Dog Heroes: True Stories About Extraordinary Animals Around the World

Book Description

From the authors of A Gap in Nature, a breathtaking visual adventure showcasing ninety of the world's most astounding creatures.
Sumptuous birds of paradise, amazing soft-shell turtles, frogs that look like tomatoes, and terrifying fish (including the deep-water angler fish from Finding Nemo) are just some of the extraordinary creatures that can be found in Tim Flannery and Peter Schouten's new book, Astonishing Animals.
Superbly illustrated in lifelike full-color paintings, Astonishing Animals details ninety of the world's most amazing animals from around the world. In this book you will find the Hairy Seadevil, the spectacular Sulawesi Naked Bat, and in the depths of the limestone caves in Slovenia, the Olm, a pink, four-legged, sightless salamander that lives for a hundred years. In fascinating vignettes, Flannery offers the true evolutionary tale of how each of these bizarre creatures came to look the way they do. Alongside each historical account is a stunning hand-painted color reproduction (life-size in the original painting) by Schouten.
Filled with purple-faced apes, jagged-toothed dolphins, and antlered lizards, Astonishing Animals is a remarkable collection of the world's most incredible creatures and the stories behind their remarkable survival into a modern age.

Customer Reviews:

lovely but somehow dishonest.......2007-03-04

Like A Gap In Nature, this book features stunning illustrations. Playfully, it would seem, one of the creatures portrayed in this book is a figment of fantasy and not a real "astonishing" animal. I have two criticisms, however. First, as far as I can discover, nowhere in the book is there any indication of which creature is the false one. Since I am not a zoologist, I would have to spend considerable time looking up all the creatures' names (except for those I already know of) in order to ascertain which one is the fantasy. And apart from the time, I dislike the game-playing that says "we're not going to tell you," since this means that if I can't easily discern (by referring to a certain page) which is the fake, then to my mind, each one I look at may be a fake. This undermines the point of the book, which is to help us see the wonder in real animals.

Second, there is too great a whiff of humanity-blaming, and above all of America-blaming in the statement that animals suffered from Agent Orange. Well, hello? Who started the devastating war in which Agent Orange was used? Exactly. But the aggressors--the Vietnamese Communists--are not mentioned; it is only America that is chided. In a book such as this, let's focus on the animals, please, and leave political clawing out of it.

A beautiful book with some ugly animals!.......2005-07-20

As a devoted amateur, vertebrate evolution is one of my hobbies, especially that of mammals. I am frequently the person my acquaintances come to, to ask questions about animals. Yet there were things in this book I had never heard of. Certainly the imaginary beast was one I hadn't heard of :D At first, my suspicion was that the one that the author claims would perhaps be named after him, would be imaginary. However, a little research on the web revealed that this animal exists, has since been named, and no, it isn't named after Tim Flannery. (A little web research easily revealed the true culprit, as well.)

The authors' sense of humor is not limited to the imaginary animal. There are other humorous notes, such as the Cape rain frog, which is included "because it is one of the silliest-looking creatures there is."

Another reviewer has already described the sections quite well, so I will not repeat that, but will just mention a few of the particular things that struck me about the contents.

A great many of the animals in the book are birds. I admit I don't know nearly as much about birds as I do about mammals, so I perhaps was more easily astonished than a regular birder might be. I also overdosed on birds a bit faster than someone who is fascinated by them might - I wanted to get on to the mammals. I found the inclusion of several different pheasants a bit repetitious, and likewise several different birds of paradise, but they are truly beautiful birds, and wanting more mammals is only my personal preference.

The illustrations are beautiful. I might have liked a few actual photographs, but many of these animals would have been difficult to photograph. I might also quibble with a few selections - pretty much everyone is familiar with the platypus, and many zoos now have colonies of naked mole rats. So, while interesting, these critters are no longer astonishing. On the other hand, some of the animals were truly astonishing: the curlew-jawed mormyrid, which looks an awful lot like an echidna for something that's a fish! And I really would not have believed in the existence of the dense-beaked whale if I hadn't gone to other resources and seen actual photographs of it. The stoplight loosejaw could give a person nightmares.

