Les Line (1935–2010)

Profound observations on the lives and social structures of wild cats, written in a poetic style. The pages are extremely thick, almost the thickness of an actual photograph, with excellently-chosen images. They are not of the same quality as, say, modern-day DK books, but the shots are generally memorable and even surprising or even humorous. An example of the latter: A series of pics of a standoff on a tree limb between a margay and an anteater, with a caption indicating the cat would be no match for the insectivore's claws. One that haunts me is a cheetah standing right above the neck region of a cowering caracal (a slightly slower, smaller cat with obviously no chance of escape), lacking any explanation in the caption. (Actually, I found another pic from the same incident near the front of the book, with them both running, captioned "A caracal retreats from an encounter with a cheetah.")
There's not a lot of gore in the predation photos, compared to other big cat books I've seen and owned. Generally, the moment before impact is pictured. The large text size means the book is a much quicker read than its lumbering size would indicate, and due to the thick paper stock, it's only 247 pages, about half of which are photos.
Overall, this purchase is a no-brainer, no matter how many similar books you have, or even if you've not yet fallen under the sway of these animals.… (meer)