Customer Reviews

Walking with Beasts: A Prehistoric Safari

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a writer who specializes in novels about prehistoric life forms continuing to exist into the present, this book is an invaluable reference. For anybody interested in prehistoric life, this beautiful book presents artistic and extremely life-like images of the extinct fauna that came to populate the planet following the dinosaurs. So much so, that you will believe you are seeing them in the flesh.

I was especially pleased by the terror birds and the evolution of the prehistoric whales.

Walking with Prehistoric Beasts, like Walking with Dinosaurs, is a well illustrated written companion to a BBC documentary on fossil animals and their environment. In this case the age of early mammals is the subject of the discourse. As the author himself points out, before the discovery of dinosaurs, the remains of the early megafauna of the ice ages were the great attractions in 19th Century museums and exhibits. These were the dream-team animals that inspired little boys to go into careers hunting fossils throughout the world. The beautiful CGI of the book does more to bring these animals alive than any other collection of images that I've seen, and it makes one appreciate the advances that have been made in this type of characterization.

While I enjoyed the wildlife presented, as with Walking with Dinosaurs, it is not always made clear to the reader that only some things can be known absolutely about these now extinct animals. Much must be extrapolated from what is known of modern descendants and shear guesswork. Not everyone who reads the book will realize that, and I think that more of an effort should have been made to explain why the authorities on the subject believe what they do about the period. For one thing it would have provided a better learning experience and a greater appreciation for the inspired detective work done by paleontologists world wide.

Worth 4 stars for the illustrations alone!

I have always thought prehistoric mammals and birds got the shaft when compared to dinosaurs, but I have also thought they were every bit as fascinating. I never thought I would see these creatures brought to print and screen as they are portrayed in this book and the accompanying television program. If you were a fan of "Walking with Dinosaurs" (and you should be), you will enjoy this as well. I learned a great deal that I did not previously know, even though I consider myself fairly well-read on the subject. It is a story that has been crying out for years to be told: What happened AFTER the dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago, in the intervening 64 million + years. The book starts out at 49 million years ago, after the earth had recovered from the asteriod KT event, and ends only a few thousand years ago.

I find those odd "beasts" from the Cenozoic era amazing. And Walking with Beast: A Prehistoric Safari is an amazing book about them. Written by the series producer of the wonderfull Walking with Dinosaurs series, Tim Haines, the 260-page book is full of "photos" of the different beasts. Like it's predesessor, Walking with Beasts has six chapters - New Dawn, Whale Killer, Land of the Giants, The Prey's Revenge, Sabre-tooth World and A Mammoth's Journey. Full of nice fact files and side-boxes (what I call), this book is certainly worth getting. If you like Walking with Dinosaurs or the beasts themselves, this book is for you. And even if you are interested in hominids (those odd human-like apes), you'll find something. Get it now along with the film and the other books Sea Monsters, Land of Lost Monsters and Walking with Dinosaurs.

This is the best book on prehistoric animals I've ever spent money on! Even better than walking with dinosaurs! The photos are nearly real, if not completely, the information is wonderful for everyone age 11 and up, and every piece of the book is perfect for all who like cool animals, prehistoric or modern day! My favorite was the chapter with the Smilodons(they are my favorite prehistoric animal of all time, of course!)It was cool, and so were all the other huge chapters! Oh, and the mammoths rocked, as well, I might add. I will tell you this, too-this book is educational and fun. You should give it to any nature lover! It is absolutely superb. I recommend it to anyone with the slightest interest in nature and/or history!

