An absolutely stunning book that I read in one sitting, while waiting for my kid at a library event. I actually paged through it twice, to look at all the images a second time around. It’s from a series organized to raise awareness of wildlife species that are at risk of extinction. Wildlife photographers donated their work to be included in the book, aiming to produce the most beautiful, stunning collection ever. Proceeds go to support the animals in question- whether that be for research studies, habitat preservation, educating locals to the animals’ value, etc. There are a few sections of text describing the animals, the work done to help them, the importance of giving them space in our world. While the text is brief, it felt very eloquent. In terms of the wild dogs (one of my favorite animals ever since I read Innocent Killers by Jane Goodall and Hugo van Lawick as a teen) the book emphasizes their place in the ecosystem, reasons they have been reviled by people for so long, and yet are so little known (they travel almost constantly, far and very fast). There’s a bit about their life history and physiology, too. Much of this was familiar to me, but I didn’t know before that the wild dogs (also known as Cape hunting dogs or painted wolves- even though they’re not closely related to wolves-) only have four toes on each foot (having diverged from canines farther back in evolutionary time) and that they sneeze at each other when communicating excitement for the hunt!
Majority of the book is the photographs. And they are absolutely gorgeous. I love the ones of the young puppies. And there are some with beautiful golden gaze. Many showing moments of peace, camaraderie in the pack, fast action of the hunt. From some of the earlier text explaining how the brutal-looking method wild dogs use to kill their prey isn’t as terrible as it appears (the victim goes into shock and supposedly feels very little pain) I was really expecting to see at least one photo with some gore or the dogs feeding on a kill, but there wasn’t any of that. So I don’t need to give any fair warning that something might shock a viewer.
Borrowed from the public library.
2 Responses
Wow the cover is beautiful!
I’ve heard that “victim goes into shock” line before for lots of prey animals. I hope it’s true, and from seeing videos of kills now and then it looks like it would be, but it also sounds like something we’d tell ourselves to make us feel better…
I hope it is true, also. Because otherwise the way wild dogs dispatch their prey is very upsetting (to us, imagining their suffering) and you can well understand why people in Africa have hated and tried to exterminate these predators for centuries.