National
Geographic’s Guide to Wildlife Watching.
Glen Martin. 1998. The National Geographic
Society, Washington, D.C. 352 pp., clothbound.
The Nature of North America: A Handbook
to the Continent.
David Rockwell. 1998. The Berkeley
Publishing Group. 379 pp., clothbound.
A few years ago, my husband, daughter, and I were fortunate enough to spend nearly four weeks driving from our home in Washington, D.C., to Dillon, Montana, and back. With no fixed timetable or itinerary—Dillon was the only required stop—we meandered along, on and off the freeway, visiting schlock stops like Graceland and the Pro Football Hall of Fame as well as scenic natural wonders like Yellowstone National Park and the Badlands of South Dakota. Selecting sites like these was easy: We had a good idea what we’d find. Other days the decision-making was harder. Did the potential interest or sights of this refuge or that park justify 50 miles on dirt road? Once there, could we find lunch or lodging? Basically, we threw the dice with each detour.
Having National Geographic’s Guide to Wildlife Watching would have loaded the dice in our favor. Subtitled 100 of the Best Places in America to See Animals in Their Natural Habitats, this guide is an indispensable travel companion for anyone interested in seeing the diverse creatures native to the United States in the wild. And it is useful whether you have weeks or days or even just hours to explore a bit of the natural world.
The guide organizes the featured sites by region—western, central, eastern—and then by state. Each state boasts at least one and up to as many as four recommended places for wildlife watching. For each site, there is a concise but comprehensive text describing the habitat, the most prominent species, the best times to visit, how long you should spend, and features of the site. In addition, a summary box entitled “The Facts” accompanies the text for each site and includes a map, driving directions, open hours, and other essential visitor information.
The featured sites are a nice mix of the famous—Adirondack Park and Glacier National Park—and the obscure. Among the latter, and close to home, is Cranesville Swamp Preserve on the West Virginia–Maryland border. This intriguing spot, described as a “small segment of the Pleistocene,” offers easy access and a chance to see beavers, bobcats, and coyotes. Farther afield, Arizona’s Muleshoe Ranch Cooperative Management Area is a great place for coatis and collared peccaries, species we in the East think of as zoo animals.
Wildlife Watching is illustrated with more than 150 beautiful color photographs, as you’d expect from the National Geographic Society, and includes a mini field guide describing 100 different animal species you might see in the United States. Overall, this lively overview of the natural areas of North America makes good reading even if you’re not on the road. And if you’re undecided about this summer’s vacation, this book will help you make up your mind.
I also wish we’d had The Nature of North America to consult on our cross-country adventure. The title sounds a bit formidable, as does its billing as “the definitive reference to North American natural history.” In fact, this is the rare reference book that can be called delightful. In short essays, articles, captions, maps, tables, lists, and line drawings, this book covers geology, water and soil, atmosphere and climate, plants, and animals. The writing is simple and clear, but the science is not oversimplified.
The Nature of North America is full of “gee whiz” facts and figures. There is something on every page that I want to read aloud to whoever is nearby. Did you know that there is a crater some 85 miles in diameter in the Chesapeake Bay, the result of a huge meteorite that fell to Earth about 35 million years ago? How about that the size of the largest hailstone in the U.S. was 17.5 inches in circumference? Or that the total weight of salamanders in northeastern forests is twice that of birds at the birds’ peak breeding season?
There are fascinating short stories, too, with titles like “Plants that run and hide” and “A natural arms race: bats and their prey” and “Sometimes she who hesitates has the advantage.” One of my favorites is about the extinct Rocky Mountain grasshopper, swarms of which are preserved in the ice of Grasshopper Glacier in Montana’s Beartooth Mountains. When the ice melts, birds and fish eat the grasshopper remains. There’s something piquant about an extinct species still feeding extant species.
Whatever your special natural history interest, you’ll find lots to savor in this remarkable volume. A copy to browse through in the car is a must for any road trip: It will enlighten and entertain in any terrain.
—Susan Lumpkin
ZooGoer 30(3) 2001. Copyright 2001 Friends of the National Zoo. All rights reserved.