One of the really neat features is the exactly life-size pictures of the pygmy chameleon, the bee hummingbird, and the smallest bat in the world, along with the more-than-a-meter-long slender snipe-eel.

This book is often described as a "coffee table book" but it would make an excellent gift for any young person interested in animals and in need of a challenge to learn more about them, and whoever owns the book, child or adult, will leaf through it far more often than most coffee table books ever get opened.

Gorgeous artwork of bizarre and exotic animals .......2004-11-09

_Astonishing Animals_ by Tim Flannery and Peter Schouten is an absolutely gorgeous coffee-table sized book, a work of splendid artwork and informative and occasionally humorous text. Producers of the similarly excellent _A Gap in Nature_, the authors this time concentrate not on animals that became extinct in historical times but living, odd, extraordinary animals, many of them quite unfamiliar to me and I daresay many armchair naturalists.

The first section is titled "The Vertical Terrain" and focuses on animals in mountainous terrains, specifically tropical mountains, which can have habitats varying from snow and alpine meadow at the summit to lowland jungle at its base. We meet in this section the Ribbon-tailed Astrapia of New Guinea, a bird of paradise with the longest tail feathers relative to body size of any bird (they are over three times longer than the bird's body). Similarly unusual is the King of Saxony Bird of Paradise, also of New Guinea; in this species the brow plumes of the male bird are over twice the length of the bird's body, looking somewhat like very oddly shaped huge antennae.

The second section is titled "Motion Specialists," and focuses on species that move in innovative and unexpected ways. The Mysore Slender Loris of India is a lemur-like primate of the thorny acacia forest, notably in that it moves in a slow, deliberate manner, always keeping grasp of the branches with at least three of its limbs, always from above, never from below.

The third section is called "Food & Feeding" and details animals with unusual diets and feeding techniques. We meet the Dingiso, a ground-dwelling tree-kangaroo (as contradictory as that might sound) discovered by Flannery himself in 1994 in the wilds of New Guinea. Delacour's Langur from the forests of central Vietnam is a beautiful but poorly studied primate, boasting a "pot belly" which contains a large stomach that is capable of fermenting the leaves upon which it feeds. The Curlew-jawed Mormyrid of South America is a freshwater fish with a long proboscis and the ability to generate its own electric field; both are used by the fish to find its aquatic prey, information from both is sent to its brain, the largest relative to body weight of any fish. Pesquet's Parrot of New Guinea looks more like a vulture than a parrot, with a bald-head and a long bill, though it does not feed on dead animals but the droppings of cassowaries (specifically the undigested fruits seeds within the feces).

The fourth section is "Shape-shifters," focusing on animals of unusual shapes and sizes. The Oriental Bay Owl of southern Asia looks like, when at rest, a broken, lichen-covered branch, all but impossible to see. The garish-colored Tomato Frog of Madagascar looks like a ripe tomato, an example of convergent evolution with the poison arrow frogs of the Americas. The authors produce life-sized pictures of the bumble bee-sized Kitti's Hognosed Bat of Thailand and the Bee Hummingbird of Cuba (which weighs only two grams).

Section five is called "Habitat Specialists" and deals with extreme specialists. The Marsupial Mole, Naked Mole Rat, Pink Fairy Armadillo, and the Star-nosed Mole are all striking examples of convergent evolution from different continents. The Sail-Tailed Lizard of eastern Indonesia is a sail-backed river-dwelling lizard, a poorly studied animal that may be a freshwater analogue of the Galapagos Island Marine Iguana. The Asian Giant Softshell Turtle, as its name might suggest, is not protected by a hardshell at all, something that was dispensed with for mysterious reasons. It is able to live in the polluted Ganges River and the canals of Canton and Jakarta, feeding on just about anything. The Yellow-Headed Picathartes of West Africa is a bald-headed bird that feeds exclusively on insects that breed in bat guano.

