Owls aren鈥檛 Wise and Bats aren鈥檛 Blind by Warner Shedd, Harmony,
拢15.19, ISBN 0609605291
ONCE upon a time there was a king so distraught at the death of his queen
that he drained the treasuries of his kingdom dry to make a building so
beautiful that everyone who saw it would remember his beloved. When the glorious
building was finished the king had a problem. His wife鈥檚 tomb appeared shabby
inside her own monument. 鈥淭ake it away,鈥� he commanded.
This cautionary tale warns that sometimes people need to be reminded of how
they got where they are. Naturalists may have penetrated so deeply into the
world of nature that they forget why they became interested in the first
place.
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Warner Shedd has come up with a novel device to nudge the memories of
wildlife fans. He begins each chapter of Owls aren鈥檛 Wise and Bats aren鈥檛
Blind with myths about the animal he is going to describe, and then debunks
them. These myths are deliberate red herrings that Shedd uses as hooks on which
to hang his observations of the natural world. Few people believe that bats are
blind and owls are wise, any more than they think that badgers are bald (and
brushes are daft).
This book turns out to be anecdotal nature writing based on the author鈥檚
personal experiences and those of his colleagues, supplemented with important
background information to be picked up along the way. Take the 鈥渇isher cat鈥�. A
mustelid, not a cat, this New World creature resembles the ferret or 鈥渇itch鈥�. It
doesn鈥檛 eat fish.
It is not an academic text, but neither is it based on the assumption that
the average reader has only a 10-second attention span. Shedd presents his
account in solid pages of text, written in a style that seems to have long gone
out of fashion. It harks back to the Victorian 鈥渏ottings from the countryside鈥�
way of doing things鈥攁nd there is absolutely nothing wrong with this, in my
opinion.
He draws on his considerable knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, the wildlife
of North America in entertaining accounts of his selected species. Their
interactions with humans are never far from the plot; he deals with the pros and
cons of conserving or exterminating species such as beavers, coyotes, wolves and
bears in a manner that is well informed, unsentimental and has no axe to grind.
Informed biologists will probably be aware of most of the arguments, but for the
general reader the information has rarely been presented in such an readable
way.
This book is nicely written and enjoyable to read, either by those for whom
natural history is a land of new discoveries, including children鈥攐r those
who need to get back to their roots.