Once They Were Hats
In Search of the Mighty Beaver
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Erin Moon
About this listen
Finalist for the 2015 Lane Anderson Award and the 2016 Butler Book Prize
Beavers, those icons of industriousness, have been gnawing down trees, building dams, shaping the land, and creating critical habitat in North America for at least a million years. Once one of the continent's most ubiquitous mammals, they ranged from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Rio Grande to the edge of the northern tundra. Wherever there was wood and water, there were beavers - 60 million (or more) - and wherever there were beavers, there were intricate natural communities that depended on their activities. Then the European fur traders arrived.
In Once They Were Hats, Frances Backhouse examines humanity's 15,000-year relationship with Castor canadensis, and the beaver's even older relationship with North American landscapes and ecosystems. From the waterlogged environs of the Beaver Capital of Canada to the wilderness cabin that controversial conservationist Grey Owl shared with pet beavers, Backhouse goes on a journey of discovery to find out what happened after we nearly wiped this essential animal off the map, and how we can learn to live with beavers now that they're returning.
©2015 Frances Backhouse (P)2017 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Beaverland
- How One Weird Rodent Made America
- By: Leila Philip
- Narrated by: Christine Lakin
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From award-winning writer Leila Philip, Beaverland is a masterful work of narrative science writing, a book that highlights, though history and contemporary storytelling, how this weird rodent plays an oversized role in American history and its future. She follows fur trappers who lead her through waist high water, fur traders and fur auctioneers, as well as wildlife managers, PETA activists, Native American environmental vigilantes, scientists, engineers, and the colorful group of activists known as beaver believers.
-
-
the total history of american exploitation of beavers
- By Gloria on 08-20-24
By: Leila Philip
-
Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter
- By: Ben Goldfarb
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Eager, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb reveals that our modern idea of what a healthy landscape looks like and how it functions is wrong, distorted by the fur trade that once trapped out millions of beavers from North America's lakes and rivers. The consequences of losing beavers were profound: streams eroded, wetlands dried up, and species from salmon to swans lost vital habitat. Today, a growing coalition of "Beaver Believers" recognizes that ecosystems with beavers are far healthier, for humans and non-humans alike, than those without them.
-
-
A fine natural history and great listen
- By Theo Smith on 12-30-18
By: Ben Goldfarb
-
Wild New World
- The Epic Story of Animals and People in America
- By: Dan Flores
- Narrated by: Clark Cornell
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1908, near Folsom, New Mexico, a cowboy discovered the remains of a herd of extinct giant bison. By examining flint points embedded in the bones, archeologists later determined that a band of humans had killed and butchered the animals 12,450 years ago. This discovery vastly expanded America's known human history but also revealed the long-standing danger Homo sapiens presented to the continent's evolutionary richness. Distinguished scholar Dan Flores's ambitious history chronicles the epoch in which humans and animals have coexisted in the "wild new world" of North America.
-
-
Tough for me to to review
- By Kindle Customer on 11-13-22
By: Dan Flores
-
The Hidden Life of Trees
- What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World
- By: Peter Wohlleben
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.
-
-
Tree Hugger
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-19
By: Peter Wohlleben
-
A Most Remarkable Creature
- The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
- By: Jonathan Meiburg
- Narrated by: Jonathan Meiburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.
-
-
I don't leave reviews often, but . . .
- By Steven L Peck on 06-24-21
By: Jonathan Meiburg
-
Poachers Were My Prey
- Eighteen Years as an Undercover Wildlife Officer
- By: R. T. Stewart, W. H. "Chip" Gross
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Poachers Were My Prey chronicles R. T. Stewart's many exciting undercover adventures, detailing the techniques he used in putting poachers behind bars. It also reveals, for the first time, the secrets employed by undercover wildlife officers in catching the bad guys.
-
-
Funny, crazy, awesome
- By Alexis on 09-28-16
By: R. T. Stewart, and others
-
Beaverland
- How One Weird Rodent Made America
- By: Leila Philip
- Narrated by: Christine Lakin
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From award-winning writer Leila Philip, Beaverland is a masterful work of narrative science writing, a book that highlights, though history and contemporary storytelling, how this weird rodent plays an oversized role in American history and its future. She follows fur trappers who lead her through waist high water, fur traders and fur auctioneers, as well as wildlife managers, PETA activists, Native American environmental vigilantes, scientists, engineers, and the colorful group of activists known as beaver believers.
