98 BBC WILDLIFE December 2021
BOOKS ROUND UP
When There Were Birds
By Roy and Lesley Adkins, Little, Brown
Book Group, £25This latest book by the
historians and married
couple, the Adkins, looks
at the long, varied and
complex relationship
between humans and birds
in Britain, including their
appearances in our literature and myths,
and how we’ve hunted different species
as pests or for trophies.Wild Waters
By Susanne Masters, illustrated by Alice
Goodridge, Vertebrate Graphics, £20Plant scientist Susanne
Masters takes us for
a delightful dive into
marine and freshwater
wildlife. Whether you’re
a wild swimmer, like
Susanne, or a land-
based wildlife-watcher,
there’s plenty to enjoy, with a wide range
of species covered as well as a variety
of topics, including foraging, preserving
seaweed and citizen science.The Redemption
of Wolf 302
By Rick McIntyre, Greystone Books, £18.99In the third book of
his Alpha Wolves of
Yellowstone series, retired
national park ranger Rick
McIntyre turns his writing
skills to cover the life of wolf- With a list of failures
(including ditching pregnant females),
this male seemed not to be suitable
material to become an alpha, but as the
title suggests, change and redemption
was on the cards.
Vagrancy in Birds
By Alexander Lees and James Gilroy,
Bloomsbury, £40The authors have
comprehensively tackled
a topic familiar to many
twitchers, starting
with the surprisingly
difficult definition of
which birds meet the
criteria for vagrancy.
It’s a fascinating read into the different
causes of vagrancy, and the instances of
vagrancy in different bird families.BOOK OF THE MONTH
Fearless Females
By Mario Ludwig, teNeues, £35I
n the first of its kind, this photo
book from German publishing company
teNeues focusses exclusively on the
female half of the animal kingdom and
their extraordinary stories. The book
is split into five sections looking at
different aspects of their lives, with facts
and incredible stories in both English and
German by biologist, author and podcast
host Mario Ludwig.
In a collaboration with the specialist
photography agency Nature Picture Library
it features some 150 stunning images
by a range of the world’s best wildlifephotographers, including Tim Laman, Anup
Shah, Fiona Rogers and Sergey Gorshkov.
Text and images combined make for a
captivating book covering a wide spectrum
of animal behaviour and species, from the
remarkable breeding balls of the green
anaconda (and the females’ ingenious
solution for when there are no males
around); the good manners required during
the courtship of the common kingfisher; the
special treatment of the queen honeybee;
and the strict matriarchal society of the
spotted hyena. All in all, this is a book to
make you re-think the role of the female. CHEETAHS:^ DENIS-HUOT/NATUREPL.COM;^ WILLSMITH:^ NATIONAL^ GEOGRAPHIC^FOR^DISNEY+/KYLE^ CHRISTYCheetah cubs
remain with their
mothers for the first
16 to 18 months of
their lives, learning
key survival skills