Get Your Animals In Order is a book published in association with the Natural History Museum, making the subject of scientific animal classification fun and interesting. Every creature ever discovered has been added to a group within the animal kingdom, from whales to worms and from snakes to stinkbugs. Learn the similarities, differences and connections between animal groups, and discover how scientists help conserve animals, and their habitats.
Michael Bright has worked as an executive producer with BBC’s world-renowned Natural History Unit in Bristol and at London’s Science Unit, and is a member of the Royal Society of Biology who has worked with Sir David Attenborough.
Illustrator Gavin Scott spent much of his childhood drawing and painting animals and birds, and later studied for a BA Natural History Illustration at Bournemouth Arts University. When not working he loves rock-climbing on the Dorset code and riding his old Triumph motorbike.
What Types of Creatures are There?
There are just two main groups of animals: vertebrates with backbones (animals, fish) and invertebrates without backbones (crustaceans, insects and spiders are examples). Vertebrates are divided into five species:
- Mammals (including us)
- Birds
- Amphibians
- Reptiles
- Fish
However, nearly all the world’s creatures are invertebrates including insects (this includes bees, butterflies and beetles), earthworms, spiders, slugs, snails and spiders.
Scientists also classify plants into two types: ones that make seeds (trees and flowering plants) and those that don’t (like moss or fern). Then we have bacteria and fungi (which includes, mushrooms and even viruses).
A Fun Book Looking at ‘Animal Cousins’
Animal Families looks at cousins in the creature world. Discover families ties that stretch across the world with 21 fascinating animal families. From various species of fox, bears, owls, dolphins and cobras, some animals are part of the same family, but live continents apart. Can you spot the difference between:
- A laughing kookaburra and a bright river kingfisher?
- An elephant hawkmoth and a hummingbird hawkmoth?
- A South American coati and a North American raccoon
Matt Sewell is a talented watercolour artist and ornithologist who writes some of England’s best-selling books about birds and other creatures. His designs are even on postage stamps on the Isle of Man.
Creatures That Are (Surpringly) Related to Each Other
- Woodlice are the land cousins of prawns and shrimp.
- Elephants and manatees (‘sea cows’ that also have trunks!)
- Chickens descend from dinosaurs!
- Whales and cows are apparently distant cousins!
The Species (that Shaped Earth’s Ecosystems)
Wildlife in the Balance is a beautifully illustrated book that teaches us about 12 of the world’s keystone species, which means that their existence is paramount to life on earth. An obvious example in England is the beaver, the world’s second-largest rodent, which although previously hunted almost to extinction for its fur in the past, is now being successfully ‘rewilded’ to help prevent floods, due to its dam-building skills.
After learning exactly what a keystone species is (and benefits to our environment and food chains), you’ll learn about various keystone species around the world, grouped by area:
- Australia (fish that shape the reefs)
- Europe (beavers and Mediterranean rabbits)
- South America (pollinators of Patagonia & a ‘giving tree’ of the rainforest)
- Antarctica (krill that powers the Atlantic)
- North America – apex predators
- Asia – China’s little pika
Plus you’ll learn the importance of keystone areas like the African Savannah, and how to protect keystone species around the world.
The book also focuses on exactly what an ecosystem is. We hear the word, but what does it mean? In short, it means somewhere that supports a wide range of life, a community of living things on land or sea, that interact to support each other. From a small pond to an Amazon rainforest. The main ecosystems on earth are:
- Deserts on dry land, which receive little rainfall
- Temperate rainforests in northern areas that drop their leaves in winter
- Open oceans away from coastlines
- Temperature grasslands with little trees and little rain
- Coral reefs, made up of thousands of coral
- Savannah grasslands, maintained by grazing animals
- Tropical forests (warm and humid, near the Equator
- Tundra (cold windy areas with few trees)
Sharon Wismer is a marine biologist, mother and children’s book author, who loves to share her passion for wildlife. Currently funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation, she leads a science communication project at a Swiss University and focuses on the impacts of mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef, and how it affects fish.