The final section is titled "The Vertical Ocean" and has some of the most unusual animals and evocative illustrations in the book. The stars of this part are marine animals from both the surface waters and the deepest abyss. The male Strap-toothed Whale and the Dense-Beaked Whale produce huge overgrown, curving tusks that when fully developed permit their jaws to only open a few centimeters (it is not known how the up to 7 meter long animals continue to feed). The Crested Basketfish has highly developed pectoral and pelvic fins that produce a virtual net in front of its head, a device that is believed to either sieve the water or to enwrap prey. The nightmarish Stoplight Loosejaw looks like as if it has had its throat coat; its jaws, stripped down to skin, bone, and tendons are constructed to allow for extremely rapid action. The Jellyfaced Spookfish of the very deep Indian Ocean (found two and a half kilometers below the surface) appears to have a head made of jelly, so transparent one can see the veins and arteries carrying blood to its brain and mouth.

The authors caution that one of the 97 animals in the book is imaginary; completely made up just for the book. Several times when reading about an animal I had to stop and wonder if that was the animal that existed on in the imagination. Was it the 34 millimeter long Pygmy Chameleon? The Bougainville Monkey-Faced Bat (found in the remote Solomon Islands, having evolved large, hard, pointed teeth and chewing muscles so powerful that their skulls have developed bony crests, enabling the animal to tackle even young coconuts)? Or maybe the Falanouc of Madagascar, once classified as an insectivore but now recognized as an unusual carnivore, a vaguely fox-like animal that lives in small family groups or solitarily on the forest floor, feeding on frogs and insects? A beautiful and informative book, I highly recommend it as this work does not focus on what some have titled charismatic megafauna (i.e. over-exposed and well- known animals like lions or giant pandas) but often quite obscure animals, all of which are beautifully illustrated.

Platypus: The Extraordinary Story of How a Curious Creature Baffled the World

Average customer rating:

A hsitory as interesting as the animal
A mediocre book about an extraordinary animal
WOW!
Beautiful scholarly treatise.
Quocunque aspicias hic paradoxus erit

Platypus: The Extraordinary Story of How a Curious Creature Baffled the World
Ann Moyal
Manufacturer: The Johns Hopkins University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0801880521

Amazon.com

Consider the platypus, that curious Australian creature that seems neither fish nor reptile nor mammal, but that has characteristics seemingly borrowed from all over the animal kingdom. Charles Darwin certainly considered it, puzzling over the platypus in the light of the rest of the world's creatures, and remarking, "Surely two distinct Creators must have been at work."

Australian historian of science Ann Moyal offers plenty of natural-historical information on the platypus in this slender, enjoyable book. What's more, she examines the sometimes shocked reactions the platypus inspired in European naturalists when they first saw specimens of the creature at the dawn of the 19th century. For, Moyal writes, the platypus almost single-handedly (or, perhaps better, single-web-footedly) overturned the prevailing classification of animals according to great-chain-of-being models; with its hodgepodge of physical traits and behaviors, it offered "an unexpected bridge between the categories of mammal/quadruped and reptiles and birds." That bridge helped set evolutionary theory on a new course; as Moyal writes, the platypus played an explicit role in Charles Darwin's ideas on isolation, species diversity, and natural selection, and he branded it a prime example of a "living fossil" that had managed to find an unoccupied ecological niche and live, relatively undisturbed, while fellow creatures marched toward extinction.

Scientists continue to study the platypus, Moyal writes in closing, for its remarkable traits, including a seeming sixth sense that helps it locate its prey in the underwater darkness. Her graceful book sheds new light on the history of biology and ought to earn Ornithorhynchus anatinus many new admirers. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

When the first platypus specimen reached England from Australia in 1799, the scientific community claimed that it was a hoax. On closer investigation, dubious European naturalists eventually declared it to be real, though in an age obsessed with classification, the category-defying platypus sparked heated debates across Europe for a century. In Platypus, Ann Moyal provides a unique biography of one of the world's most famously strange creatures and tells the incredible story of how it became the focus of the great scientific debates of the nineteenth century. Eloquent and concise, Platypus uncovers the earliest theories and latest discoveries about this delightfully odd member of the animal kingdom.

