Remarkable Animals

by Heinz Kohler

About 150 years ago, the newly formed Liebig’s Extract of Meat Company decided to advertise its product by rewarding loyal customers with gifts of colorful and beautiful picture cards. Each card was a work of art; the images and their associated commentary captivated and mesmerized people. Before long, thousands of these cards were circulating and new editions were eagerly awaited. As a group, they told fascinating stories about every conceivable aspect of life on earth and, similar to what the Internet might do in our time, came to embody the sum total of human knowledge. Collectors traveled the globe, met people from any country on earth, and learned about their customs. They visited lost civilizations, too, or viewed the world’s natural wonders of the day. They studied plants and animals or followed the evolution of commerce and transport. They discovered the secrets of agriculture, forestry, and fishing or learned how new inventions were transforming industry. They met up with music and literature, great art and architecture, famous men and women of all ages, and, most importantly for children no doubt, with giants and dwarfs, elves and gnomes, riddles and fairy tales! In hindsight, strange as it may sound, the company’s most important contribution was not to the kitchens of the world, but to the education of millions of people of all ages who could not go to school or afford books! The author’s grandmother was one of them and, many years later, when he was a child, she used her large collection of Liebig cards, as one might the modern-day Internet, to satisfy his urge to find out everything about the big wide world. This book is the fourth of a series that resurrects grandmother’s magical Internet and seeks to pass on the joy it brought. Book 4 of the SURFING A MAGICAL INTERNET series presents almost 150 pictures and stories about all sorts of remarkable animals that captivated children and adults alike during grandmother’s youth. We meet magnificent animals from antediluvian times and travel through different geological eras; most of these animals roamed the earth long before humans did. We visit beautiful creatures inhabiting the sea --- colorful anemones, corals, jellyfish and all sorts of luminescent beings that light up the undersea world, but are rarely seen. Back on firmer ground, we discover animals celebrated in works of art and others once considered sacred and even worshipped by people. We come across individual animals that have been immortalized by stories historians tell. We study strange mammals without teeth and beasts of burden that have supported human endeavors for millennia. We marvel at insects that are masters of camouflage and at colorful butterflies of the day or the night. We face poisonous snakes and animals living on the world’s highest mountains. And we read intriguing stories about animals that lived among ancient gods who turned them into glimmering objects in the sky! Most importantly, in the end, readers of all ages will come to know things about the animal world that defy the Would you believe that there is an animal on earth, even now, that is 165 feet long? That some crabs can live to be 100 years old? That a green sea turtle might reach a weight of almost 900 pounds? That it takes 100,000 cochineal beetles to produce a single kilogram of dye typically used for lipstick coloring (and, in days long past, for the red coats of British soldiers attempting to put down the American Revolution)? That a resinous mixture produced by honey bees gives the Stradivarius violin its unique color? That llamas make excellent livestock guards? That caribous migrate over more than 3,000 miles a year? That jellyfish (which are no fish at all) have been around for possibly 700 million years and are the oldest multi-organ animal? That some si

475 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 18, 2015

About the author

HEINZ KOHLER was born in Berlin, Germany, where he grew up before and during World War II. By the war's end, he found himself in rural East Germany and spent years watching the Nazi tyranny give way to a Communist one. He made it to West Berlin before the Wall went up and came to the United States in the late 1950s. Since 1961, he was associated with Amherst College, Massachusetts, where he became the Willard Long Thorp Professor of Economics, taught Economics as well as Statistics and published numerous textbooks on both subjects. His most recent books include the series SURFING A MAGICAL INTERNET, Book 1: Extraordinary Birds, Book 2: Brainteasers, Book 3: Unusual Plants, Book 4: Remarkable Animals, Book 5: Wonders of the World, Book 6: The World's Greatest Inventions, Book 7: Exploring Northern Europe, Book 8: Exploring Western Europe, Book 9: Exploring Southwestern Europe, Book 10: Exploring Central Europe, Book 11: Exploring Africa, Book 12: Exploring Southeastern Europe, Book 13: Exploring Russia and Central Asia, Book 14: Exploring Western Asia, Book 15: Exploring Southern Asia, Book 16: Exploring Eastern Asia, Book 17: Exploring Australia and Oceania, Book 18: Exploring North America, and Book 19: exploring Central America--all of which introduce the Internet equivalent of the late 1800s, CAUTION: SNAKE OIL! which shows how statistical thinking can help us expose misinformation about our health, and MY NAME WAS FIVE, a memoir of World War II.