A Book on How Animals Hide Themselves
Find Out About Animal Camouflage is a lovely book for children, looking at how creatures hide in the desert and snow, or some don’t hide at all. From insects that look like leaves to underwater creatures that blend into their background, readers will learn about:
- Leaf mimic moths (which resemble a dead leaf when still)
- African Gaboon vipers (which look like a heap of dead leaves)
- Peppered moth caterpillars (who adjust their colour to hide)
- The flower mantis (who looks like a pretty pink flower)
- Peacock flounders change colour to match underwater surroundings
- The ghost pipefish (looks like a long thin piece of coral)
- Ptarmigans blend in to hide in the snow
- Arctic hares & foxes (grow white fur in winter to hide)
Fun Facts about Animal Camouflage
Animals hide themselves for a variety of reasons, and in a variety of ways. The main reason is to avoid being eaten, or to hide themselves, when about to eat some unsuspecting other creature. Depending on species, animals may well change colour or shape, or even pretend to be something else entirely:
- Chameleons can change their colour, to blend in with their environment.
- Arctic foxes can hide amid the snow.
- Stoats are brown and black, but turn white in winter.
- Crabs cover theier shells with seaweed and natural sponge, to avoid being found by turtles.
- Leopards have spots to blend in with the surroundings.
- Same with zebaras, and their strikes
- Stick insects blend in with foliage, to look like twigs. Some even move in the wind, to pretend they are branches.
- An octopus can not just change colour to match surroundings, but even change the texture of its skin, to match surroundings rocks and corals.
Fun Interviews with Creatures Around the World!
Interview with a Tiger (and other clawed beasts) is a fun book that gets up close with 10 fierce and furry beasts (including tigers) as they step up to the mic, and share their habits, behaviour, likes/dislikes, favourite foods and more. It also features ‘interviews’ with a wolf, honey badger, giant armadillo, lion, giant anteater, jaguar, snow leopard, polar bear and three-toed sloth. Plus tips on how to help endangered species.
Interview with a Kangaroo (and other marsupials) looks at animals who carry their young in pouches. Features interviews with:
- A kangaroo
- A koala
- A Virginia opossum
- A Tasmanian devil
- A numbat
- A bandicoot
- A sugar glider
- A quokka
- A spotted cuscus
Interview with a Shark (and other ocean giants) gets up close with 10 extraordinary marine creatures, as they step up to the mic to share their habits, behaviours, likes/dislikes and favourite foods. The book features ‘interviews’ with:
- A great white shark
- A blue whale
- An orca (killer whale)
- A sunfish
- A giant squid
- A narwhal
- A manta ray
- An octopus
- A conger eel
- An angler fish
Interview with a Panda (and other endangered animals) educates children on how to help, with interviews with:
- A giant panda
- A green turtle
- A black rhino
- A flying fox
- A Sumatran elephant
- A Cuban crocodile
- A tiger chameleon
- A kakapo (New Zealand owl parrot)
- A Western Nimba Toad
We have many endangered species both in England (hedgehogs, dormice and water voles are a few) along with many others worldwide. The IUCN Red List is the place to find current statistics, and learn how to help. The shocking news is that there are 44,000 threatened species (almost a third of all of them). The list ranges from slightly concerned to extinct.
Readers of National Geographic will remember the heartbreaking photo a few years ago of the carer of the last male white rhino being caressed, just before died. With just two females left, Sudan’s death left the species near extinct (IVF treatment with a southern white rhino is now trying to help).
Andy Seed is a children’s book author, who lives near wild boar in a forest in Gloucestershire. He loves to write fun books for children that are ‘a bit giggly’. He has won over 100 caption competitions, and once appeared as a contestant on the TV series Bullseye. His team lost (‘look at what you could have won’) to two Elvis impersonators!
