A01=Dan Wylie
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Author_Dan Wylie
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=WNCK
COP=United Kingdom
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Language_English
PA=Temporarily unavailable
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
SN=Animal Series
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Product details
- ISBN 9781780230870
- Dimensions: 135 x 190mm
- Publication Date: 01 May 2013
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
- Language: English
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From the croc that terrorized Captain Hook in Peter Pan to the leviathans depicted in films like Lake Placid and Dinocroc, innumerable songs, stories and legends have characterized crocodilians as pitiless predators with insatiable appetites. Yet although we commonly associate crocodiles, alligators and gharials with ferocity and deceit, they have also often been respected and revered in human history. Crocodile tracks 23 crocodilian species from India and Egypt to North America, Africa, Australia and beyond, and compares what science has discovered about the lives of these reptiles with their depictions in myth, art and literature around the world.
Crocodiles were all but wiped out in the middle of the twentieth century by hunters and skin traders and are now making a comeback; as apex predators, they are today an increasingly important indicator of the health of an ecosystem. Indeed, they may outlive humans, just as they did the dinosaurs. Presenting a concise, cogent case for why we should respect these fearsome animals, this beautifully illustrated volume is a tribute to one of the world’s ultimate survivors.
Dan Wylie is Associate Professor of English at Rhodes University in South Africa. He is the author of several books, including Myth of Iron: Shaka in History (2006), Toxic Belonging?: Identity and Ecology in Southern Africa (2008) and Elephant (Reaktion, 2008).
