The Mammoth Book of Predators

by Alex MacCormick

Don't go into the woods today. . . If you're on a cruise, tramping through a forest or holidaying in an exotic location, you are constantly being watched - somewhere close by a creature is lurking, stalking and eyeing your every move. The variety and range of these potential predators is truly astonishing, from Asiatic wolves to rogue elephants, fire ants to sharks, snakes, crocodiles and grizzlies. In this definitive anthology survivors recall their terrifying ordeals, while hunters and other witnesses describe the final bloody moments of victims and their killers. British climber alone in the mountain wilderness pursued for days by a vengeful bearThe African traveller's unhappy encounter with a crocodileA member of the Royal Family's gory meeting with a shark in the CaribbeanA tiger breaking out of the jungle to grab a woman from her village

918 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Robert Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unfortunately this book was published by people who seem to think large (mammoth) is more important than good. This is not to say the book is a total loss. It does present a fair amount of good information, such when it debunks many of the myths about venomous snakes and points out that ‘cute and cuddly’ doesn’t mean harmless. Sadly this was balanced out by reinforcing other myths, such as constrictors crushing the bones of their victims. Also, the credibility of a number of the accounts given was questionable. The ‘mammoth’ problem, however, was repetition and totally irrelevant material making up well over half the content. Are conservation efforts important? Yes, but have nothing to do with what the book is supposed to be about. The seeming obsession with and overstressing of human cannibalism was another negative. Was it relevant? Up to point it was, but that point was reached and exceeded early in the book. What could have been an excellent book was reduced to mediocre by the inclusion of unneeded, redundant, and frequently boring material.