-
-
the total history of american exploitation of beavers
- By Gloria on 08-20-24
By: Leila Philip
-
Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter
- By: Ben Goldfarb
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Eager, environmental journalist Ben Goldfarb reveals that our modern idea of what a healthy landscape looks like and how it functions is wrong, distorted by the fur trade that once trapped out millions of beavers from North America's lakes and rivers. The consequences of losing beavers were profound: streams eroded, wetlands dried up, and species from salmon to swans lost vital habitat. Today, a growing coalition of "Beaver Believers" recognizes that ecosystems with beavers are far healthier, for humans and non-humans alike, than those without them.
-
-
A fine natural history and great listen
- By Theo Smith on 12-30-18
By: Ben Goldfarb
-
Wild New World
- The Epic Story of Animals and People in America
- By: Dan Flores
- Narrated by: Clark Cornell
- Length: 16 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1908, near Folsom, New Mexico, a cowboy discovered the remains of a herd of extinct giant bison. By examining flint points embedded in the bones, archeologists later determined that a band of humans had killed and butchered the animals 12,450 years ago. This discovery vastly expanded America's known human history but also revealed the long-standing danger Homo sapiens presented to the continent's evolutionary richness. Distinguished scholar Dan Flores's ambitious history chronicles the epoch in which humans and animals have coexisted in the "wild new world" of North America.
-
-
Tough for me to to review
- By Kindle Customer on 11-13-22
By: Dan Flores
-
The Hidden Life of Trees
- What They Feel, How They Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World
- By: Peter Wohlleben
- Narrated by: Mike Grady
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings? Research is now suggesting trees are capable of much more than we have ever known. In The Hidden Life of Trees, forester Peter Wohlleben puts groundbreaking scientific discoveries into a language everyone can relate to.
-
-
Tree Hugger
- By Darwin8u on 04-18-19
By: Peter Wohlleben
-
A Most Remarkable Creature
- The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
- By: Jonathan Meiburg
- Narrated by: Jonathan Meiburg
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.
-
-
I don't leave reviews often, but . . .
- By Steven L Peck on 06-24-21
By: Jonathan Meiburg
-
Poachers Were My Prey
- Eighteen Years as an Undercover Wildlife Officer
- By: R. T. Stewart, W. H. "Chip" Gross
- Narrated by: Corey M. Snow
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Poachers Were My Prey chronicles R. T. Stewart's many exciting undercover adventures, detailing the techniques he used in putting poachers behind bars. It also reveals, for the first time, the secrets employed by undercover wildlife officers in catching the bad guys.
-
-
Funny, crazy, awesome
- By Alexis on 09-28-16
By: R. T. Stewart, and others
-
The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs
- By: Tristan Gooley
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The ultimate guide to what the land, sun, moon, stars, trees, plants, animals, sky and clouds can reveal - when you know what to look for. Includes over 850 outdoor clues and signs. This top 10 best seller is the result of Tristan Gooley's two decades of pioneering outdoors experience and six years of instructing, researching and writing. It includes lots of outdoor clues and signs that will not be found in any other book in the world.
-
-
not quite
- By Paul in Tucson on 01-21-20
By: Tristan Gooley
-
American Buffalo
- In Search of a Lost Icon
- By: Steven Rinella
- Narrated by: Steven Rinella
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Both a captivating narrative and a book of environmental and historical significance, American Buffalo tells us as much about ourselves as Americans as it does about the creature who perhaps best of all embodies the American ethos.
-
-
Phenomenal
- By Hunter Cole on 08-01-19
By: Steven Rinella
-
Meat Eater
- Adventures from the Life of an American Hunter
- By: Steven Rinella
- Narrated by: Steven Rinella
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Meat Eater chronicles Rinella’s lifelong relationship with nature and hunting through the lens of ten hunts, beginning when he was an aspiring mountain man at age ten and ending as a thirty-seven-year-old Brooklyn father who hunts in the remotest corners of North America.
-
-
Meat Beaters has yet to put out a bad book
- By Mountain Man on 11-21-24
By: Steven Rinella
-
The Tiger
- A True Story of Vengeance and Survival
- By: John Vaillant
- Narrated by: John Vaillant
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren’t random: The tiger is apparently engaged in a vendetta. Injured, starving, and extremely dangerous, the tiger must be found before it strikes again.
