PUMA CONCOLOR

In this work translated from Spanish, a filmmaker chronicles encounters with a puma and her kits over several years.

Illustrated not with stills from his 2019 documentary, as might be expected, but with lightly stylized graphic images based on photos of the felines in the wild with occasional glimpses of camera crews looking on, Araneda’s brief observations and reflections glow with love for nature and his animal subjects. Here he records ventures into Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park to document a mother puma he named Rupestre raising two litters of kits and teaching them hunting and survival skills—adding an amusing anecdote about what happened when one set of kits tackled a skunk. He also fills in background by praising the versatile animal’s ability to survive in multiple habitats through much of the Americas, offers pointers in how to tell males from females, and even includes a QR code linked to audio files of howls and other sounds. For all the big teeth on display, so appealing are Blasco’s frequent scenes of kits playing with their mom and one another that even glimpses of adult males fighting or prey being taken down and consumed are unlikely to disturb younger readers.

Affectionate and informative.