ASIN 0394585747

UPC 9780394585741

Describes Earth's wildlife in essays on penguins, whales, bats, and the crocodilians

From Publishers Weekly

With unfettered curiosity and a high degree of engagement, poet and naturalist Ackerman ( A Natural History of the Senses ) sported among penguins in subantarctic rookeries and herds of alligators on a Florida alligator farm, gathering experience with the creatures featured in these four lively, information-packed accounts. Whether writing of hunting bats in Texas caves or of swimming next to a mother whale and her calf in a Patagonian bay, Ackerman makes vivid the qualities and appeal of animals and the natural world they inhabit. Fueled primarily by her own response to the creatures, her reports also encompass hosts of facts (an alligator might grow as many as 3000 teeth in its lifespan; the testes of the male right whale weigh as much as 2200 lbs.), often related in a particularly revealing way, as in her observation that more people can be found in a football stadium on an autumn weekend afternoon than have ever seen the Antarctic in all of history. As commanding as the animals are the experts whose expeditions she joins--men and women, like whale expert Roger Payne, who possess extraordinary knowledge and passionate commitments to the creatures they study and work to save from extinction. Enthusiastic, free-ranging and accessible, this is popular natural-history writing at its most persuasive.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

YA-- A unique blend of poetic essays and scientific descriptions of usually unlovely animals. Ackerman writes with the precision of a scientist and the soul of a romantic, luring readers with provocative word pictures while educating them on the importance and necessity of these animals in the global scheme of nature. She maintains that near-perfect balance of animal lore, objective study, and conservation, and includes some downright hair-raising adventures such as riding an alligator bareback and swimming face-to-face with a right whale. Her goal, to underscore man's responsibility to respond to the protection of these creatures, is met admirably. This is nonfiction storytelling at its best. --Carol Bell, Immanuel Christian School, Springfield,
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Four lengthy essays--expanded versions of pieces published in The New Yorker --describe Ackerman's experiences traveling to exotic places to work with field biologists studying the behavior of bats, crocodiles, whales, and penguins. Ackerman is a poet as well as a nature writer, so her prose flows gracefully and is filled with apt turns of phrase. Public library patrons interested in getting an insider's view of the sometimes arduous, risky, yet satisfying work of wildlife conservation will enjoy her book. Recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/1/91.-- Laurie Tynan, Montgomery Cty.
Norristown P.L., Pa.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Fresh and most likable nature essays, first seen in The New Yorker in different versions. Ackerman (A Natural History of the Senses, 1990, etc.) sits at dusk in Mexico at the mouth of a cave. In a moment, 20 million bats will rise and fly to their night's feeding. At her side is Merlin Tuttle, founder of Bat Conservation International (``I could probably raise ten times as much money if I promised people I'd get rid of all the bats in their area...''). Ackerman jeeps across Texas's Big Bend with him as he photographs bats and speaks of such species as the tube-nosed fruit bat, whose elongated nostrils look like party favors. He explains how bats are essential in the life-histories of avocados, bananas, dates, figs, peaches, and tequila. Nevertheless, they are systematically exterminated; Australia's government, for example, has managed to kill 99% of their flying foxes (a large bat with a foxlike face). Ackerman next visits a gator farm in St. Augustine, where she helps determine the reptiles' sex by putting her finger in their cloaca--a cavity in which the sex organs lie. Discovering that females have a clitoris, she asks, ``Does this mean that they can have an orgasm?'' But nobody knows--she's reached the limits of science. Flying to Maui, she is the guest of Roger Payne, the world's most faithful recorder of humpback whale songs. From him she learns that there are 35 known singers, and that the music is quite complex at first listen, but becomes monotonous over a season: all whales sing the same song, which evolves slowly year to year. Ackerman's evocation of a whale song shows her agile descriptive power: ``Then a trumpeting sound...surged into a two- stage grunt...followed by a stuttering lawn mower that changed from a finger being drawn across a taut balloon, then a suite of basso groans and a badly oiled garden gate creaking open.'' A choice treat for both nature lovers and general readers. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House; First Edition (October 23, 1991)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 249 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0394585747
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0394585741
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.2 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.75 x 1 x 9.5 inches
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