Customer Reviews:

A hsitory as interesting as the animal.......2007-09-17

Ann Moyal's "Platypus" is really two stories in one. As the tital suggests one of those stories is the history of the scientific struggle to understand an animal originally thought to be a chimaera and hoax. The second story is that of the people, preconceptions, and politics surrounding the science of natural history in the decades preceding and immediately following the Darwinian revolution of scientific thought. Moyal, through the narrow lens of a platypus-centralized story tells of the struggles, missteps and transformation of western science from franco/clerical to anglo-colonial/secular domination, and finally to the global excersise it has become today. It is fascinating that many of the greatest names in 18th and 19th century science (Cuvier, Meckel, Home, Geoffrey St-Hilaire, Owen, Darwin) all studied to some degree the anatomy and biology of the platypus!

The difficulties in studying the platypus are recreated in the pattern and pace of Moyal's prose. The overall progression of the book is temporal, but the chapters focus on the individuals and many of the chapters begin by backtracking in time to follow the story of another player in the story. This allows Moyal to explore each portion of the story she is telling as a series of mini-biographies, but requires diligence on the part of the reader to keep maintain an orderly timeline.

What was even more suprising is the size of the book, 15 chapters covering 205 pages (in an 5 in. X 8 in. format) with glossary (incomplete, but good for non-scientists), references, and index bringing the total to 226 pages. Out of the box my first impression was that is was too short. However, by the end of the book I felt satisfied that Moyal had adequetly, though not exhaustively, recounted the history of the study of the playpus and illuminated the position of this enigmatic creature as a focal point (one of many to be sure) of contention and controversy during a crucial period in the maturation of biological science.

A mediocre book about an extraordinary animal.......2006-08-30

This book is the story of a fascinating creature and those who studied it. Unfortunately, it was a letdown; the author's style is wordy and repetitive and the book is inflated with paragraphs and even chapters that could and should have been deleted. The entire story could have easily been told more concisely in the form of a magazine article. But then, the author wouldn't have had a book, would she? I am starting to think that these writers, who otherwise don't have much to say, stuff their manuscripts with minimally related material so as to have as many pages as they can. Do they get paid by the number of pages they write, or what?

WOW!.......2006-05-23

This book was an amazing story of how one small creature stumped a bunch of stuffy scientists. It really taught me about the platypus, and amused me at the same time. Kudos to the author.

Beautiful scholarly treatise........2005-08-19

Ann Moyal's portrait of the evolution of science with the Platypus as the centrefold was richly rewarding. The detail is a blessing as is the easy description of scientific terminology. I probably learnt as much about science as I did about the platypus. Complaints ? I don't read fiction so I love this stuff and it was too short. C'mon Ann, what's next ? *****

Quocunque aspicias hic paradoxus erit.......2002-04-19

Oviparous, viviparous, or ovoviviparous? That tongue-twisting question is at the center of this book, which relates science's attempt over the centuries to figure out where exactly to place the platypus, one of God's most wondrous (and confusing) creations, on the org chart of life. Central to the taxonomic mystery was the question of whether the platypus lays eggs (is 'oviparous,'), gives birth to live young ('vivi-'), or, like some lizards, hatches eggs within its own body ('ovovivi-').

High school biology is not an episode I'm anxious to relive, but Ann Moyal does a good job in this little book of keeping matters from getting too complex. What she wasn't able to do, unfortunately, was keep the middle of the book from dragging somewhat. After several chapters relating scientists' struggles and competing theories on the ovi/vivi question -- and related matters like nipples, sex organs, and the like -- I was more than ready to skip to the end in hopes Holmes or Poirot or someone would step forward and reveal the solution to the puzzle.

Things got really interesting again in the final three chapters, where Moyal introduces us to a self-taught biologist known as 'The Platypus Man' (not to be confused with Richard Jeni, who starred in a TV show by that name), to Winston, a platypus who traveled to England to help fight World War Two, and -- most importantly -- to the latest developments in platypus studies. I picked up this book in order to find out more about the platypus, not because taxonomy or the history of natural science are big interests of mine, and so I found these final chapters the most entertaining and rewarding in the book.

