Wildlife Books

A very detailed look at a beautiful area of the world. The writing makes you feel like you have been there. Lots of research in this one. Relax and enjoy the get-away.

Discount this review as you will; I must confess that I've known Jack for a number of years... Nonetheless, it's a beatutiful work. While some reviewers have compared him to Thoreau, I wouldn't go that far. But his love for the small deails of an eccosystm comes through exquisitly. As the title implies, Jack cronicles his frequent trips to Soldiers's Delight, a sort-of protected park near his home. It includes the geologic history of the area, as well as the history of human impact. And does a good job of riding the line between science and simple love for a place on the planet. It's clear to the reader that Jack loves the place, and his detailed, but not judgemental, descriptions of everything from the beauty of salamanders to piles of junk put you there. Maybe Jack isn't the next Thoreau. This book makes me think more of Hemmingway. A sort of restrained exuberance, and an economy of language that takes the reader into a place worth seeing. --del

We bought this book to learn more about lions in general, and increase my rancher/lion hunter husband's understanding of issues surrounding them. We were a little concerned that the angle might lean one way or another but were gratified by the balance. Well crafted and very informative. Highly recommend to any one interested in mountain lions.

I recommend this book to all persons interested in lions in the America's. It will appeal to and educate people with diverse opinions on the management of this wonderful species of cat. Mr. Shaw is not only a good biologist, he also tells it like it is, and in a well written way. I especially hope that North America's wildlife decision makers will read and heed Mr. Shaw's conclusions about lion management. This book is for the biologist, the rancher, the lion hunter, and the preservationist.

Published by the U. of South Carolina Press, these 300 recipies are collected from South Carolina Wildlife Magazine. They represent the tried and true results from long experimentation with Native American, European, African, and Caribbean cooking of foods taken straight out of their natural surroundings.

You can eat at expensive 5 star restaurants, but you won't find more delicious meals than what you can make yourself using these recipies.

The compliers tell you up front that this book is "for people not too uptight to try a 'dash' of this and a 'dollop' of that, but particular enough to know that sometimes only one brand name is the right one."

Both freshwater and saltwater foods are extensively covered as are pretty much any sort of bird, small game, and, of course, deer.

The shellfish section is especially good, with 15 pages on shrimp alone.

Even vegetarians will find this book a gold mine. The 20 page section on wild plants includes treats like crabapple jelly, huckleberry pie, and wild muscadine juice, and some unusual vegetable treats like squashpuppies or cattail pancakes that can be washed down with sassafrass tea.

Marinades and Sauces get almost 20 pages to themselves, and though not singled out for a separate section, jambalaya and etouffe dishes are here too.

The great world beyond the Southeast has never grasped how well we eat down here, but if you just read this book--much less actually savor the fare--you'll find yourself turning a jaundiced eye towards the uniform, homogenized cuisine of modern life.

Southeastern Wildlife Cookbook is the best wild game cookbook I have ever read. I come from an outdoors family and this book has some of the best recipes and tips I have ever used. The recipes are very simple and easy to follow. I used to struggle when having to cook wild game, not any more. From deer to fish to wild turkey recipes this book has it all and then some. This cookbook is a GREAT gift idea to anyone who loves to hunt or fish.

The author moved to the Galapagos Islands at the age of two and spent over thirty years exploring their natural wonders: Spectacular Galapagos is an oversized presentation pairing a natural history text with spectacular full-page color photos of the Galapagos creatures, blending a coffee table presentation with scientific facts. Highly recommended: Spectacular Galapagos is an astonishing visual wonder in and of itself.

I treasure the time I spent in Ecuadór's Galápagos Islands, "Las Islas Encantadas". Tui De Roy has managed to capture the essence of these wondrous islands as much as can be done photographically and make them accessible to everyone. A wonderful gift for those who love nature, or those who have been there.

For those who are going there, add Michael Jackson's book on the natural history, Paul Humann's book on the underwater and Barry Boyce's guide book. Tui De Roy's book will whet their appetite and serve as a vivid reminder after the trip is over.

When the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan went into effect during the Clinton administration, Florida's great grassy wilderness garnered a host of national attention -- and has since become a breeding ground for environmental dispute. What does it take to "save" a forest? How can it be preserved?

Enter W. Hodding Carter. For an Outside magazine feature he's agreed to paddle the ninety-nine-mile waterway in Everglades National Park to examine the landscape from all angles -- physical, political, cultural, and very personal -- and get to the rock-bottom heart of the story. Stolen Water is the outgrowth of Carter's journey.

Through investigative research, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with key players in the conservation controversy, Carter offers a rare portrait of a national treasure. Utterly important, and at times downright hilarious, Stolen Water is a classic American adventure tale, and an environmental parable for our time.

