front cover of Anguish Of Snails
Anguish Of Snails
Native American Folklore in the West
Barre Toelken
Utah State University Press, 2003
After a career working and living with American Indians and studying their traditions, Barre Toelken has written this sweeping study of Native American folklore in the West. Within a framework of performance theory, cultural worldview, and collaborative research, he examines Native American visual arts, dance, oral tradition (story and song), humor, and patterns of thinking and discovery to demonstrate what can be gleaned from Indian traditions by Natives and non-Natives alike. In the process he considers popular distortions of Indian beliefs, demystifies many traditions by showing how they can be comprehended within their cultural contexts, considers why some aspects of Native American life are not meant to be understood by or shared with outsiders, and emphasizes how much can be learned through sensitivity to and awareness of cultural values.

Winner of the 2004 Chicago Folklore Prize, The Anguish of Snails is an essential work for the collection of any serious reader in folklore or Native American studies.
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front cover of Ecoviews
Ecoviews
Snakes, Snails, and Environmental Tales
Whit Gibbons and Anne R. Gibbons
University of Alabama Press, 1998
The authors offer a fun-to-read perspective on natural history, ecology as a field of study, and the current environmental issues that face our communities and the world.

This lively and entertaining book provides a fascinating and thought-provoking look at the ecology of animals, plants, and their habitats and promotes awareness of pressing environmental issues. The eight informative chapters deliver effective environmental messages and supply compelling insight into the natural world and the ecologists who investigate its many mysteries.

From a concerned ecological stance, the authors show that human relationship with other organisms and the environment is always complex and can be exhilarating, inspiring, humorous, and irritating, depending on perspectives and circumstances. Writing truly to inform and delight, they give a captivating variety of examples from the natural world in hopes of making readers of all ages more compassionate, more tolerant, and more sensitive to other living organisms and their interrelationships. The book celebrates the intrinsic worth of all plants and animals in order to motivate people in a unified effort to preserve the Earth's rich array of life forms. The preservation of the integrity of our planet's biodiversity is, the authors illustrate, critical to our own survival.
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front cover of Land Snails and Slugs of the Pacific Northwest
Land Snails and Slugs of the Pacific Northwest
Thomas E. Burke
Oregon State University Press, 2013
Terrestrial mollusks, the second largest phylum in the animal kingdom, are vitally important to the earth’s ecology. With the publication of Land Snails and Slugs of the Pacific Northwest, a definitive and comprehensive guide to snails and slugs of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and western Montana is finally available. 

Primarily an identification guide, this richly illustrated volume offers complete information on the range of terrestrial mollusk shapes, sizes, and characteristics. It presents an overview of their habitat requirements as well as details of land snail and slug ecology, collection and preservation methods, and biogeography. 

Land Snails and Slugs of the Pacific Northwest is an essential reference for biologists, horticulturalists, gardeners, and naturalists, and anyone wishing to identify species in the field.

• Identification keys and species accounts for most of the 245 taxa of terrestrial slugs and snails in the region

• 280 full-color photographs of 155 species and subspecies 

• Range maps for most species
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