Customer Reviews:

Stunning Photography.......2006-04-07

If you are bored by tiresome text about African animals and like some of the best African animal photos ever taken, this book is for you. This book is all photos, taken over many years in many places. Some of the photos have titles identifying the subjects; many of the photos are completely untitled.

On the downside, if you need some descriptions and background to accompany the photos, you won't get it here.

Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, a Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature

Average customer rating:

Entertaining Scientific Memoir
G'day mate! Time to learn about the land down unda and learn about its roos!!
A breezy and fun read
kangaroos
Well Worth Reading

Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, a Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature
Tim Flannery
Manufacturer: Grove Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0802118526

Book Description

In his most personal book yet, Tim Flannery, the internationally acclaimed author of The Weather Makers, draws on three decades of travel, research, and field work to craft a love letter to his native land and one of its most unique and beloved inhabitants: the kangaroo. Crisscrossing the continent, Flannery shows us how the destiny of this extraordinary creature is inseparable from the environment that created it. Along the way he uses encounters with ancient aboriginal cultures and eccentric fossil hunters, farmers and scientists, kangaroo advocates and kangaroo hunters, to explore how Australia’s deserts and rainforests have shaped human responses to the continent -- and how kangaroos have evolved to handle the resulting challenges. Ultimately, Chasing Kangaroos is a smart yet utterly readable synthesis of memoir, travel, natural history, and evolutionary science -- and further proof of Flannery’s “offhand interdisciplinary brilliance” (Entertainment Weekly).

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining Scientific Memoir.......2007-10-17

Here is advice from an expert: "If you ever see a fresh kangaroo carcass lying beside the road it is well worth stopping to take a closer look." The expert is Tim Flannery, a professor, explorer, and paleontologist, and he dispenses his advice, and much other eccentric and informative matter, in _Chasing Kangaroos: A Continent, a Scientist, and a Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Creature_ (Grove Press). Flannery has written plenty of books of anecdotes of travel and exploration, and also academic works about the strange mammals of his region. His current book is a combination memoir, travelogue, and appreciation of the fauna (including the humans) of the land down under, and it is delightful in all departments.

Flannery takes his own advice more than once, like the time he was driving in the Northern Territory and a wallaby dashed in front of him before he could swerve. It was a "nailtail" because its whip-like tail has a sort of fingernail at the end, and no one knows why it has such a thing because no one has ever seen it put to use. Flannery took the deceased nailtail back to his camp to anatomize its leg and feet; it is not surprising that these regions give the most clues about kangaroos' evolutionary descent. He also took steaks from the haunches, and reports that the resultant stew produced a meat that tasted like steak and mushrooms and was far superior to the meat of the red kangaroo (that's the kangaroo we non-Australians think of as "the" kangaroo, although there are plenty of others in different sizes, shapes, and colors). Unfortunately, the carcass was also tasty enough for some birds of prey to steal from him overnight, so his museum never got the specimen. Flannery does not deal in just recent kills, but some that have been extinct for millions of years, like _Propleopus oscillans_, the killer kangaroo. Don't worry; the huge carnivorous beast is long extinct, but it has been the subject of some of Flannery's own research, and he goes into some detail about how he did research and came to understand its environmental role, its teeth giving clues about it's carnivorous nature. Flannery describes his scientific jubilation: "Then there were a delicious couple of days when, as I worked on my theory without telling anyone else, I was the only person on Earth who knew that great, carnivorous kangaroos once stalked Australia." Subsequent finds of skulls confirm the theory, but beyond that there is a mystery, for a single arm bone is the only other fossil remnant of the creature ever found.

Another extraordinary thing about these creatures is that although they evolved in isolated islands with no hope of swimming to other lands, humans have arranged for them to populate new worlds, and kangaroos have flourished in unusual places. It is perhaps not too surprising to learn that brush-tailed rock-wallabies have done well on the island of Oahu in Hawaii. They are descendants of two who escaped from a menagerie in 1916. It is surprising, however, that there is a colony of grey kangaroos living happily in the forests west of Paris, France. Thirty years ago, a bungled theft of animals resulted in freedom for the greys who have prospered, much to the delight of the locals. And another extraordinary thing is that the male kangaroo has a scrotum hanging in front of his penis. And another extraordinary thing is that the female has two vaginas, and gives birth through neither of them (a special canal forms around birth time). And another extraordinary thing... Well, Flannery's book is full of them, and his enthusiasm in presenting them to the reader is a delight throughout.

