Life: Extraordinary Animals, Extreme Behaviour

by Martha Holmes

Life , the spectacular companion volume to the new Discovery Channel/BBC series, tells a majestic and compelling story of survival and of the amazing behaviors animals and plants adopt to stay alive and pass their genes to a new generation. Beautifully written and illustrated with more than 300 high-definition color photographs, Life focuses on the most exciting examples of the millions of species to demonstrate the harrowing and very different challenges that all living things must overcome to prevail and to procreate. In 60 concise and captivating vignettes, intriguingly grouped in categories like Extraordinary Sea Creatures, Fabulous Fish, Irrepressible Plants, Hot-blooded Hunters, and Intellectual Primates, the authors provide the most up-to-date science. Each chapter parallels an episode of the television series, making the book a must-have addition to any interested viewer's library. From the familiar to the rare--polar bears, Japanese snow macaques, monarch butterflies, and fish-catching bats, a mega-roost of 10 million fruit bats in Zambia, capuchin monkeys that use stone tools, marine life beneath and upon the ice of Antarctica, and tiny goby fish that climb Hawaiian waterfalls--this sumptuous volume brims with information and unforgettable images of the spectacular, the dangerous, and the bizarre.

Genres: Reference, Nature, Nonfiction, Animals, Photography, Science

312 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 2009

Reviews

[Leif · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really stands out for the particularity of the content. Many of the spreads focus on a specific place and time in the world where something spectacular happens. For example, sometimes it's a breeding event, which may be accompanied by opportunistic predators. I had some familiarity with many of the species and the broader stories about these animals, but each story has taught me surprising new information that keeps the whole book fresh. Most of the spreads describe a particular location or population, which again adds interest because even if you know a little bit about it, you'll enjoy the vivid description of the scene, which brings things to life, in rich detail. I have a lot of books in this genre, but this may be the first time I'm reading every page.

[Udit Nair · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is organised pretty well. The book ends with intellectual primates which kind of gives closure to the whole animal kingdom. Along the way it tries to capture some extremely extraordinary behaviours. If you are from wildlife background then much of it might be known. Still it's worth going over the photographs.

[Kam Yung Soh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful companion book to the BBC Documentary Series, "Life", filled with photographs and fascinating descriptions of what creatures and plants on Earth will do to stay alive, eat, avoid being eaten, procreate and, especially for the primates, to learn. You will learn a lot about life yet, as the book make clear, there is still much about life on Earth that we don't know about.

[Charlotte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good book which accompanies the great TV series. Not sure if all the species in the TV series are covered in the book but a vast majority of them are at least. Worth a read even if you have seen the series like I have =)

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful photography combined with interesting "behind the scenes" info. Instead of talking about all insects/mammals/fish/birds etc - it picks one from each similar group and talks just about that one. Good companion book to David Attenborough's series.

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice coffee table book, with some cool pictures and neat tid-bits of information