Antarctic Wildlife

by Eric Hosking

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0709912153
• ISBN13: 9780709912156
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Croom Helm
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 2.05 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Superb pictures and excellent text

This book is a permanent reminder to me of this fascinating continent, its surrounding ocean and the wildlife that inhabit them. The book starts with an introduction then a chapter setting the historical background. Next comes a chapter describing the ecology of the three main regions - the continent of Antarctica, the maritime Antarctic (the ocean surrounding Antarctica) and the sub-Antarctic - further out, including South Georgia and nearby islands. Penguins and albatrosses each have a chapter to themselves with all other birds (cormorants, gulls, skuas, wakes, petrels and pigeons) grouped together in another chapter. A chapter on seals and a chapter on wildlife photography in the Antarctic complete the main book (there is an appendix and an index). The longest chapters is the one devoted to penguins - at forty pages, it is double the length of the next longest chapter. Quite right too, as penguins are what most people think of when they think of Antarctica. You may be thinking that one penguin is much the same as another - if so, you'd be wrong. In fact, there are eight different species, thought the Royals only nest on Macquarie Island. The others are Emperor, Adelie, Chinstrap, Gentoo, Macaroni, Rockhopper and King. Each species has its own distinguishing characteristics - for example, the Royal, Rockhopper and Macaroni penguins all have crests. The Emperor and King penguins (as their names suggest) are much larger than the other species. This well-written book has a lot of information about the birds and seals of the region, matched by many spectacular photographs. If you are interested in Antarctica, this book is well worth looking for.