My Encyclopedia of Very Important Animals

Adnan Oktar (Harun Yahya) Dear Children, In this book, we will discover the marvels of creation in the living beings surrounding us. In the following pages, you will set out on a joyful journey in the company of many loveable living beings who will amaze you with their many interesting and astonishing characteristics. While reading this book, you will see that Allah has created all living beings in perfect forms and that all of them are only manifestations of Allah's infinite beauty, power and knowledge. "Do you know all the animals?" We can hear you saying, "Not really. Only some of them." Do you know about these creatures' lives? Do you know how they are born? How they live? How they protect themselves and find food? You probably have no idea about most of the details of these animals' lives. But don't worry! As you read this book, you will learn astounding things about them and be amazed at the various perfections and fine qualities Allah has given these living creatures. You are already acquainted with many animals. But in this book, you will also get to know some other animals' secret and marvellous worlds, which you have most probably never heard about or seen. You will like them very much. As you continue reading, you will be amazed at the way these animals can accomplish some of the tasks they do. You will see ostriches – the fastest runners in the world, tigers – some of the best sprinters, sharp-teethed squirrels, eye-catching peacocks and, as you meet them, you will come to know them better. Meanwhile, keep in mind that these are only some of the animals that exist in the world… Our planet abounds with countless other animal species.

New Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement 2012-13, 2013

The word animal comes from the Latin anima, meaning breath or soul, and is used traditionally to refer to entities that are alive (animated). Though used colloquially in reference to nonhuman animals and pejoratively to unacceptable human behavior, "animal" is scientifically attributable to all multicellular living organisms with fixed bodily structures that are capable of moving independently, responding to stimuli, and reproducing. Humans fall within this category with other mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, insects, crabs, earthworms, sponges, and many other types. Each kind is distinct in appearance and innate qualities, yet all are interconnected and functioning within the community of Earth that God made possible. This realization requires careful thinking about the human person as a distinct kind of creature among other animal creatures, about the nature of nonhuman animals, and about how humans should relate to them. Historical Overview. Biblical, theological, and magisterial views of humans in relation to other animals have varied over the centuries. Foundational to these views has been the belief that humans and other animals are created by God, sustained in existence by God, and valued by God (Gn 1). Also foundational has been the understanding of humans as a unique kind of animal, endowed by God with the intellectual capability and freedom to make and execute informed decisions, the ultimate of which is orienting their temporal lives toward eternal happiness with God. When reflecting on nonhuman animals, some theologians have considered them instructive, both positively and negatively, for human life (e.g., BASIL of Caesarea, c. 329-379). Others have emphasized from Genesis 1:26 that God has given humans "dominion" over nonhuman animals due to their usefulness in providing for the necessities of life, while God has retained absolute dominion over all (e.g., THOMAS AQUINAS, 1224-1274). Animals have intrigued some Church prelates, including ISIDORE, the bishop of Seville (c. 560-636), who catalogued and described domestic and wild animals in Etymologiae, a book that served for centuries as a depository of knowledge for students. ALBERT THE GREAT (c. 1206-1280), a natural philosopher, theologian, and bishop of Regensburg, detailed in De Animalia his many observations regarding the behavior of "beasts and birds." Stories of the early Christian desert fathers, Celtic wanderers, and Germanic solitaries from the third to the eighth centuries convey their intimate relationships with nonhuman animals in their shared habitats. Although often romanticized, the stories about animals in the life of St. FRANCIS OF ASSISI (c. 1182-1226) display his sense of kinship with them and the goodness of God's creation. Prominent throughout the patristic and medieval periods was the faith-based understanding that all creatures-animate and inanimate-constitute a "book

www.ifaw.org, 2020

In response to the social and economic challenges humans are facing, the United Nations (UN) developed a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 to help countries set priorities and measurable targets to drive progress toward key human development and environmental areas with the goal of eradicating challenges to sustainable development by 2030. The SDGs target multiple issues including poverty, lack of access to clean drinking water, gender inequality, and limited women’s rights, but one of the most pressing issues is conserving our remaining biodiversity. As many as one million species are in danger of going extinct with current trends. The record levels of income inequality, lack of fresh drinking water, and global pandemics such as the COVID-19 outbreak have been linked to the degradation of earth’s ecosystems and biodiversity. It has become clear that protecting wildlife, ensuring animal welfare, and conserving habitats are crucial to achieving the SDGs and improving human well-being. Although the SDGs certainly provide a thorough breakdown of most social issues plaguing the earth, they do so through an economic and human development focus. However, as this report conveys, the conservation of wildlife and welfare of domestic and wild animals are key to achieving the SDGs. Through key examples, this report outlines how animals affect different aspects of sustainable development and provides recommendations for policy makers to incorporate animals into country- and local-level implementation of the SDGs.