-
-
Thy Fearful Symmetry
- By Mel on 02-16-13
By: John Vaillant
-
The Treeline
- The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth
- By: Ben Rawlence
- Narrated by: Jamie Parker
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For the last 50 years, the trees of the boreal forest have been moving north. The Treeline takes us along this critical frontier of our warming planet from Norway to Siberia, Alaska to Greenland, to meet the scientists, residents, and trees confronting huge geological changes.
-
-
A surprising find
- By BearheartRaven on 02-23-22
By: Ben Rawlence
-
Crossing Open Ground
- By: Barry Lopez
- Narrated by: Barry Lopez
- Length: 2 hrs and 39 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Elegantly told against a haunting melodic backdrop, Crossing Open Ground's brilliant descriptions will sweep you into a new perspective - the land both gives us strength and molds our souls.
-
-
Poetry or prose or both.
- By yosemiteguide on 03-14-22
By: Barry Lopez
-
The Naturalist
- Theodore Roosevelt, A Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History
- By: Darrin Lunde
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 9 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Perhaps no American president is more associated with nature and wildlife than Theodore Roosevelt, a prodigious hunter and adventurer and an ardent conservationist. We think of Roosevelt as an original, yet in The Naturalist, Darrin Lunde shows how from his earliest days Roosevelt actively modeled himself in the proud tradition of museum naturalists - the men who pioneered a key branch of American biology through their desire to collect animal specimens and develop a taxonomy of the natural world.
-
-
Great book for hunters and nature lovers!
- By Bryce Marshall on 04-25-18
By: Darrin Lunde
-
The Final Frontiersman
- Heimo Korth and His Family, Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness
- By: James Campbell
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hundreds of hardy people have tried to carve a living in the Alaskan bush, but few have succeeded as consistently as Heimo Korth. Originally from Wisconsin, Heimo traveled to the Arctic wilderness in his feverous 20s. Now, more than four decades later, Heimo lives with his wife approximately 200 miles from civilization - a sustainable, nomadic life bounded by the migrating caribou, the dangers of swollen rivers, and the very exigencies of daily existence.
-
-
Impressive life story!
- By Marcus on 02-25-16
By: James Campbell
-
Fool's Paradise
- By: John Gierach
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If John Gierach is living in a fool's paradise, then it's a paradise that his regular listeners will recognize and new fans will delight in discovering. Laced with the inimitable blend of wit and wisdom that have made him fly-fishing's foremost scribe, Fool's Paradise chronicles the fishing life in all its glory (catching your biggest fish ever) and squalor (being stranded in a tent during a soaking rainstorm). In Gierach's world, both experiences are valuable, and perhaps inevitable.
-
-
Great book
- By Bobby Morris on 01-15-19
By: John Gierach
-
Atlas of a Lost World
- By: Craig Childs
- Narrated by: Craig Childs
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of Apocalyptic Planet, an unsparing, vivid, revelatory travelogue through prehistory that traces the arrival of the First People in North America 20,000 years ago and the artifacts that enable us to imagine their lives and fates. This book upends our notions of where these people came from and who they were.
-
-
Blaaaa
- By Josh NJ on 07-26-18
By: Craig Childs
-
Upstream
- Searching for Wild Salmon, from River to Table
- By: Langdon Cook
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Upstream is an in-depth and timely look at salmon - one of the last wild foods on our table - for fans of Susan Orlean, Mark Kurlansky, and John McPhee. As the author travels to meet a variety of colorful people associated with this unique species, from Alaskan anglers to fish farm owners to four-star chefs, he reports on its remarkable place at the intersection of nature, commerce, cuisine, and human history.
-
-
Bravo!
- By Anonymous User on 03-12-22
By: Langdon Cook
-
The Ministry for the Future
- A Novel
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Jennifer Fitzgerald, Fajer Al-Kaisi, Ramon de Ocampo, and others
- Length: 20 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ministry for the Future is a masterpiece of the imagination, using fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us - and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.
-
-
Great ideas, uneven narration
- By depthpsychologist on 12-09-20
Related to this topic
-
American Buffalo
- In Search of a Lost Icon
- By: Steven Rinella
- Narrated by: Steven Rinella
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Both a captivating narrative and a book of environmental and historical significance, American Buffalo tells us as much about ourselves as Americans as it does about the creature who perhaps best of all embodies the American ethos.
