Customer Reviews

Mountain Lion

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

 

 

I spent two months last winter in a mountain cabin far up a back road in Washington's Methow Valley, just below the Canadian border and just east of the North Cascade National Park, where there are many cougars. One broke into my nearest neighbor's house and I found fresh tracks one morning beside the road into town. So with all the cougar excitement in the Valley, I decided to learn more about them. This recently published softcover book is one place to start if you want to know more about the big cats that are becoming a more common part of life throughout the West.

Mountain Lion (Cox and Grambo) is a medium format photo essay of 99 spectacular color photographs of cougars running, jumping, caring for their young, attacking deer and so forth. These remarkable pictures, mostly taken in southwestern red rock country, give a real feel for how the animals move through their territory. However, after initially being stunned by the images, I was disappointed to read that they were taken "mainly with captive-bred mountain lions under controlled conditions". Well, the cougars LOOK wild and at least none of them are wearing sunglasses or have their kitty litter boxes visible. The brief text is a well-written essay about the cougar's natural history and human interaction, and there is a bibliography, but, for me, the book loses stars for being so heavily reliant on photographs of semi-captive cougars.

A wonderful book. A joy to read. Rebecca L. Grambo writes well with a sympathetic eye. She discusses these beauties and their plight for survival. The accompanying magestic photos by Daniel J. Cox perfectly match the content from the Author. Since the Nature of Mountain Lions are so shy, I appreciate the wonderful photographs of them in nature which would otherwise be very difficult to photograph. I recommend this book to any cat and animal lovers out there. I hope this book stirrs up the public's interest in saving the Mountian Lion from extinction.

You can judge a book by it's cover. It's just as beautiful inside as it is outside. Very informative and a joy to read. If you love wildlife or any of the big cats, you'll definitely want to add this book to your collection!

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These are the best mountain lion photographs I've ever seen, and
one of the best wildlife-photography books I know of. The text is
competent and well-researched, but the real attraction is Cox's
wonderful photos. If you have any interest in wildcats, you need this
book. Or if you need a gift for a cat-lover ....

Cox photographed mainly captive-bred cats; this is evident only in
the extraordinary intimacy of the photos, such as one of the mother
cat giving birth, and many of appealing blue-eyed, spotted cubs at
play. I'd have liked to know how he took the one where the lion is
leaping straight into the camera. Or the one where it looks like he
was in the same sandstone cave with the lion, in Utah's magnificent
canyonlands. Or the cat in mid-leap over a chasm. Sadly, such details
are conspicuous by their absence; the text is resolutely generic.

But this is quibbling. The photos speak for themselves -- like the cat
who's treed a porcupine, and (next photo, please) gets a snootful of
quills. The publisher's puff copy calls this "the most extraordinary
photographic book on mountain lions ever published." I would
agree, and recommend it highly.

Review copyright 1999 by Peter D. Tillman

The author and photographer provide a great overview of the characteristics, ecology, history, and future of the mountain lion.

Readers should understand that essentially all pictures shown in any mountain lion photo book are going to be of captive animals. Mountain lions are too elusive in the wild to get the types of shots as shown here. One exception is the book "Spirit of the Rockies: The Mountain Lions of Jackson Hole" by Thomas Mangelson, which has a more limited set of wild mountain lion photos. At least Daniel Cox states up front in the introduction that his photos are of captive animals. Other authors are not as forthcoming.

The reason I give this book only 4 stars however is that I question whether all of the photos depict mountain lions in their natural habitat. While the majority of Daniel's photos seem to meet that standard, a few of them do not (and are thus more to evoke an emotional response and a photographer with revenue than to accurately depict a wild animal in its natural habitat).

I would still recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good book about mountain lions with a descriptive text and beautiful photos.