Nature Nonfiction

Garden spiders belong to a group called orb weavers, which spin wheel-shaped webs. Some webs are funnel-shaped and some are very sticky. In this essay about different kinds of spider webs, listeners will learn all about nature's masters of silk weaving.

Each year, elephant seals migrate from Alaska to California, and back again. Kids will discover how the herd eats, fights, eats some more, and raises the next generation of baby seals.

How did some birds come to have brightly colored feathers to match the flowers and fruits of the tropical forest, but others stayed in muted colors? According to this Arawak folktale, they got their colors from a snake! What happens when there aren’t enough colors to go around?

Have you ever wondered why there are different shaped footprints in the mud or snow? An animal may be nearby! Discover the many animals that are in your environment! Every animal creates different tracks. Some tracks are large, and some tracks are small. Some animals may have five toes while others may have only a few. How many animal tracks can you name?

Do you know how new flowers are made? It’s a process called pollination, which is what happens when pollen is moved from one flower to another! The flowers rely on animals like bees and hummingbirds to do this for them, and in return, they offer the animals delicious nectar to eat. What is your favorite pollen-moving animal?

What good is money to a beaver? In this amazing yet true story, wild beavers build their dam using stolen money that was discard into a creek. While the authorities scoured the area for the cash, the beavers incorporated the bills into their dam.

Sisters Leslie and Brie recently moved next door to a llama ranch, where Stacy keeps two unique animals named Cal and Sterling. Stacy shows the girls how shearing llama hair can be cleaned, carded, spun, washed again, and then knitted into toasty sweaters that keep you warm in the winter!

Did you know that spiders are not insects? Insects have only six legs but spiders have eight. Unlike insects, spiders do not have antennae. Tarantulas may look terrifying, but they are relatively harmless to humans.

In the 1870s, grasshoppers known as Rocky Mountain locusts destroyed crops and farms across the Great Plains states, then were never seen again. Where did these bugs come from and where did they go? That's the great grasshopper mystery!

Fran is a fire ant with a very important job—she’s a nurse ant! When the nest’s queen lays eggs, it’s the nurse ants’ job to raise the eggs into larvae and pupae so they grow up to become healthy worker ants to help build and run the nest.

Rats are opportunistic, living in human cities provides them with food, shelter, and everything else they need!

A wild cheetah and a tabby cat have a lot in common.

Beavers build dams that benefit an entire ecosystem.

Though the first dinosaur fossils were uncovered in the early 1800s, we are still learning a lot about these incredible creatures that lived long ago.

In 1811, while exploring the cliffs near Lyme Regis, England, 12-year-old Mary Anning made the find of a lifetime. There in the rocks was the skeleton of a strange creature. Mary's find was later named Ichthyosaurus, a reptile that lived more than 250 million years ago. Anning went on to have a long career finding and identifying dinosaur fossils. However, her work often went unrecognized by male scientists of the time, and she received little credit until long after her death. Learn about Mary Anning's perseverance and her important discoveries in paleontology.

Baby animals come in many shapes and sizes. Some babies look like their parents. Other baby animals need time to grow.

There is no animal in the world that can run faster than a cheetah. Yet, no matter how quickly they run from trouble, cheetahs may not roam the African plains forever. They have lost much of their habitat to farmland, and some are killed by farmers who worry about their livestock. But cheetahs have important friends - like Dr. Laurie Marker and the Cheetah Conservation Fund in Namibia. Rosanna Hansen - who spent time working at the CCF - shares the fascinating story of cheetah preservation in this book young listeners will find irresistible.

Have you ever wondered just how a glow stick works? Or what about those glow-in-the-dark stars you stick on your ceiling keep on shining? In her first book, author and teacher Anita Sitarski answers these questions and more giving listeners the inside scoop on everything that glows. Fireflies, bacteria, squid, jelly fish—what do all of these things have in common? They glow! It seems like one of mother nature’s mysteries, but many curious scientists have begun to shine light on this beautiful phenomenon.

Few activities grip our attention more than animal watching. Dolphins and seals bring us much joy, and sharks and alligators hold us in awe. But animals can also prompt a variety of fascinating questions. Why do dolphins sometimes surf? How well can birds of prey actually see? Why do giant pandas eat bamboo fast food? Why are cavities essential to one reptile's survival? What effect can a slight temperature change have on alligator hatchlings? How can some seals stay underwater so long and dive so deeply without harm?

Would you believe it if I told you that every bird you see - even the smallest hummingbird - is a dinosaur? Well, that’s what many scientists now believe! Follow along as scientists examine ancient fossils and pose new theories on how prehistoric dinosaurs evolved into today’s modern birds. Packed with exciting stories of unearthing ancient fossils and tales of what early feathered dinosaurs might have looked like, this book will have imaginations running wild. From the very first birds, with only tiny dino-fuzz covering their bodies, to the mystery of how dinosaurs finally took to the air, listeners will explore the startling connection between the birds they encounter every day and their very distant relatives.