G'day mate! Time to learn about the land down unda and learn about its roos!!.......2007-10-15

XXXXX

"Australia was once dominated by people who loved the mother country--a land of lush greens and as alien to my [present-day] country as any could be. Today, Australians are more likely to proclaim a love of things native, yet because they often lack a true understanding of their environment, theirs is a love that can kill. Such well-meaning but uncomprehending enthusiasm is one reason why many Aboriginal communities continue to struggle under insupportable burdens, why native species [like species of kangaroos] keep vanishing, and why our future is being cut short by an insatiable addiction to fossil fuels. It is why I wrote this book. We have now embarked on a new phase of our national existence, and just where it will lead I do not know. But I have a sinking feeling that unless every Australian searches profoundly for ways to help our land survive, things are likely to end badly for ourselves and this great island continent."

The above is the last paragraph of this fascinating book by Australian paleontologist (and concerned environmentalist) Tim Flannery, who received his PhD from the Department of Earth Sciences, University of New South Whales.

Generally, this book is a blend of three things:

(1) His early years as a paleontologist and his continuing exciting work as a "fossil hunter"
(2) A natural history of the unique Australian landscape
(3) A study of the evolution of the equally unique kangaroo. This early evolution of kangaroos was virtually unknown until Flannery came along. (The search for this evolutionary past is what drives this book's main narrative.)

Many people might think that these are three reasons not to read it. Well, not for me! What this book did was made me understand why Flannery was named 2007 "Australian of the Year" and why he a scientist, explorer, and conservationist of "international acclaim" and "interdisciplinary brilliance."

What I found apparent as I read this book is that Flannery knows his science and presents it well when doing actual fieldwork (some of it hazardous) and research to trace the evolution of kangaroos. But there is much more to this book than just scientific precision.

Flannery embellishes his main narrative with humor and gives us his impressions. He fills each chapter with actual Australian characters he meets along the way. However, for me, it was his enthusiasm for his subject that made this book such a joy to read. The result is that this book is like a "love letter" to Flannery's native Australia and its most strikingly remarkable inhabitant: the kangaroo.

My favorite chapters have the following titles:

(1) Captain Cook's kangaroo
(2) Kangaroo essence
(3) The mystery of hopping
(4) The oldest kangaroo
(5) Where the great roos came from
(6) The age of kangaroos
(7) Grass for the kangaroos
(8) A dingo-driven revolution

Throughout are black and white illustrations (drawings, maps, pictures, etc.) that highlight aspects of the main narrative. As well, there are a dozen color pictures near the middle of the book. (By the way, the book's cover {displayed above by Amazon} shows a picture of a red kangaroo--the symbol of Australia.)

Finally, just before the introduction to the book is a black and white map of Australia. On it, Flannery has placed the locations of key places that he visits and explores in his main narrative. I recommend photocopying this map and using it to follow his travels.

In conclusion, this is a captivating book that's a blend of memoir, travel, natural history, and evolutionary science. After I finished reading it, I realized that Dr. Tim Flannery should have a nickname similar to his fictional Australian counterpart "Crocodile Dundee." How about:

"Kangaroo Flannery."

(first published 2007; map; introduction; 26 chapters; postscript; main narrative 250 pages; kangaroo family tree; acknowledgements; bibliography; index)

< >

XXXXX

A breezy and fun read.......2007-08-27

Tim Flannery's "Chasing Kangaroos" is a terrific, informative read regarding what surely is one of the oddest animals in all of nature. To say the author is obsessed with his subject may not quite be true but his love for kangaroos in unabashed. Flannery's book teems with knowledge as one would guess, as he is one of the leading experts on these fascinating creatures.