The author's newest book is:
Off the Deep End

Hodding Carter loves the Everglades and Stolen Water: Saving the Everglades from Its Friends, Foes, and Florida reflects this affection as much as it reflects arguments on both sides covering the management and utilization of the wilderness. From restoration plans for the Everglades to author Carter's own quest through the region to consider both its history and future, Stolen Water provides some hard-hitting facts about the real friends and foes of the area.

Bill Jordan says restoration is the only approach to ecological stewardship that will last in the long run, which is the only run that counts. Restoration assumes a heavy human hand, exactly something that rubs the nature-as-sacred camp the wrong way. Jordan proposes a metaphor for guiding ecology: community. One reason both "liberal" and "conservative" politicians and activists scorn restoration ecology is because we hate community. We like having friends, but true community is very costly, an observation in line with scripture. True community goes against sinful nature, and requires society's full efforts to avoid disintegration.

Jordan lists four stages of a human's community involvement in life. These four struck me as very important for understanding life, but less important for building ecological principles:

1. I am not God. (Some people never figure this out)
2. Get a Job. (We all need to contribute to the world)
3. Giving Gifts. (Giving connects others to us)
4. Receiving Gifts. (Receiving connects us to others)

This one surprised me. How is receiving a greater communal than giving? It's a simple answer that is changing my life: receiving a gift binds us to someone else, while giving a gift only binds others to us. As long as we only give and never receive, no one has any claim on us and we retain absolute control over the relationship.

The Sunflower Forest is a science book that taught me more about community than many books ostensibly about community. It's also an insightful, if a little "out there" treatise on restoration ecology. The lessons are profound, but the policy recommendations - a debate within a narrow field of eco-philosophers - will date very quickly.

Ecological restoration has often been viewed as either a fringe hobby -- a few aficionados re-creating a patch of prairie on weekends -- or as a distraction from the vital and politically charged work of preserving more or less undisturbed landscapes. But William R. Jordan III argues that it's vital to the preservation of the Earth's ecosystems, and to ourselves. Jordan, founder of the journal Ecological Restoration, writes that restoration is "a way of achieving an ecologically close relationship with the rest of nature," as well as "a context for confronting the most troubling aspects of our relationship with our fellow creatures." The Sunflower Forest is an important book about a practice that is, in coming years, bound to become one of the most important ways we deal with our surroundings. Thanks to Jordan's wide-ranging intellect and compelling writing, it's also a great pleasure to read.

Tender Moments In The Wild: Animals And Their Babies is an utterly beautiful book for very young readers featuring full color, splash-page photographs of wild animals taking tender care of their babies. From a cheetah mother nuzzling her kitten, to a swan and her cygnet, to a mother scorpion giving her babies a ride on her back, the range of creatures and the intimacy of their care is amazing. A gentle, loving book with vivid, full color photographs that will mesmerize adults as surely as children!

Beautiful, captivating photography makes this one of the best pre-school picture books that I have had the pleasure to review. Instantly appealing it celebrates the bond of affection between a parent and child. Solidly bound to put up with the abuse that it is sure to receive as childred carry it around to have mommy or daddy read it to them one more time, it is a highly recommended purchase.

This is an excellent book on all Texas quails (bobwhites,scaled quail, Gambel's quail and the little-known Montezuma/Mearn's/harlequin quail). The ecoregional approach is detailed and informative. Species accounts are also detailed, referring not just to the Texas aspects but also other regional studies where relevant. The endemic Mearn's quail is especially interesting since this species is little studied. I rate this book as necessary to any quail enthusiast.

This encyclopedic, thoroughly referenced, well-organized, well-written compendium is the best single resource for quail hunters, wildlife and range managers, with appeal and utility for those beyond Texas who care about these fascinating species. Incredibly low-cost to boot. Highly recommended.

... because I keep taking it out to look at again. The photographs are stunning. And Graves's prose is just lovely, as it always is. The reason the essays are all too brief (as the previous reviewer noted) is that they originally appeared in "Texas Parks & Wildlife Magazine," which set strict limits on length. I read each piece in the series as it came out, but it's lovely to see them all in one place, with more - and very well printed - illustrations.

Meinzer's photography was great but John Graves seemed at a loss for words, i.e. his essays were far too short. Graves takes time to get into his subject ("Goodbye to a River" and "Hardscrabble"). Even though I wanted more, what he wrote is first rate. He understands the magic and individuality of each river, even my Llano.

I enjoied this book very much! If you love history and the great american wilderness you will too!

As a wildlife biologist, I find this a book that belongs in my collection along side of Sand County Almanac (Aldo Leopold), Desert Solitaire (Edward Abbey), Nature Writings (John Muir, and others.

If only we would find and elect another President who values and appreciates the outdoors and nature, and like Teddy Roosevelt, would take concrete action to protect it for future generations and for its own intrinsic value.

Definitely worth obtaining, if only to experience a more personal side to this great President. Many folks (particularly those young enough that they know not much about this President) would be eyes-wide-open that a President of the U.S. could be such a naturalist and true outdoorsman.