Customer Reviews

Built for Speed: A Year in the Life of Pronghorn

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Byers has written an unusual book here, appropriate for a very wide audience and yet full of science. More importantly, his book shows how scientists think, in wonderful, almost lyrical, prose. The layperson can catch a glimpse of how science works, and the beauty that scientists can see in the natural world. The book gives a unique portrayal of how and why science actually gets done which is quite different from the way scientists and their work are often portrayed elsewhere. A wonderful addition to any bookshelf, library, or classroom. His more technical book, still very readable, is jammed with all sorts of research about pronghorn. It is titled American Pronghorn: Social Adaptations and the Ghosts of Predators Past.

On a thirty square mile reserve in western Montana, John A. Byers studied pronghorn antelope in their natural habitat over many years. He accumulated a lot of knowledge and in addition to publishing a scientific work, he also wrote this beautiful, almost lyrical `ode' to the life of antelope. In addition to antelope birth, fawn life, pecking order, survival rates, enemies, abilities, reproductive rituals, and diet, Byers writes very ably about the natural beauty of the area and many of the myriad other creatures that inhabit it along with the pronghorns, creatures such as bison, elk, bighorn sheep, coyotes, meadowlarks, snipe, and grasshoppers. His own experiences over the years, doing the study, also form an enjoyable part of text. Many black and white photos and a sense of humor grace the pages of this slim book. Readers with general interests can easily absorb the scientific explanations of plant/animal ratios or biomass. A theme that has not been emphasized, but is very interesting nonetheless, is that many inherited characteristics of pronghorn antelope stem from a not-so-distant (in evolutionary terms) era when speedy, large predators roamed the North American grasslands. After a mass extinction some 10,000 years ago, antelopes no longer needed the 60 mph speed, urge to be in groups, embryo disposability and aggressive `displacement behavior' they still exhibit. Modern coyotes cannot catch an antelope any more than Wyl E. Coyote can ever catch Road Runner. Antelope harems, hawk kettles, bison ruts, beautiful sunsets---BUILT FOR SPEED is one of those books of which you will be sorry to reach the end.

Here is a fascinating animal with little popular literature, other than anecdotal accounts by guides and hunters. Those observations are often correct, but uninformed more generally. This animal's behaviors and natural history are unappreciated, not because it is rare, but because it lives in places where most of us do not, and it can require some effort to view. There is a good body of information out there for biologists (and for most of us, those technical papers are more than we care to know), but little for amateurs (in the ancient sense of the word). This book is an intelligent and well-written guide for general readers. Pronghorn country may be an acquired taste, but it is addictive.

This book takes you both where you expect and don't expect to go, but you will love the journey! I have a much better understanding and appreciation for pronghorn and their Montana ecosystem. There are complexities that I had never fully considered. My thanks to John Byers for an enjoyable experience!

Byers is a first class scientist and he writes really well. It is rare to see a naturalist book written with so much verve. A good read that begs the reader to think at least as much of the human condition as the pronghorn condition. Send this one to all your naturalist buddies.