Anyone who has ever seen a kangaroo "hop"...and I do mean they HOP....will marvel at their overall structure and Flannery, rightly so, gives a detailed account about how they get around, beginning with the physical diversity of the feet of the many different kangaroos. Not all of the dispensed information is cute and cuddly....a description of their digestive systems is downright unappealing...but Flannery covers it all in a narrative style that is mostly well-paced.

His opening recounting of a trip around Australia when he was in his teens can be a bit of a drudge and by that measure it takes a while to get into things. However, I highly recommend "Chasing Kangaroos"...it's simply a fun and educational book.

kangaroos.......2007-08-08

Great reading. A wonderful man. I would love to know him but enjoyed spending the time with the book.

Well Worth Reading.......2007-08-07

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the unique fauna that greeted Europeans when they first arrived on Australian shores over two centuries ago. Flannery's enthusiasm is infectious. My only criticism is the odd diversion he makes into side stories, although the can choose to skip these.

Animal ER : Extraordinary Stories of Hope and Healing from One of the World's Leading Veterinary Hospitals

Average customer rating:

Fabulous engaging read!
Guess I missed the boat? Very disappointed,unusually boring!
Biology Book Review
Sad and Touching Stories
A wonderfully compassionate Author and Compelling stories

Animal ER : Extraordinary Stories of Hope and Healing from One of the World's Leading Veterinary Hospitals
Vicki Croke
Manufacturer: Dutton Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0525945075

Book Description

An enthralling behind-the-scenes look at real veterinary emergencies

The Foster Hospital for Small Animals--part of the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine and one of the most respected animal hospitals in the country--has opened its doors and collaborated on a book that reveals the everyday struggles and dramas at an animal emergency ward. Boston Globe reporter Vicki Croke has gathered the most gripping, fascinating, and triumphant stories of saving animals in times of crisis--from cats and dogs to iguanas and horses. This journalistic account delivers both heart-pounding action and heart-wrenching tales of loss and recovery--combining split-second medical decisions, cutting-edge veterinary medical technology, and the restorative power of the bond between pets and their owners.

Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine has the largest emergency medicine training program in the country. The only veterinary school in New England, Tufts treats more than 24,000 animals each year.

Customer Reviews:

Fabulous engaging read!.......2006-06-07

This book is great! The author strikes just the right balance between sad and happy outcomes. She gives you a great peek into the amazing stories that happen every day in a busy animal emergency room. I laughed and cried and couldn't put the book down. I read this book aloud to my eleven year old son who also loved it.

Guess I missed the boat? Very disappointed,unusually boring!.......2004-06-17

I'm very happily working in a pet profession, I just adore the vet & pet shows on animal planet (from popped out eyeballs, to beloved sick iguanas) , and I am a big sap for animal stories and moving stories of any kind. I guess I expected this to be more stories (happy and sad, but moving), maybe even like chicken-soup style but longer? I was very disappointed. The stories were often short (sometimes 1/2 a sentence) and few between. Lots of vet perspectives on life, and personal vet perspectives on the profession, and worldly views of everything. I was really bored. I kept reading hoping for the next story to come, but I ended up reading skipping more than 1/2 the book because after a while I just couldn't read the quotes from the vets & techs anymore, and the lists of things they teach the other techs, and their years of schooling and personal experiences (educational & interests - not animal stories) was redundant and boring for me. The medical descriptions were not detailed enough to be educational orinteresting, and were too detailed that they distracted from the emotionality of just telling a story. I still have 20 pages to go before I finish, and I can't even remember the last story I was actually moved by (it was somewhere in the first 30 pages. The book is organized by "topic", but it doesn't seem to really have any flow (it went from dogs & cats to much less interesting stories of wildlife & exotics - which are usually very interesting, but they left out all the emotions other than "we eventually had to put it asleep, that was really hard". A few times they didn't even list the end of the story, or what decision the owner made for treatment - I really hate that (what happened to the kangaroos eyen cancer???)!

I'd really like to give this book 2 or 3 stars at least, because they really tried. They talked to may vets, and plopped in tons of quotes and lists of things they "learned" (quoted) from them. But I just feel so disappointed (more every time I try to finish it) that I can't. I've been a lot more moved by the cat behavior books I purchased at the same time - more stories, more details on personal emotions, trial and error, and results, and much more follow up to the stories.

