SCIENCES

Narwhals: Arctic Whales in a Melting World

by Todd McLeish
Univ. of Washington. 2013. 216p. illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780295992648. $29.95. NAT HIST
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Having since childhood been in love with Narwhals (the males of which have one horn, giving them a magical aura), author McLeish (public information officer, Univ. of Rhode Island; Basking with Humpbacks) spent years pondering their oddities, grace, lore, and biological reality. Finally taking an opportunity to join a team of researchers in Canada and visiting an Inuit hunting camp in Greenland, he had the chance to transform his boyhood fantasies into the stuff of real life. Unlike some other biological/journalistic stories, McLeish's book is not cluttered with distracting detail or a confusing, jumpy narrative but instead is a tightly written piece that richly and ably tells the past and present—and hints of the future—of these marvelous, endangered, long-toothed animals.
VERDICT Although lacking in the more formal documentation of a scientific work (there is a bibliography but no further reading recommendations or notes), this will nonetheless be a good title for academic as well as public libraries. The clarity and strong narrative will well serve both students and enthusiasts of biological studies, ecological concepts, marine life, conservation, and similar topics.
Reviewed by Susan E. Brazer, Salisbury Univ. Lib., MA , Oct 01, 2013
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