I saw the documentary and now I saw the book! Oh my God! This vlume sets new standards for book design/layout, fantastic computer illustrations, photographs etc... Sure some of the information concerning these beasts is guesswork but not much. Remember, many experts within the field of paleobiology have put in their `2 cents worth`and they know what they are talking about. As a fisheries biologist, i enjoyed the idea of a book that deals with the life histories of these animals on a day by day basis. Book of the year!!

even though i know its impossible, i still dream of going to times way back, like time periods when this book takes place. this book takes you a step closer. with the realistic computer graphics and the very descriptive language and informative facts, it is hard to look out the window and not see giant mammals roaming around, or not hear the distant growls of fighting animals, or not see the world as a lush tropical rain forest (as it was in the mid Eocene)or a sunny grassy grassland (late eocene). if time travel ever does become a reality, this will be one of the first places i visit

The book is about dinosaurs that live in the prehistoric times.
This book has lots of action in it and it has lots of facts to fill your brain.

This book is good because it teaches people about the prehistoric life.
Also it is good because it great illustration and action.
I would recommend this book to people that like to learn about the wold and how it was like back then.
It is also good because it tells you the size of the prehistoric animals and weight of them.

This book has "photographic" illustrations of 26 (give or take) different mammals with short (way too short and sketchy) info inserts. The bulk of the book is the narrative which you have to be pretty determined to read thru for any additional info. The story mostly depicts specific encounters between animals and is not always convincing (in my opinion). In short, this book is NOT an encyclopedia of prehistoric mammals.

I read the German edition of 2002 of the original 2001 English edition. "Walking with Prehistoric Beasts" is aka "Walking with Beasts - A Prehistoric Safari".

In the age of dinomania it is rewarding to get some attention [again] for the animals which ruled the earth after them. The focus is on mammals, including mostly giants on land and in the sea as well as hominids. But also the direct descendents of the dinosaurs, giant birds, make their appearance. Of course, this family coffee table book depends on its eye candy CGI imagery. Which are stills from the BBC mini-series. The pictures are breathtaking, though by now not really of the latest state of the art anymore.

Thankfully, the chapters on the various beasts are structured in variation: a protocol diary, a travelogue, a procreation cycle, a fight for territory, an annual cycle. Of course, be aware that the book plays on sensationalism to gain the best possible popular attention. For example, even scavengers have to fight in this book. Most probably it wasn't the daily routine to fight with mothers over their stillborn babies... Occasionally, the book gets a bit sloppy, e.g. with captions not really matching the images. Today's locations of London and St. Petersburg are not represented to lie beneath ice as claimed and on the next page the polar fox isn't in best camouflage, with its dun summer fur on an ice floe. Another minor slip is the claim that the Atlantic and the Indian Ocean weren't re-connected before the 19th century Suez Canal. It was the 19th century alright, but BC, when pharao(s) connected the Nile to the Red Sea.

Of a little more concern are details of content. There's talk about (modern) human races (which frankly do not exist) and the out-of-Africa knowledge is questioned. Australopithecus is presented as a scavenger afraid of food poisoning. Modern knowledge assumes that our ancestors actually ate the carrion's maggots, not the rotting carcasses as such, because maggots are naturally antiseptic (and come in handy in providing nutrients for brain expansion) - and are still yummy for some peoples. The author makes fun of some shocked scientists who witness the sexuality of the bonobos, among our next of kin. Yet, he himself lists anything, but the most common bonobo sexuality: lesbian behavior. The second most common behavior, male homosexuality, is glossed over, too. Similarly, it is said that today's lions provided for the guesswork about the behavior of their prehistoric ancestor species. As is true for all other entries in this book, this is really GUESSWORK. Even today's closely related sister species oftentimes behave fundamentally different. But within the frame of using today's species as role models for this "documentary", it is a bit strange to let prehistoric male lions expelled from the group/"pride" wither away, as today's lone lions search for companions in so-called coalitions - which are usually homosexual, too. (For more information read e.g. Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions). I take it, this was too much for a contemp(t)orary family book. Well then, leave it out rather than misinform, if that has to be too much...

Book and film succeed Walking with Dinosaurs: A Natural History and are succeeded by Walking With Cavemen,
Sea Monsters (Walking With Dinosaurs Special), Walking with Monsters - Life Before Dinosaurs (DVD) and some other spin-offs. There's also a science fiction "documentary" and book in the same style about a completely fantastic take on animal evolution after the age of humanity has passed.