BOBCAT

by Hope Ryden ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 11, 1983

This unusually interesting, intelligent, and smoothly knit introduction integrates specific details about bobcats and their lives with discussions of why such features or habits are useful, how they evolved, and how (and why) other animals, such as wolves, have developed quite different strategies--and it's all done in an unprepossessing, conversational manner. Very early on we learn that the litters are small, with three kittens the average, and that most do not survive to adulthood, perhaps because the mothers get no help from the males in rearing them. Bobcats are solitary animals, with males and females staking out their separate territories to assure sufficient food, and it's fortunate that they rarely interact for their formidable predatory equipment could be deadly to each other. As wolves need to hunt their larger prey cooperatively, they have evolved into highly social beings, with dominance orders, acknowledged by display, the mechanism for preventing bloodshed. Later, a discussion of the bobcat's excellent vision, patience, and claws leads into an explanation of natural selection, and that in turn leads to a survey of subspecies as regional differences which have evolved in response to different conditions. But none of this is as linear as a summary suggests; rather, the information and concepts are woven together. The photos are truly illustrative and visually varied, besides lending support for Ryden's description of this exclusively North American animal as a ""lovely-looking creature.

Pub Date: March 11, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1983

Categories: NONFICTION