Customer Reviews

Animalwatching: A New Guide to the Animal World

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This great coffee table book catalogs the wide variety of the animal kingdom, from insects to primates. The numerous photos (> 500) illustrate the text well With such as broad focus, Morris only presents an overview, and the writing is sometimes antidotal and conversation, which helps to impart his enthusiasm for some of most remarkable behaviors imaginable. Included are moles that paralyze worms, and then can build an "underground larder" of up to a thousand living worms. There is a photo of a leafy sea dragon in the chapter on Camouflage. In the chapter on warning signals is a remarkable photo of an upside down Oriental fire-bellied toad that is giving its own warning. The chapter on "Mutual Aid" was a favorite of mine, with cleaner shrimps and oxpeckers. Another favorite chapter was on Facial Expressions, with insights to both canine and feline facial expressions. The illustration of bird courtship displays included the Western Grebe, and the chapter on Arena displays included the remarkable grouse and bowerbirds. This bird presents Morris's common sense insights, but does not go into evolution of these behaviors or abstract theories.