CHEETAH; HIPPO

An author-photographer team responsible for many appealing animal studies (see below) travels to Wildlife Safari--an open-air game park in Oregon--to focus on Damara, a tame cheetah: and to the San Francisco Zoo to study Doodles, a baby hippo. Each of these books provides many clear, full-color photos plus information on anatomy, life cycle, and special adaptations. Cheetah includes information on the endangered status of the powerful cat, which has been associated with man for more than 4,000 years. Damara, hand-raised by her keepers, is shown cuddling with schoolchildren, and there are dozens of other endearing photos of young cheetahs. Hippo is packed with the quotable statistics children find so intriguing: baby hippos weigh only 40-60 pounds, but adults may weigh as much as 8,000. The re are close-up views of the hippo's 40 enormous teeth, specialized fleshy tongue, and curious four-toed feet covered with round nails. While both books would benefit from closer editing to remove redundancies, they are attractive, useful additions to the nature section. Indexed.