I have to say I did like it when they listed the estimated prices for things. Although they did this infrequently, just for expensive procedures that may be ineffective. Sorry - I might recommend this book for the current used rate of under $2 if the shipping wasn't $4.99, but I can't justify $12.00 + shipping.

Biology Book Review.......2001-12-20

From an anorexic snake to a myopic kangaroo to a bloated akita, from the tricky diagnoses to the hopeless cases, this captivating paperback tells of the perilous situations that have occurred at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. Is it really right to spend all this time and effort on animals when some people lack food, shelter, and proper medical care? The veterinarians who unveil their heart-warming and emotional stories in this 194-page book, Animal ER, by Vicki Croke (copyright-1999) show us that the world is meant to be shared by animals and humans.
Each chapter of this brilliant book displays and describes a different animal/pet and its unique problem. Biology plays a major part in this book because it's about the science of studying and curing living things. It exposes the drama of life in the emergency ward of a veterinary hospital, which is a biology-related occupation. The first chapter summarizes the atmosphere of the Intensive Care Unit at Tufts; it's sad and yet successful too. The next eleven chapters of Animal ER present various animals and their life-threatening problems. Some require complex surgical procedures, while others are solved by unexpected and simple means. The last chapter returns to the Intensive Care Unit and reveals what the animals teach the veterinarians. The main idea expressed at the closing of the book touched my soul as tears rose to the surface like a newly found spring. Vicki Croke wrote that the animals who are cared for seem to teach simple lessons about life. "Animals continue to surprise me with their patience, their level of tolerance, and their strength," Nishi says, "but most of all, with their ability to forgive" (194).
I would strongly recommend this brilliant book to my friends or those people who are thinking of going into the veterinary field of study. Since I've never had a pet, I cannot relate to the owners of these sick animals; however, I can see this book as a slice of a veterinarian's life. It captures the essence of the Intensive Care Unit during first examinations, x-rays, surgery, and post-operative care. It is clear to see, as they treat animals, that Nishi Dhupa, Dr. Mark Pokras, Dr. John Berg, and other staff members at Tufts have the "healing touch". So even though some people don't have their primary needs met like food, shelter, and clothing, animals have a right to our care and concern.

Sad and Touching Stories.......2001-11-07

Animal ER is a marvelous book for anyone who has an interest in animals or the world of Vets. Most of this book showed how these vets work everyday, but it also touches on the emotional side of the proffession. Vets have to decide when to put an animal to sleep and when to give them extra treatment . They also have a responsibility to comfort the owners. Find out more about the world of the vet by reading this fantastic nonfiction.

A wonderfully compassionate Author and Compelling stories.......2000-08-31

When my sister lost her beloved Great Dane, I mourned for her too. I'm a cat person, and this big black incredibly sweet baby was the first dog I ever loved. When I visited my sister last year and she showed me this book, explaining that the author had been there in the Tufts Vet ER with her when Azaria was brought in, I was amazed. I continued to be amazed as I saw my sister's very special love for my doggy-niece through the eyes of a total stranger. It would have been very easy to dismiss how painful losing a pet can be, very easy to miss the ties of love between a pet and her owner. My sister loved her dog, quirks and fears and vet bills and all. I loved her too. Thanks, Vicki. Your gentle presentation of their story is the finest tribute Zari could have had.

Animal Er: Extraordinary Stories of Hope and Healing from One of the World's Lea

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Animal Er: Extraordinary Stories of Hope and Healing from One of the World's Lea
Tufts University School of Veterinary Me , and Vicki Croke
Manufacturer: Plume Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Chasing The Hunter's Dream: 1,001 of the World's Best Duck Marshes, Deer Runs, Elk Meadows, Pheasant Fields, Bear Woods, Safaris, and Extraordinary Hunts
Jeffrey Engel , James A. Swan , and Sherol Engel
Manufacturer: Collins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Hunting | Hunting & Fishing | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

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