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Nature: The Other Earthlings
Looks at black bears, polar bears, tigers, kangaroos, elephants, gorillas, and wolves, and describes each animals place in the ecology
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1987
11 people want to read
About the author
James Shreeve
12 books12 followersJames Shreeve is the author of The Neandertal Enigma: Solving the Mystery of Modern Human Origin and coauthor of Lucy’s Child: The Discovery of a Human Ancestor. His articles have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Discover, National Geographic, Science, Smithsonian, and other publications. He has been a fellow of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and of the Alicia Patterson Foundation. Shreeve lives in South Orange, New Jersey.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 19, 2024
From the inside flap: “Nature is the first companion volume to the popular PBS television series.”
That statement neatly outlines the promise and the problems that sentence entails. Considering that I’m writing this in mid 2024 and the show, ‘Nature’ has been on TV since October of 1982 tells you that it is a VERY popular show. Obviously, if you’ve been doing something successfully for more than 40 years, you must be doing a pretty good job. I personally love the program and try to catch it when I can. The 1st companion book to such a beloved series does a mostly great job in that regard.
Again from the front flap: “Author James Shreeve guides you on a journey that offers rare glimpses of polar bears, tigers, elephants, gorillas, the exotic marsupial family, and wolves.” In other words, there are 6 chapters delving into those topics with a very good level of detail.
My problem with this book is twofold: 1.) By and large, these chapters are almost exclusively devoted to what we now term as ‘megafauna’. The mostly big and photogenic mammals we are so familiar with; and 2.) The book’s age. It was published in 1987, and often shows.
One of the earliest episodes on the TV show involved a single fig tree in the jungle and all the interactions between the tree and the animal life that depended upon it. It was striking because it was one of the first times I think I ever heard the term ‘biodiversity’. Remember, this was in something like 1984 or something. I don’t recall seeing the word biodiversity anywhere in this book. Perhaps I have overlooked it, but I don’t think so. Considering the importance of interrelationships between various species as we now understand them, this is a big missed opportunity.
The 2nd problem with age related issues is confined to the final chapter on wolves. Over and over, we are treated to observations about ‘Alpha’ and ‘Beta’ relationships and subordinate wolves. As we now know, most if not all of those observations are myths. A wolf pack is most often simply a family relationship between the 2 parents and the younger offspring of the original 2 wolves. I certainly am not a wildlife biologist and don’t want to mischaracterize the work of those who are way more knowledgeable than I am about this subject. However I do know that the entire concept of ‘alpha male’ has serious problems.
Anyway, a lovely book with a couple of age related flaws. Still a fun read.
That statement neatly outlines the promise and the problems that sentence entails. Considering that I’m writing this in mid 2024 and the show, ‘Nature’ has been on TV since October of 1982 tells you that it is a VERY popular show. Obviously, if you’ve been doing something successfully for more than 40 years, you must be doing a pretty good job. I personally love the program and try to catch it when I can. The 1st companion book to such a beloved series does a mostly great job in that regard.
Again from the front flap: “Author James Shreeve guides you on a journey that offers rare glimpses of polar bears, tigers, elephants, gorillas, the exotic marsupial family, and wolves.” In other words, there are 6 chapters delving into those topics with a very good level of detail.
My problem with this book is twofold: 1.) By and large, these chapters are almost exclusively devoted to what we now term as ‘megafauna’. The mostly big and photogenic mammals we are so familiar with; and 2.) The book’s age. It was published in 1987, and often shows.
One of the earliest episodes on the TV show involved a single fig tree in the jungle and all the interactions between the tree and the animal life that depended upon it. It was striking because it was one of the first times I think I ever heard the term ‘biodiversity’. Remember, this was in something like 1984 or something. I don’t recall seeing the word biodiversity anywhere in this book. Perhaps I have overlooked it, but I don’t think so. Considering the importance of interrelationships between various species as we now understand them, this is a big missed opportunity.
The 2nd problem with age related issues is confined to the final chapter on wolves. Over and over, we are treated to observations about ‘Alpha’ and ‘Beta’ relationships and subordinate wolves. As we now know, most if not all of those observations are myths. A wolf pack is most often simply a family relationship between the 2 parents and the younger offspring of the original 2 wolves. I certainly am not a wildlife biologist and don’t want to mischaracterize the work of those who are way more knowledgeable than I am about this subject. However I do know that the entire concept of ‘alpha male’ has serious problems.
Anyway, a lovely book with a couple of age related flaws. Still a fun read.
May 15, 2010
Some fascinating biology. I bought this book years ago and just now got around to reading it. Based on the earliest seasons of the PBS program Nature, it gives some wonderful insight into the complexity of our relationships to some very interesting animals and their lives.
January 23, 2015
I really learned a lot of interesting facts about animals that are constantly in documentaries and animals that TV shows don't pay that much attention to. It was very detailed, which I enjoyed, but sometimes, I felt it dragged a bit.
March 30, 2009
a lovely book. With a lot of great photos as well as interesting information.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews