Species Announced

The International Institute for Species Exploration have issued their list of the Top 10 new species described in 2007. We offer a warm welcome to these species as they leave the masses of what is not known and join the slightly more ordered ranks of the known:

Sleeper ray Electrolux addisoni
75 million year old Giant Duck-billed dinosaur Gryposaurus monumentensis
Pink millipede Desmoxytes purpurosea
Frog Philautus maia
Highly venomous snake Oxyuranus temporalis
Fruit bat Styloctenium mindorensis
Fungi from Silwood Park campus (Imperial College, UK) Xerocomus silwoodensis
Lethal box jellyfish Malo kingi
Rhinoceros beetles Megaceras briansaltini
Michelin Man plant Tecticornia bibenda

The International Institute for Species Exploration have also released the State of Observed Species Report (SOS) for 2006 listing 16,969 new species. 53% of these are not surprisingly insects, though the list includes 185 new mammal and 37 new bird species.Â The SOS report is issued annually on 23rd of May to conincide with the birthday of Linnaeus – it can be downloaded here.

Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiveristy offers, in the words of Al Gore: “The most complete and powerful argument I have seen for the importance of preserving biodiversity“. Includes a foreword by EO Wilson and a prologue by Kofi Annan.

New Chameleon Species is the Mayfly of the Tetrapod World

Karsten et al, reporting in this month’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Subscription required for full access), describe the extrodinary life history of a chameleon species Furcifer labordi which spends more time incubating in the egg than living outside it. F. labordi’s incubation period is 8-9 months, they reach sexual maturity within 2 months of hatching then live for a further 2-3 months.

Because they are annually hatching as one age cohort, they all die off within a short space of time prior to replacement in the next life cycle by their incubating offspring. This life history strategy is unkown in over 28,000 other tetrapod (four limbed) vertebrate species but might explain the incidence of rapid deaths of chameleons in captivity.

Digital Images of Linnean Butterflies Now Online

The Linnean Society have launched a new digital archive of Linnean butterflies to mark National Insect Week. Linnaeus named 300 butterfly species of which over 240 still bear their Linnaean species names today. This includes the American Monarch Danaus plexippus (L.) famous for it’s annual mass migrations. The Monarch, pictured here, is also the subject of a fascinating new book – Nomads of the Wind, chronicling this migration and other wonders of the butterfly world.

Dian Fossey’s first article in National Geographic has been republished online. Originally in the January 1970 issue of National Geographic, her front-line account of gorillas in Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda is as fresh and compelling now as it must have been to the readers who got their copies of National Geographic back in 1970. Dian’s impassioned call for action is unfortunately as relevant today as it was 38 years ago:

“Money alone will not solve the problem. Conservation groups and political authority must join in concerted programs if this three-nation area and its wildlife are to be saved from human trespassers.

Such help is overdue. I only hope that Raﬁki, Uncle Bert, Icarus, and my other forest friends can survive until it comes.”

The July 2008 National Geographic brings a heart-wrenching update on the fate of Gorilla’s in Virunga National Park, DRC. I’ve been an on-off subscriber to National Geographic for 10-15 years – it’s the quality of articles like this that keep drawing me back.

Wild China on the BBC

Rickett's Bat The BBC Wildlife Team broke new ground last night with incredible footage of a Rickett’s Big Footed Bat (Myotis ricketti) hunting fish. Ma et al uncovered the first evidence that this bat was a piscivore in 2003 (Journal of Zoology (2003), 261: 245-248) from analysis of droppings and behavioural observation. This footage is part of the BBC Wild China series which started last night. Both the book from this series, which is out now, and the DVD (to pre-order) are available from NHBS.

The first episode, Heart of the Dragon, focuses on the southern region with it’s iconic terraced paddy fields and the Karst peaks of the Li River. They filmed the ancient technique of Cormorant fishing – which I have seen in action on the Li River – it’s a fascinating collaboration and illustrative of the close working relationship maintained between people and animals in rural Chinese areas. The BBC haven’t shied away from highlighting the staggering conservation challenges facing China and the extent to which a wide range of highly endangered species are exploited.

The BBC have summaries of all six episodes as well as lots of behind the scenes detail on the BBC Wild China pages.

If you would like to start observing bats in the wild and listening in on their calls view our range of bat detectors and books about bats.

Colossal Squid – Largest Known Eyes Discovered

Giant Squid Research staff at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa have been studying a rarely seen Colossal Squid caught by fishermen off the Antarctic coast last February. They found that it has eyes measuring 27cm in diameter – the largest eye found to date!

There are regular updates on the Te Papa Blog and videos of the ongoing examination.

I wonder if NHBS is the only bookshop in the world with a Cephalopods Category on our website?

Richard Lewington’s Garden Wildlife – just published and in stock now

We are very excited about Richard Lewington’s new Guide to Garden Wildlife – it includes the vast majority of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and other invertebrates that you are likely to encounter in the garden or on your local wildlife patch. The introduction covers the functional role of different animal types in our gardens – soil dwellers, herbivores, pollinators, predators and parasitoids along with advice on attracting wildlife to your garden. Each animal group is introduced with general biology, life-cycle and basic ecology

The illustrations are first class – Richard Lewington’s work sets the standard in natural history illustration. In addition, his brother Ian has provided the excellent bird illustrations for this book. Guide to Garden Wildlife comes with our very strongest recommendation.

NHBS Appointed Distributor of BTO Publications

We are pleased to announce that the British Trust for Ornithology has appointed NHBS as trade distributor of BTO Publications.

Bestsellers include:
The BTO Nestbox Guide
Identification Guide to European Passerines
Identification Guide to European Non-Passerines
Statistics for Ornithologists

Browse the full list

The British Trust for Ornithology has existed since 1933 as an independent, scientific research trust, investigating the populations, movements and ecology of wild birds in the British Isles. Their speciality is the design and implementation of volunteer wild bird surveys through a partnership between a large number of volunteers and a small scientific staff.

Click here to find out more about becoming a BTO member