Another book I picked up browsing at the library, just because it looked interesting. This "coffee-table book" is about 14 species of predators that live in Africa. They are divided into three families: canines, felines, and the hyenas, with a brief explanation of how they evolved. Following a description of each species, there are sections that compare how each hunts, their social lives, and how they interact or compete with each other. A small segment at the end describes conservation efforts. The writing is straightforward, with some interesting facts but pretty dry. Lots of color photos illustrate the different animals (I almost enjoyed the pictures more than the text). For the predators like lions, cheetahs and jackals I didn't learn much new. What really caught my attention were the less familiar species featured: the brown hyena, servals and caracals, the aardwolf (related to hyenas) and ethiopian wolf, the persecuted wild dog. I couldn't get enough of looking at images of those, having seen few in books of this kind before.Rating: 3/5 ........ 160 pages, 2001
Most coffee table books that I've read are like this in that they have fabulous photos and text that is just ok. It makes it all the more fun when I actually find one with both great text and photos.
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