Wetlands

Francis R. Cook, formerly curator of the Canadian Museum of Nature’s
Herpetology Section, is currently researcher emeritus.

The major appeal of this book is its always pleasing and often splendid
color photographs. The sparse and chatty text covers marshes; swamps and
beaver ponds; bogs and fens; and use of wetlands. The author’s
credentials (14 years as interpretive naturalist at Ontario’s Wye
Marsh Wildlife Centre and Tiny Marsh Provincial Wildlife Area) are
impressive, and his purpose—an appeal for the appreciation and
preservation of Canada’s last low-lying habitats—is laudable and
timely.

Regrettably, the book is riddled with errors of fact. The caption
accompanying a photo of a single goose herding a cluster of 26
youngsters (“Perhaps the concept of day care originated with Canada
geese ...”) is enough to drive an evolutionary behavioralist mad, or
at least to tears. The statement that “grey tree frogs and American
toads hibernate beneath the frozen waters, as do spring peepers” is
not just untrue, but misses some fascinating adaptations in these
animals. The public, and the conservation plea, might have been better
served had the magnificent photos in this book been left to stand on
their own.