Page 84 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #12

WILD AT HOME

Evolving manipulative
hands allowed non-human
BOOK primates to use tools.
Here, a black-striped
Life on Earth capuchin uses a rock to
crack open a palm nut.
BY DAVID ATTENBOROUGH, HARPER COLLINS, £25

As an introduction to how
we ended up with the flora
and fauna we have today,
it’s hard to beat Life on
Earth. From the opening
chapter, taking the reader back 3 billion
years to the first bacteria fossilised in
the rocks of Minnesota’s Gunflint Chert,
it guides the reader carefully through
the world’s evolutionary history.
Science has, of course, progressed
since the book’s first publication in
1979, and the tome has been duly
updated by Attenborough, to celebrate
40 years since its first publication and
the release of the TV series. He makes
clear, for instance, that the discovery of
feathered dinosaur fossils in the 1980s
reveals that birds must have inherited
their plumage from the ‘terrible lizards’,
and thus “are flying around our gardens
to this day.” The book is also bursting
with spectacular new images.
The epilogue, telling the story of
species lost and those saved, arguably
feels a little bolted-on but, overall, this is
a book that celebrates the natural world
before human domination.
James Fair Environmental journalist

BOOK BOOK
WILD STREAM Springwatch: Beastly Journeys

The Almanac
DOCUMENTARY COMPILED BY HILARY BRADT AND JENNIFER BARCLAY,
BRADT TRAVEL GUIDES, £10.99
Nature’s Wildest Weapons
BY MICHAEL BRIGHT AND KAREN FARRINGTON,
Natural World film in which
BBC BOOKS, £12.99
Doug Emlen discovers the My youngest son once insisted
secrets of nature’s arms races. that his pet tortoise come on
BBC iPlayer, until 26 Nov I was given short shrift a few holiday with us – which, as it
years ago when I suggested turned out, was a surprisingly
SERIES BBC Books should make straightforward experience.
Canada: A Year in the Wild smaller, more readable The same can’t be said for the many
See the wildlife spectacles companion publications for amusing accounts of travelling with
of each season with this their natural history series. This was animals in this quirky collection.
four-part series. anathema at the time, apparently. So I Included are Dervla Murphy’s tale of
My5, until October 2019 expected this new Springwatch title to trekking across the Andes with a lame
be yet another slab of glossy, photo-rich mule and Sir David Attenborough’s
SERIES coffee-table merchandise. But, actually, attempt to transport armadillos home
Planet Earth II: Cities it’s a stubby, un-jacketed, matt-covered, from Argentina. The best line, however,
A look at how urban areas can little hardback handbook. Not a single is found in Sheelagh Reynolds’s story of
ofer surprising opportunities photo, no familiar, beaming presenter smuggling her reptile through Spanish
for animals, from leopards faces. Instead, there are modest line customs, which she
in Mumbai to peregrines illustrations, tables and charts, and, oh describes as “tortoise in
in New York city. joy, lots of text with practical wildlife- pants, heart in mouth”.
BBC iPlayer, until March 2019 watching information. It had me at hello. Pete Dommett
Amy-Jane Beer Wildlife writer Nature writer

84 BBC Wildlife