There are some things that do better as video; especially if you are not going to be generous on the page size and you have lots of written material to insert around the marvelous photos. This is not to denigrate the writing; it was anecdotal and sometimes fascinating. But the photography drives the book. And the book title itself just seems to beg for action.

Although I liked the book and learned things, I was left distinctly unsatisfied. ( )

A lifelong zoologist, Vladimir Dinets has put together a delightful book of his observations, photographs and knowledge. It is not a coffee-table book of giant photos, and it is not a dry science book cataloging every little thing known about each species. Instead it is a celebration of what is unique about these beings – their hunting styles, their defenses, their mating rituals, their migrations, their method of play, their eyesight or hearing or anything that is outstanding. He ends each chapter with a long list of places in North America where you can see for yourself.

Here are some points I want to remember:
-Some bats take separate vacations – the males summer in the US Southwest, the females in Central Canada. They meet up in Mexico in the fall
-Hummingbirds can fly across the Gulf of Mexico on just .04 of an ounce of fat
-The Snake Bight Trail (Everglades) holds the world record for biting insects: 22 bites per minute per square inch of exposed skin
-There are 4000 species of firefly, (actually a beetle), each with their own color and blink code
-As more and more natural habitat is taken over by agriculture, hummingbirds on some trajectories actually must rely on flower gardens and feeders
-Slugs are hermaphrodites; sex goes both ways at the same time
-Alligators place twigs on their snouts to attract nest builders
-Many kinds of moths can jam bat radar
-The octopus, which can change its colors instantly to match its environs, is itself colorblind.
-Female bald eagles fly upside down underneath their mates take a fish from his grasp

There is one recurring phrase in Wildlife Spectacles that I find a little disturbing. Dinets keeps saying “but no one has any idea why.” We know so little, could benefit so much, yet all this wildlife has become so scare, if not extinct, zoologists can “go for decades” without witnessing a behavior they want to analyze. I’d hate think this book simply documents the highlights for future generations without this wildlife, to see what they’re missing. Thankfully, it is much too joyful and awe-inspired for that. Dinets’ fascination and love of wildlife is as broadly displayed as a wild turkey dance (the best in North America, he says). It’s a passionate and fun read, and not at all clinical or comprehensive. Wildlife Spectacles could turn anyone into a nature lover.

David Wineberg ( )