Review: Golden Shadows, Flying Hooves
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsOne reads Schaller, not just to share his keen demythologizing observations of wildlife, but to deepen an acquaintance with a scientist who has achieved a rare sort of personal integration: ""I fund it difficult to separate my scientific reasons for the study from personal ones. . . . To me, field work is a form of self-indulgence."" Having turned from recording The Year of the Gorilla (1964) to lion watching in the Serengeti, the ethologist continues to combine the pleasures of solitary observation with scientific discipline -- tabulating the hunting successes of his tagged subjects, hauling home the heads of downed zebras for further study and steeling himself to the widespread starvation of cubs which is a brutal form of population control. Except for restoring some of the male lion's tarnished dignity, the book yields little that is new -- the findings previously published both in monograph form and a popular condensation Serengeti: Kingdom of Predators (1972). But here Schaller takes busman's holidays to follow the elusive leopard, the lonely cheetah and the misunderstood hyena and wild dog pack. Schaller brings us as close as we are likely to come to the inside of an animal's mind, be it wart hog or lion. And his belief that ""we should not have to place a value on animals to whom values are unknown"" makes him an eloquent spokesman for the natural rights of predators.
Review: Golden Shadows, Flying Hooves
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsOne reads Schaller, not just to share his keen demythologizing observations of wildlife, but to deepen an acquaintance with a scientist who has achieved a rare sort of personal integration: ""I find it difficult to separate my scientific reasons for the study from personal ones. . . . To me, field work is a form of self-indulgence."" Having turned from recording The Year of the Gorilla (1964) to lion watching in the Serengeti, the ethologist continues to combine the pleasures of solitary observation with scientific discipline -- tabulating the hunting successes of his tagged subjects, hauling home the heads of downed zebras for further study and steeling himself to the widespread starvation of cubs which is a brutal form of population control. Except for restoring some of the male lion's tarnished dignity, the book yields little that is new -- the findings previously published both in monograph form and a popular condensation Serengeti: Kingdom of Predators (1972). But here Schaller takes busman's holidays to follow the elusive leopard, the lonely cheetah and the misunderstood hyena and wild dog pack. At one point, Schaller and a friend spend a week duplicating the hunting and scavenging rounds of early hominids to demonstrate how primitive man could have survived on the plains, and even the blossoming personality of his family's pet wart hog reminds him that ""Though we strive for security we tend to equate it with conformity and dullness. . . . But to our precursors some tenuous form of security must have been a powerful stimulus for the expression of individuality."" Schaller brings us as close as we are likely to come to the inside of an animal's mind, be it wart hog or lion. And his belief that ""we should not have to place a value on animals to whom values are unknown"" makes him an eloquent spokesman for the natural rights of predators.
Review: Golden Shadows, Flying Hooves
User Review - Antonio Rossano Mendes Pontes - GoodreadsI learned about the amazing society and behaviour of lions, and the wonderful world of Serengueti. Since then I dream of visiting it. Read full review
