Customer Reviews

Destination Wildlife (Perigee)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book recently because I have some vacation and wanted to see some wildlife I had never seen before. This book is great for getting a sense of the wildlife opportunities on each continent. It lists several wildlife destinations for each continent and provides a brief description of the park and types of animals that people might get to see there. It also provides helpful information regarding the best times of year to visit, contacts, cost estimates, and a few field tips. It certainly helped me narrow my upcoming trip to Africa down to Kenya and Rwanda.

I gave this book four instead of five stars because it is missing a few very important places. I understand Brodowsky had to make some judgment calls in deciding which locations to include. However, she doesn't even include the entire continent of Antarctica. I went to the Antarctic peninsula a few months ago and can attest that it is the greatest wildlife destination in the world - bar none. I saw thousands of penguins, seabirds, leopard seals, elephant seals, and kayaked 5 meters away from a Humpback! Furthermore, the book doesn't include Komodo or Rinca Islands, Indonesia, the only places in the world to see the amazing Komodo dragons. Without discussing these two locations alone, the book is simply incomplete, so I would warn readers not to rely on this book exclusively for choosing wildlife destinations. Fortunately, these can easily be added in a future updated volume.

Another difficulty I had with the book is simply prioritization and organization. The book is organized by continent, which is great if you want to get an idea of locations in a certain region. However, I think many people planning a wildlife trip begin not with a geographic focus but rather intending to see some particular type of wildlife. For example, some people like birdwatching while others prefer snorkeling. It would have been helpful for the book either to organize the destinations by such activities, or to perhaps have a symbol on each destination for quick reference (for example, a bird next to the destination's title would quickly indicate that it is a top place for birdwatching). At the end of the day, the descriptions for each destination are short enough that readers can figure out pretty quickly whether or not they are interested in traveling there. However, some means of quick reference would have been helpful.

Despite these issues, Destination Wildlife is a worthwhile investment for anybody planning their next wildlife adventure. It gives you a great sampling of the world's wildlife destinations (as long as you remember to consider Antarctica and Komodo).

A unique attempt to inform the prospective naturalist about great outdoor places around the Earth. If you want to see birds in Florida or bears in Tennessee, it's pretty easy to find a book or two to help you along. But, you can't even begin to imagine what lies outside of familiar borders when it comes to flora and fauna. And, if you are aware, just try to find information on certain parks and reserves in foreign countries. Most of us are left guessing, gleaning references from non-specific travel guides, or just finding out the hard way. This World-at-a-glance reader attempts to fill in the void. But doing so is no small feat and perhaps it over reaches just a little.

It's obvious that there was some effort put into presenting this neat little volume, but I have to question the author's authority on wildlife and I even have to wonder how many of these places she actually visited based on the generic context given at times. On many site descriptions I found glaring errors. For example, in the summary on Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary and Jaguar Preserve in Belize, the author states in regards to the Jaguar: "...It is an endangered species throughout much of Africa...". But of course, wild jaguars don't exist anywhere in Africa. With Kakum National Park in Ghana, one of the species of the park is listed as "Mona meerkats". Perhaps the author meant Mona Monkeys, which do exist in West Africa, but meerkats are mongoose-like animals found only in southern Africa. Most site descripitions include a simple B&W photo of animals that inhabit that particular location but visual aids of any other means, such as maps, are totally lacking. And, as with any travel guide, the prospective visitor should verify any of the directives presented to inform the reader.

Brodowsky's book was meant to give the reader a taste of what's out there for the wildlife watcher. In this manner it succeeds. For the serious eco-traveler, this guide's limitations will be evident.

Ok, I got this as a gentle read and to get ideas of places to visit. I am a life-ling naturalist and rather demanding of the books I read, but there are such OBVIOUS mistakes in this book that even my 5 year old recognized them. To begin:

Cockscomb Basin (Belize)

"The jaguar is the fastest four-legged creature over short distances on the face of the earth, capable of speeds of over 100 miles per hour."
Comment-I think the author is thinking about Cheetahs. Here's the next sentence.

"It is an endangered species throughout much of Africa, but not in the Cockscomb Basin"
Doesn't the author know Belize is in Central America? Where are the editors that should have picked this up?

There is a comment about the 'black howler monkey' (proper noun, should be capitalized) being 'louder than any land animal in the world'. They are VERY loud, but no where near as loud as a elephant.

And these are just a couple I found after a brief look into this book. These aren't minor errors and just a few that I spotted as one who lives in North America. If the evaluation of other locations which I'm NOT as familiar with are as bad, the book is truly useless. Hopefully if they re-do the book, a good idea to be sure (why I gave two stars, not one) , they will be much more careful in the editing. As it is I am unlikely to purchase any book from Perigee Press unless I see much more care in the production of their works.

If you enjoy viewing and working with wildlife, this book will give you a good general overview of various places to visit and what you can see. Most of the entries are summarized on two brief pages, so doing additional research is a must! I thought the author missed a few really good parks in Africa (like Tsavo and some of the private parks in South Africa), skipped Mongolia, and did a disservice to the Pantanal's vast offerings, but all and all, I was able to put a dozen places on my "bucket list" to visit!

Each entry includes a brief overview, specifics of the location, hours of operation, contact information, cost, amenities, best time to visit and field notes. The book is probably more value as an addition to an already planned trip rather than planning a trip around the entries as there isn't enough information about the locale to zero in on a spot for a long vacation (week or more).