Internation Journal of Bioscience Reporter, 2010

Our planet-the Mother Earth is a gigantic collection of diverse forms of life. From child to an old-age person, everybody has always been curious to know about them. As a part of formal education, teaching of animal systematics is one of the exiting fields of biology/zoology. However, there is a huge gap of knowledge in this field. In the field of specialization, the eminent persons are sparse. identifying and Classifying animals with reasons are becoming boring to faculty as well as for students. The books and reference material (specimens, slides, stuffed animals, museum, journals etc.) are totally neglected at school and college level. In the era of genomics, proteomics and biotechnology, It is more important to understand the animal species. The number of students in science declining and those who opt biology, the students are also attracted towards the glamorous fields. Our present education and its administrative system do not allow teachers, non it teaching staff and students to teach, learn and understand the animal systematics. For study tour, permission to visit protected areas, museum visit and maintenance, pictorial presentation etc. are threatened aspects. In the present paper, various aspects of teaching animal systematics will be discussed. The challenges to faculty, non-teaching staff and students and their possible approaches will be shared in the light of modern trends and techniques.

Making Animals Public, 2024

Natural history television on the ABC has been one of the public broadcaster’s most popular formats. For many viewers, TV has been an important contact zone for engaging with animals they would never encounter in everyday life. These animals have also played a critical role in developing environmental awareness. But how did animals get to be on the small screen and what happened to them when they got there? Making Animals Public: Inside the ABC’s Natural History Archive traces the cultural and political evolution of the natural history animal on the ABC. It explores different modes of capture from cages to cameras; what has come to count as a natural history animal over time; and the various sites they have inhabited – from nature, to the nation, to the environment, to the planet. In early natural history programs audiences were invited to watch as sovereign humans there to learn or be entertained by animals that were exotic or aesthetic or scientifically interesting. Whatever the framing, these animals were resolutely other. In recent times, natural history animals have become more assertive. They are now posing uncomfortable questions to human viewers about exploitation, extinction and mutual implication in catastrophic whole earth processes like climate change. Using a wide range of screen examples ranging from the 1950s to the 2020s, Making Animals Public focuses on shifting cultural and sociotechnical practices in ABC natural history television. Combining science and technology studies, screen studies and critical animal studies, this book develops an innovative interdisciplinary analysis of how televisual animality is crafted and made believable. Making Animals Public analyses the significant role public television has played in filming and circulating a vast array of animals and habitats that had never been seen before. How these animals were visualised and accounted for has continually evolved. What has remined constant is the fact that natural history television has been a hugely important site for exploring the various politics of human-animal relations – good and bad – and for nurturing environmental awareness in audiences.

Centering Animals in Latin American History (Duke University Press, 2013), 2013

Worldviews: environment, culture, religion, 2000

Animals are not new to anthropology. Since the early days of the discipline they appear in rituals, classifications and symbols. Animals are hunted, raised, domesticated, eaten, feared and venerated. Of course anthropology is generically defined as the discipline that studies "man", and it is thus common that animals only appear in a supporting role: they are part of the scenery described, assistants in activities or a means to help understand how humans think and organize themselves in the world. One of the many consequences of this attitude was to authenticate the generalized idea that animals are seen as resources of all sorts of types, given that they only appear as part of ecosystems -cultures or societies -which are anthropically centered. Animals have thus been relegated in the traditional anthropological project to figurative functional or mediating roles in contrast to the majesty of human agency. 1 To some degree, this dossier is part of an agenda that is critical of this more traditional posture, and accompanies a set of debates that have been expanding in the discipline and that shift animals from their position as simple appendixes of humans or as elements in the environment, to position them in the foreground of ethnographies, making more visible how the lives of animals and humans interact and are co-produced.

2007

For every hundred books of commentaries, arguments, glosses, there is only one of description.

College & Research Libraries News

O f the many zoology sites on the Internet, some are terrific, some terrible, and a lot are in between. There are many good general sites, and some excellent ones for specific animals, from cockroaches to cor als. Since it would be impossible to cover everything, we will instead list a few favor ites that will point you to other links and references.