Short Synopsis
From award-winning writer and biologist Bernd Heinrich comes this intimate, accessible, and eloquent illumination of animal survival in winter.

Full Synopsis
The animal kingdom relies on staggering evolutionary innovations to survive winter. Unlike their human counterparts, who alter the environment to accommodate physical limitations, most animals are adapted to an amazing range of conditions. In Winter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival, biologist, illustrator, and award-winning author Bernd Heinrich explores his local woods, where he delights in the seemingly infinite feats of animal inventiveness he discovers there.

Because winter drastically affects the most elemental component of all life—water—radical changes in a creature's physiology and behavior must take place to match the demands of the environment. Some creatures survive by developing antifreeze; others must remain in constant motion to maintain their high body temperatures. Even if animals can avoid freezing to death, they must still manage to find food in a time of scarcity or store if from a time of plenty.

Infused by the author's inexhaustible enchantment with nature, Winter World awakens the wonders and mysteries by which nature sustains herself through winter's harsh, cruel exigencies.

"The stories are plain engrossing---in their elucidation, their breadth of examples, and their barely contained sense of awe and admiration." ---Kirkus

"Bernd Heinrich is one of the finest living examples of that strange hybrid: the science writer." ---The Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Heinrich has a rare ability to embed dense scientific explications within graceful, lightfooted nature writing." ---The New York Times Book Review

Library Journal Bestseller