-
-
Phenomenal
- By Hunter Cole on 08-01-19
By: Steven Rinella
-
Atlas of a Lost World
- By: Craig Childs
- Narrated by: Craig Childs
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of Apocalyptic Planet, an unsparing, vivid, revelatory travelogue through prehistory that traces the arrival of the First People in North America 20,000 years ago and the artifacts that enable us to imagine their lives and fates. This book upends our notions of where these people came from and who they were.
-
-
Blaaaa
- By Josh NJ on 07-26-18
By: Craig Childs
-
Monster of God
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above - so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem.
-
-
Great book, shame about the performance
- By Shirzy on 05-23-18
By: David Quammen
-
A Traditional Bowhunter's Path
- Lessons and Adventures at Full Draw
- By: Ron Rohrbaugh Jr.
- Narrated by: Tyler Boss
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This guide to traditional bowhunting with a longbow or recurve combines the best of both worlds for beginners and veteran bowhunters. How-to chapters share hard-earned wisdom that will help you perfect your skills and get close to game, while engaging stories tell of the authors experiences hunting white-tailed deer in the east, chasing big game in the American West, and trekking to South Africa in search of Greater Kudu and other plains game.
-
-
A great primer on Traditional Bow hunting
- By Tory A. Utt on 06-25-19
-
The Good Rain
- Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest
- By: Timothy Egan
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A fantastic book! Timothy Egan describes his journeys in the Pacific Northwest through visits to salmon fisheries, redwood forests and the manicured English gardens of Vancouver. Here is a blend of history, anthropology and politics.
-
-
White man bad, capitalism bad
- By Forget about it on 04-15-21
By: Timothy Egan
-
The Dragon Behind the Glass
- A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the World's Most Coveted Fish
- By: Emily Voigt
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young man is murdered for his prized pet fish. An Asian tycoon buys a single specimen for $150,000. Meanwhile, a pet detective chases smugglers through the streets of New York. Delving into an outlandish realm of obsession, paranoia, and criminality, The Dragon Behind the Glass tells the story of a fish like none other: a powerful predator dating to the age of the dinosaurs.
-
-
A "must read" for all fish professionals.
- By Fishgen on 06-26-16
By: Emily Voigt
-
American Buffalo
- In Search of a Lost Icon
- By: Steven Rinella
- Narrated by: Steven Rinella
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Both a captivating narrative and a book of environmental and historical significance, American Buffalo tells us as much about ourselves as Americans as it does about the creature who perhaps best of all embodies the American ethos.
-
-
Phenomenal
- By Hunter Cole on 08-01-19
By: Steven Rinella
-
Atlas of a Lost World
- By: Craig Childs
- Narrated by: Craig Childs
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the author of Apocalyptic Planet, an unsparing, vivid, revelatory travelogue through prehistory that traces the arrival of the First People in North America 20,000 years ago and the artifacts that enable us to imagine their lives and fates. This book upends our notions of where these people came from and who they were.
-
-
Blaaaa
- By Josh NJ on 07-26-18
By: Craig Childs
-
Monster of God
- By: David Quammen
- Narrated by: Brian Holsopple
- Length: 16 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For millennia, lions, tigers, and their man-eating kin have kept our dark, scary forests dark and scary, and their predatory majesty has been the stuff of folklore. But by the year 2150 big predators may only exist on the other side of glass barriers and chain-link fences. Their gradual disappearance is changing the very nature of our existence. We no longer occupy an intermediate position on the food chain; instead we survey it invulnerably from above - so far above that we are in danger of forgetting that we even belong to an ecosystem.
-
-
Great book, shame about the performance
- By Shirzy on 05-23-18
By: David Quammen
-
A Traditional Bowhunter's Path
- Lessons and Adventures at Full Draw
- By: Ron Rohrbaugh Jr.
- Narrated by: Tyler Boss
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This guide to traditional bowhunting with a longbow or recurve combines the best of both worlds for beginners and veteran bowhunters. How-to chapters share hard-earned wisdom that will help you perfect your skills and get close to game, while engaging stories tell of the authors experiences hunting white-tailed deer in the east, chasing big game in the American West, and trekking to South Africa in search of Greater Kudu and other plains game.
-
-
A great primer on Traditional Bow hunting
- By Tory A. Utt on 06-25-19
-
The Good Rain
- Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest
- By: Timothy Egan
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A fantastic book! Timothy Egan describes his journeys in the Pacific Northwest through visits to salmon fisheries, redwood forests and the manicured English gardens of Vancouver. Here is a blend of history, anthropology and politics.
