The deadly balance Predators and people in a crowded world

Some books don't make easy reading but are important to read, including this one. To a Westerner living comfortably in a "civilization" that excludes most threatening animals, the book shows that people in the developing world may have quite different experiences. Hart (Univ. of Gloucestershire) details the situation faced by people living in proximity to predators. He organizes his text by species, starting with lions and tigers and including less usual creatures, such as pythons and polar bears. He reports on the common exaggeration of risks with respect to wolf and polar bear attacks. For the genuine threats that tigers and lions pose, he points out who is likely to be at risk and where, exploring the delicate balance between conserving predatory species and ensuring human safety. Readers learn of, e.g., Jim Corbett, the famous killer of man-eating tigers and the stigmatized "tiger widows" of India. Hart even includes a two-page summary (pp. 275--76) of what to do when going into bear country. Given the documented recovery of some predator populations--the big cats in particular--and an explosion of visits by city people into wild country, Hart predicts that the problem of predator/human encounters will increase. But good management and common-sense prevention as detailed in this book will help. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students. General readers. --Jennifer A. Mather, University of Lethbridge