Books in the The British Natural History Collection series

The original publication of Chris Mead's book soon took its place as the most accessible yet authoritative work on owls available and continued to be a bestseller for almost twenty years. Appealing not just to keen birdwatchers but also to budding naturalists and all those with a passing interest in birds, copies of the book are still sought after.

Otters in this country are a conservation success story. When Paul Chanin first started studying otters their numbers were so low that they had disappeared entirely from most of England. Over the last forty years they have recovered until, in 2011, otters finally returned to Kent, and are once more present in every English county.

As they live underground moles are beneath the notice of most people except when they torment us with their molehills. Most of us see a mole as simply something to be destroyed, and never get to know the astonishing animal that lives under our feet. And yet moles are mighty and beautiful, mysterious and independent, resilient and industrious.

In his refreshingly lighthearted style, Pat Morris presents scientific and downto-earth information about one of Britain's best-loved wild creatures, the bumbling and endearing hedgehog.

The polecat's recovery in Britain is one of the least celebrated wildlife success stories of recent times, probably because it has done it discreetly and all by itself with no active human involvement. Our spirits have been lifted by the carefully managed reintroduction of red kites, the nocturnal polecat has slipped back under the radar.