Seals in the Wild

Patrick Colgan is the former executive director of the Canadian Museum
of Nature.

Nature writer and photographer Fred Bruemmer has produced a most
impressive book on seals around the globe. He begins with an overview of
the evolution of seals, a discussion that includes their ancestry,
diversity, sensory and vocal capacities, and crucial adaptations to
water and temperature. Well integrated into the text are such human
aspects as traditional hunting, Inuit myths, the grim slaughter over the
past two centuries, and diving by the Ama women of Japan. Each of the
major groups of seals (fur seals, sea lions, earless seals, and the
walrus) is discussed with reference to its natural history and economic
and cultural value to humans. Social behavior involving aggression and
reproduction is appropriately given much attention, and there are many
intriguing details, such as shifts in habitat (often due to humans), fur
densities of up to 300,000 hairs per square inch, stomach stones, and
carnivorous rogue walruses. Readers will marvel at the rapid growth of
hooded seal pups (from birth to weaning in four days) and the one-minute
sleeping cycle of Arctic ring seals.

Large-format photographs perfectly complement the lucid text. There is
a helpful map, an index, and a table of scientific names. Bruemmer has
put in an impressive amount of time at many important seal locations.
His book provides valuable insight into these marvelous animals and the
devastating human impacts that threaten their survival. Highly
recommended.