Book Review

Excerpt

Ask any “40-” to “50-something” to describe a Tasmanian devil and the image likely conjured is the brown and tan whirling cartoon character, and not that of a black, terrier-sized animal with a white stripe across its chest, and today, often with hideous tumors disfiguring its face. In Tasmanian Devil: A Unique and Threatened Animal, David Owen and David Pemberton present the first comprehensive account of the Tasmanian devil. Their book weaves together history, ecology, evolution, politics, disease biology, and yes, even the cartoon character, the Taz. The book is replete with illustrations and photographs of the Tasmanian devil that vividly capture different aspects of the devil’s life from newborn animals (four fit on a single coin), to devils engaged in battles, to comparisons with other carnivores. Any reader that looks at the pictures in this book will quickly replace the Warner Bros. memory with that of a real Tasmanian devil. …