-
-
White man bad, capitalism bad
- By Forget about it on 04-15-21
By: Timothy Egan
-
The Dragon Behind the Glass
- A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the World's Most Coveted Fish
- By: Emily Voigt
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A young man is murdered for his prized pet fish. An Asian tycoon buys a single specimen for $150,000. Meanwhile, a pet detective chases smugglers through the streets of New York. Delving into an outlandish realm of obsession, paranoia, and criminality, The Dragon Behind the Glass tells the story of a fish like none other: a powerful predator dating to the age of the dinosaurs.
-
-
A "must read" for all fish professionals.
- By Fishgen on 06-26-16
By: Emily Voigt
-
Feathers
- The Evolution of a Natural Miracle
- By: Thor Hanson
- Narrated by: Andy Ingalls
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Feathers are an evolutionary marvel: Aerodynamic, insulating, beguiling. They date back more than 100 million years. Yet their story has never been fully told. In Feathers, biologist Thor Hanson details a sweeping natural history, as feathers have been used to fly, protect, attract, and adorn through time and place. Applying the research of paleontologists, ornithologists, biologists, engineers, and even art historians, Hanson asks: What are feathers? How did they evolve? What do they mean to us?
-
-
Fantastic Science and Fun
- By Chris Reich on 12-28-14
By: Thor Hanson
-
Irons in the Fire
- By: John McPhee
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fabulously entertaining and filled with the intriguing trivia of life, Irons in the Fire is another impeccably crafted collection of seven essays by John McPhee. His peerless writing, punctuated with a sharp sense of humor and fascinating detail, has earned him legions of fans across the country.
-
-
New New Journalism is on Fire
- By Darwin8u on 02-10-15
By: John McPhee
-
Wild Ones
- A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America
- By: Jon Mooallem
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Half of all species could disappear by the end of the century, and scientists now concede that most of America’s endangered animals will survive only if conservationists keep rigging the world around them in their favor. So Jon Mooallem ventures into the field, often taking his daughter with him, to move beyond childlike fascination and make those creatures feel more real. Wild Ones is a tour through our environmental moment and the eccentric cultural history of people and wild animals in America that inflects it.
-
-
The line between conservation and domestication...
- By Bonny on 04-02-14
By: Jon Mooallem
-
The Founding Fish
- By: John McPhee
- Narrated by: John McPhee
- Length: 14 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Few fish are as beloved, or as obsessed over, as the American shad. Although shad spend most of their lives in salt water, they enter rivers by the hundreds of thousands in the spring and swim upstream heroic distances in order to spawn, then return to the ocean.
-
-
Read and released.
- By Darwin8u on 11-14-14
By: John McPhee
-
Should the Tent Be Burning Like That?
- A Professional Amateur's Guide to the Outdoors
- By: Bill Heavey
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 9 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For more than 20 years, Heavey has staked a claim as one of America's best sportsmen writers. In feature stories and his Field & Stream column A Sportsman's Life, he has taken audiences across the country and beyond to experience his triumphs and failures as a suburban dad who happens to love hunting and fishing. This new collection gathers together a wide range of his best work - tales that are odes to the notion that enthusiasm is more important than skill and testaments to the enduring power of the natural world.
-
-
one of the best storytellers of all time!
- By Adam on 12-16-17
By: Bill Heavey
-
Disappointment River
- Finding and Losing the Northwest Passage
- By: Brian Castner
- Narrated by: Brian Castner
- Length: 12 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Disappointment River is a dual historical narrative and travel memoir that at once transports listeners back to the heroic age of North American exploration and places them in a still rugged but increasingly fragile Arctic wilderness in the process of profound alteration by the dual forces of energy extraction and climate change.
-
-
Excellent
- By Jean on 05-06-18
By: Brian Castner
-
Fool's Paradise
- By: John Gierach
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 5 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
If John Gierach is living in a fool's paradise, then it's a paradise that his regular listeners will recognize and new fans will delight in discovering. Laced with the inimitable blend of wit and wisdom that have made him fly-fishing's foremost scribe, Fool's Paradise chronicles the fishing life in all its glory (catching your biggest fish ever) and squalor (being stranded in a tent during a soaking rainstorm). In Gierach's world, both experiences are valuable, and perhaps inevitable.
