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Lions: King of Beasts
This beautiflly illustrated volume details the history of the lion through the ages, its symbolic importance to humans, and an account of the lion as it is found in the wild today. With brilliant full-color photography and an authoritative text, this book offers a detailed study of the lion, revealing its place in the natural order.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1993
4 people want to read
About the author
Lee Server
36 books18 followersLee Server specialises in books on popular culture and literary history.
He is the critically acclaimed author of such as 'Danger Is My Business: The Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines' (1993), 'Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback' (1995) and the biography 'Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care' (2001).
He is the critically acclaimed author of such as 'Danger Is My Business: The Illustrated History of the Fabulous Pulp Magazines' (1993), 'Over My Dead Body: The Sensational Age of the American Paperback' (1995) and the biography 'Robert Mitchum: Baby, I Don't Care' (2001).
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December 16, 2024
This book was published in 1993, and thus is not up to date with current research and taxonomy (it states that there are only three genera within Felidae).
Some of the information given is just plain wrong – the author seems to think lions are very poor hunters who just get by on dumb luck, for example. He states that the intestines are the first part of the prey eaten as they’re the most nutritious. In fact, lions often discard the intestines altogether – they contain half-digested vegetation, which is of no nutritional value to them. The most nutritious part, and the part eaten first, is the liver. The author often uses the word “breeds” when he means subspecies, mentions panthers as though they were an actual species, and claims female wolves and wild dogs don’t play, which is nonsense.
The photos are beautiful, but several of them are captioned incorrectly. There are captions identifying individuals as the wrong sex, or as Asiatic when they are African (sometimes pictured with prey species that are only found in Africa!). Some refer to the lion in the photo roaring or stalking when it is clearly doing no such thing.
Frankly, the photos are the only reason you should consider buying this book. It can’t be relied on as an accurate source of knowledge.
Some of the information given is just plain wrong – the author seems to think lions are very poor hunters who just get by on dumb luck, for example. He states that the intestines are the first part of the prey eaten as they’re the most nutritious. In fact, lions often discard the intestines altogether – they contain half-digested vegetation, which is of no nutritional value to them. The most nutritious part, and the part eaten first, is the liver. The author often uses the word “breeds” when he means subspecies, mentions panthers as though they were an actual species, and claims female wolves and wild dogs don’t play, which is nonsense.
The photos are beautiful, but several of them are captioned incorrectly. There are captions identifying individuals as the wrong sex, or as Asiatic when they are African (sometimes pictured with prey species that are only found in Africa!). Some refer to the lion in the photo roaring or stalking when it is clearly doing no such thing.
Frankly, the photos are the only reason you should consider buying this book. It can’t be relied on as an accurate source of knowledge.
Displaying 1 of 1 review