Pikas are small animals with big round ears, long whiskers and very loud whistles. Kinnikinnick is a pika who lives in the Canadian Rockies and dreams of a pink mountain with wings of ice. What can he do but set out to search for it! In his adventures he meets animal friends and foes and deals with the fatal tragedy of a friend. After spending the long winter underground in a pika community, he starts out in spring with a new friend. Then Kinnikinnick nearly drowns in a river, joins the search for a lost caribou calf and wonders if he will ever find the pink mountain. There is a happy ending! Issues of loss and tragedy as well as high adventure and friendship are dealt with, accompanied by illustrations of animals that will be both familiar and new to children (caribou, pikas, grizzly bears and marmots). Aimed at 7 - 11 year olds, this is a fictional tale that will capture the young readers’ minds as well as hearts.

Discusses distribution, habitat, habits, pelage, molt, specimens, history, and nomenclature of pikas. Provides descriptions, locations, and a key for species and subspecies.

Always awe-inspiring, mountainous areas contain hundreds of millions of years of history, stretching back to the earliest continental landforms. This book shows how mountains are characterized by their distinctive geological, ecological, and biological conditions. Often, they are so large that they create their own weather patterns. They also store nearly one-third of the world’s freshwater—in the form of ice and snow—on their slopes. Despite their daunting size and often formidable climates, mountains are affected by growing local populations, as well as distant influences, such as air pollution and global climate change. Three detailed case studies are presented. The first shows how global warming in East Africa is harming Mount Kenya’s regional population, which relies on mountain runoff to irrigate farms for subsistence crops. The second examines the fragile ecology of the South Island Mountain in New Zealand’s Southern Alps and how development threatens the region’s endemic plant and animal species. The third discusses the impact of mountain use over time in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, where management efforts have been used to limit the growing footprint of millions of annual visitors and alpine trekkers.

A guide to finding and observing 420 species of North American mammals, including the art of mammal watching, the best locations, and a species-finding guide.

The Best Easy Day Hikes series are handy, pocket-size guides for day hikers in America's most popular outdoor destinations. Each guide describes approximately 20-30 easy-to-follow, scenic trails in and around national parks, cities and urban areas, and popular outdoor destinations across America. With hikes varying from half-hour strolls to full-day adventures, these guidebooks are for everyone, including families.

"An elegant, eccentric novel of love, loneliness, and lepidoptera . . . Worthy company for work by other naturalist/novelists: Nabokov, Matthiessen, Kingsolver." —Kirkus Reviews In Magdalena Mountain, Robert Michael Pyle's first and long–awaited novel, the award–winning naturalist proves he is as at home in an imagined landscape as he is in the natural one. At the center of this story of majesty and high mountain magic are three Magdalenas—Mary, a woman whose uncertain journey opens the book; Magdalena Mountain, shrouded in mystery and menace; and the all–black Magdalena alpine butterfly, the most elusive of several rare and beautiful species found on the mountain. And high in the Colorado Rocky Mountain wilderness, sharing the remote territory of the Erebia magdalena butterfly, lives the enigmatic Oberon, a reluctant de facto leader of the Grove, a diverse community of monks who share a devotion to nature. Converging in the same wilderness are October Carson, a beachcomber–wanderer in pursuit of the alpine butterflies he collects for museums; James Mead, a young graduate student intent upon learning the ecology of this seductive creature; and Mary Glanville, who also seeks the butterfly but can't remember why. While the mystery surrounding Mary takes a menacing turn, their shared quest pulls them deeper into the high mountain wilderness, culminating in a harrowing encounter on the stony slopes of Magdalena Mountain.