CHULO

by Bil Gilbert ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1973

Even those who are resistant to the whimsical charms of books about pet skunks, tame lions, beloved spaniels and what not should find this unusual book on the communal life of the coatimundi a pleasure. Bil Gilbert, a naturalist, who writes easy, graceful and unsentimental prose, took three teenage boys, one of them his son, and spent a full year in the Huachuacas, the mountains of southern Arizona, studying the habits and personality of the coatimundi or ""chulo,"" a little-known distant cousin of the raccoon. Quite aware of the pitfalls of anthropomorphizing ""other bloods,"" Gilbert nonetheless found it impossible to fit the chulo -- a responsive, intelligent creature with, apparently, a highly developed ""language"" and social system -- into the Lorenzian or behavioralist schemata. Gilbert is not dogmatic about this -- too much scientific evidence remains to be gathered (the author will be publishing some of this hard data in scientific journals). But this account of four humans who devoted a year to making respectful acquaintance with the ""Witch,"" the ""Bungler,"" ""Calamity,"" and other denizens of the chulo community will leave you curious to know more.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION