It can be easy, in our increasingly online hours, to lose sight of the majesty of our natural world and its animals and habitats. The following books, accompanied by hints of what lies within their covers, are testament to what we are missing—and as any kid would tell you, it's astonishing.

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Did You Know?

• A Northern Pocket Gopher can dig an amazing half a metre of tunnel through compacted clay soil in just 15 minutes.
• North American Beavers, along with humans, are the only mammals whose impact on their environment is so massive that it can be clearly seen with the naked eye from outer space.
• There really are Narwhals – the single-tusked mammals that likely inspired the unicorn legend – living in the waters surrounding Greenland.

The Natural History of Canadian Mammals, by Donna Naughton, is the most comprehensive and authoritative book on Canadian mammals ever published. Winner of four international book awards (shortlisted for two others), this book received rave reviews from the National Post, Canadian Geographic, and Canada’s History, among others.

From the National Post: "Enjoy this book for the intellectual marvel that it is ... A Natural History of Canadian Mammals tells this country’s story in lively ways that are unexpectedly wonderful and warm-blooded."

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Did You Know?

• Groups of crows sing in harmony as a sign of social affiliation, much like a soccer team’s chants.
• A New Caledonian crow bent a straight piece of wire into a hook to retrieve a bucket of food. This level of sophisticated tool-use is remarkably rare among animals.

Candace Savage's Crows features everything you ever wanted to know about crows and ravens, sprinkled with folklore and personal anecdotes. Drawing on two decades of research about the intellectual, social, and emotional lives of crows, this book is animated, beautifully written and filled with wonder.

We love this Quill & Quire review of it:

"The combination of Savage's accessibility, the sheer depth of her research, the slight anthropomorphism, and the sparkling quality of her writing do more than explain the world of the corvine family. There's a startling intimacy to this literary encounter, from which most readers are likely to emerge well educated, informed, and curiously changed. That's a keen accomplishment for little more than 100 pages."

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Did You Know?

• The largest beaver-cut stump on record measured just over one metre in diameter. Sawed off flat, it would have made a table big enough to seat four people for dinner.
• Through damming, beavers are capable of diverting a stream over a watershed divide and into a different drainage basin.
• Beavers have a flap of skin behind their incisors that allows them to chew on wood while submerged, without swallowing water.

As much as we take beavers for granted and even allow them to be our national symbol, beavers have not exactly been welcomed throughout history. Horace T. Martin, a Canadian Fellow of the Zoological Society of London and author of Castorologia or the History and Traditions of the Canadian Beaver, wrote in 1892, “As to the ultimate destruction of the beaver, no possible question can exist .... “the evidences of approaching extermination can be seen only too plainly in the miles of territory exhibiting the decayed stump, the broken dam and deserted lodge.”

In Once They Were Hats, Frances Backhouse goes on a journey of discovery to find out what happened after we nearly wiped this essential animal off the map, and how we can learn to live with beavers now that they’re returning.

You can read Frances Backhouse's writings about beavers in National Geographic, too.

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Did You Know ...

• Polar bears spend over 50% of their time hunting for food, but less than 2% of their hunts are successful.
• Recently published data show that polar bears in northeast Alaska and the Northwest Territories suffered a 40% population loss between 2001–2010 from 1,500 to 900 bears.
• Bärle (the subject of the book to the right) taught her cub to hunt live seals in the Detroit Zoo, making history as the only captive polar bear in the world to do so.

Else Poulsen, a world-renowned zookeeper, recounts her experience helping a rescued polar bear recover from an abusive, inhumane life in a circus. At the Detroit zoo, Bärle feels dirt under her paws, instead of cement, for the first time in decades and begins to attach to the other polar bears, finding love and a family. Bärle's Story documents the damaging plight of captive bears as well as the incredible resilience animals possess.

Karine Hauser, Co-Founder and CEO of Hauser Bears, writes: "We may know intellectually that bears are intelligent, emotional, and sentient beings but Bärle's Story, and Else Poulsen’s account of Bärle's life and their relationship, is one that has the capacity to anchor this knowledge deep in one's heart forever, making it a life changing read." 

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Did You Know ...

• The land-mass surrounding the Stikine, Skeena, and Nass rivers that form the Sacred Headwaters is a wilderness three times the size of Switzerland.
• Less than fifty men and women, each of them world-class athletes, have been able to successfully kayak the white-waters of the Stikine.

A mix of visually arresting photographs and poignant environmental writing, The Sacred Headwaters, by Wade Davis, tells the story of the fight to save three of Canada's most important salmon-rivers. The Stikine, the Skeena, and the Nass all flow through a breathtaking northern BC valley the First Nations call the Sacred Headwaters. Interspersed with the voice of the Talhtan Elders opposing attempts to open the region up for development, The Sacred Headwaters is a visual feast and a plea to preserve an extraordinary region for future generations.

Speaking of salmon: you must check out The Salmon Recipes:

"From time immemorial, wild salmon have nourished the people of the Pacific Northwest, forming an integral part of the region's distinctive heritage and culture. The Salmon Recipes invites you to a sumptuous, visual feast drawn from the culinary practices and rich experience of the people of the North Coast, woven into a stunning full-color photographic essay. Mouthwatering recipes showcasing both time-honored and modern artisanal food skills share the page with an eclectic tapestry of captivating voices featuring such luminaries as Susan Musgrave and Robert Davidson.

Ranging from rare, traditional salmon preparation techniques to avant-garde, subtly flavored seafood experiments, the recipes in this collection include:

• Cedar Planked Salmon Topped with Dungeness Crab
• Baked White Fish with Pine Nut, Parmesan, and Basil Pesto Crust
• Steamed Salmon with Huckleberries
• Pan Seared Honey Glazed Salmon with Browned Butter Lime Sauce

Yum!