From the Publisher
Photographer and author Alfonso Silva Lee is a biologist living in Puerto Rico. He has authored dozens of children's books on Caribbean wildlife. His engaging style and vivid photography are a wonderful addition to any natural history collection.
About the Author
Alfonso Silva Lee is well-known to Caribbean naturalists. Russian-trained for graduate study at Moscow State University, he began his career in biology diving the seas of his native Cuba as an ichthyologist, specializing in marine life. His work included a stint in the U.S. Hydrolab, living beneath the Caribbean with international scientists to record the creatures and habitat that surrounded them. Silva's dedication to land creatures was initiated some 25 years ago as he began to observe, write about and photograph the life-forms that abound in the Greater Antilles. Author of ten books on the subjects--most for young people--and over 50 scientific and magazine articles, Silva has served with Cuban institutions including the National Museum of Natural History; Institute of Oceanology, Academy of Sciences; National Zoo; and National Aquarium.
Silva did post-graduate study in conservation at Chicago's University of Illinois and Field Museum of Natural History under a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He has lectured throughout the US at, among others, the American Museum of Natural History, NY; Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago; and National Public Radio.
His recent works for PANGAEA include Natural Cuba/Cuba natural (1996); Natural Puerto Rico/Puerto Rico natural (1998); Coquí y sus Amigos: Los Animales de Puerto Rico / Coquí and His Friends: The Animals of Puerto Rico (1999); and a stunning Year 2000 calendars of Puerto Rico (1999); and a stunning Year 2000 calendars of Puerto Rico (1999); and a stunning Year 2000 calendars of Puerto Rican and Cuban fauna. He is also senior author, Coral Reefs of the Caribbean, Bahamas and Florida (MacMillan Educational 1998).
He has lived for the past several years in Puerto Rico, where he makes his home in the mountains near Ponce.
En español - Alfonso Silva Lee es bien conocido para los naturalistas. Educado en Rusia, en la Universidad Estatal de Moscú, inició su carrera de biólogo buceando -como ictiólogo marino- las aguas de su nativa Cuba. Esto incluyó una estancia en el laboratorio submarino Hydrolab, donde estudió, junto a otros científicos internacionales, los organismos que habitan las aguas caribeñas. El interés de Silva Lee por los animales terrestres comenzó hace 25 años, cuando empezó a observar las formas de vida que abundan en las Antillas Mayores y a escribir acerca de ellas, y poco después a fotografiarlas. Ha escrito diez libros acerca de estos temas y más de 50 artículos, científicos y populares. Él ha trabajado como biólogo en varias instituciones cubanas incluyendo el Museo Nacional de Historia Natural; el Instituto de Oceanología; el Zoológico Nacional; y el Acuario Nacional.
Sus libros recientes están Natural Cuba/Cuba natural (1996), Natural Puerto Rico/Puerto Rico natural (1998) y Coquí y sus Amigos: Los Animales de Puerto Rico/Coquí and His Friends: The Animals of Puerto Rico (1999) de PANGAEA; y Coral Reefs of the Caribbean, Bahamas and Florida (1998) de MacMillan. Entre sus próximas publicaciones con PANGAEA está Coquí y sus amigos: Los animales de Puerto Rico para niños de ocho a doce años de edad y, para el año 2000, un calendario de la fauna de Puerto Rico.