-
-
Great book
- By Bobby Morris on 01-15-19
By: John Gierach
-
The Bald Eagle
- The Improbable Journey of America's Bird
- By: Jack E. Davis
- Narrated by: Dan John Miller
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The bald eagle is regal but fearless, a bird you’re not inclined to argue with. For centuries, Americans have celebrated it as “majestic” and “noble,” yet savaged the living bird behind their national symbol as a malicious predator of livestock and, falsely, a snatcher of babies.
-
-
I thought the book would be about the bald eagle
- By An Amazon Buyer on 10-25-22
By: Jack E. Davis
-
In Search of the Old Ones
- Exploring the Anasazi World of the Southwest
- By: David Roberts
- Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
David Roberts describes the culture of the Anasazi - the name means "enemy ancestors" in Navajo - who once inhabited the Colorado Plateau and whose modern descendants are the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Archaeologists, Roberts writes, have been puzzling over the Anasazi for more than a century, trying to determine the environmental and cultural stresses that caused their society to collapse 700 years ago. He guides us through controversies in the historical record, among them the haunting question of whether the Anasazi committed acts of cannibalism.
-
-
good story if you don't want to learn about Indian
- By Robert B. on 03-09-18
By: David Roberts
-
In Search of the Canary Tree
- The Story of a Scientist, a Cypress, and a Changing World
- By: Lauren E. Oakes
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Several years ago, ecologist Lauren E. Oakes set out from California for Alaska's old-growth forests to hunt for a dying tree: the yellow-cedar. With climate change as the culprit, the death of this species meant loss for many Alaskans. Oakes and her research team wanted to chronicle how plants and people could cope with their rapidly changing world. Amidst the standing dead, she discovered the resiliency of forgotten forests, flourishing again in the wake of destruction, and a diverse community of people who persevered to create new relationships with the emerging environment.
-
-
Moving and inspiring
- By Catherine A Gould on 05-26-19
By: Lauren E. Oakes
-
Astream
- American Writers on Fly Fishing
- By: Robert DeMott - editor
- Narrated by: Brian Morris
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jim Harrison, Pam Houston, Ted Leeson, Nick Lyons, Thomas McGuane, and more, share stories of fly fishing and life on the river. This marvelous collection features stories from some of America’s finest and most respected writers about one of the world’s most solitary and satisfying sports: fly fishing. For the first time, the stories of thirty-one acclaimed writers including Kim Barnes, Walter Bennett, Russell Chatham, Guy de la Valdne, Robert DeMott, Chris Dombrowski, Ron Ellis, Jim Fergus, Kate Fox, Charles Gaines, Bruce Guernsey, Jim Harrison, Pam Houston, Michael Keaton, Greg Keeler, Sydney Lea, Ted Leeson, Nick Lyons, Craig Mathews, Thomas McGuane, Joseph Monninger, Howard Frank Mosher, Jake Mosher, Craig Nova, Margot Page, Datus Proper, Le Anne Schreiber, Paul Schullery, W. D. Wetherell, and Robert Wrigley come together in one collection. Fly fishers and non-fly fishers alike will recognize in these poignant tales the universal aspects of the appreciation of nature, the necessity of conservation, and the joy and knowledge that come from time spent on fresh and salt water. This is a delightful, handsome volume that captures the allure and spirit of fly fishing and those that love it.
-
-
Flowery nonsense
- By 964a5 on 05-10-13
-
The Dinosaur Artist
- Obsession, Betrayal, and the Quest for Earth's Ultimate Trophy
- By: Paige Williams
- Narrated by: Ellen Archer
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this 2018 New York Times Notable Book,Paige Williams "does for fossils what Susan Orlean did for orchids" (Book Riot) in her account of one Florida man's attempt to sell a dinosaur skeleton from Mongolia—a story "steeped in natural history, human nature, commerce, crime, science, and politics" (Rebecca Skloot).
-
-
More filler than Joan Rivers’ face.
- By Brandi on 03-13-19
By: Paige Williams
What listeners say about Once They Were Hats
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Anonymous User
- 01-20-24
Understanding beavers and their history.
I enjoyed learning about facts, research, and stories about beavers. The narration was a bit slow.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- coulter
- 11-15-17
Don't
I think this author just likes to hear herself talk she gives you directions to places you'll never go describes her hotel by the airport and all manner of other mindnumbing details . This book had some good information but it wasn't worth slogging through the desolate swamp of her storytelling to get there.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful