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A review by imbricata
American Serengeti: The Last Big Animals of the Great Plains by Dan Flores
5.0
This book gave an overview of the major large animals that lives or used to live on the Great Plains of America. Includes chapters on the Pronghorn antelope, wolves, bison, coyotes, wild horses and grizzly bears. Discusses their losses and the depressing factors that led to their losses. The author does not shy away from discussing the politically motivated policies that caused them, and I appreciate that.
I had no idea that the Plains were once so interesting, full of unique flora and fauna, and not just a huge flat field that it appears to me now when I drive through rows and rows of identical corn rows for hundreds of miles. I particularly enjoyed reading about the author’s own experiences with his “pet” wolf-hybrid and their wildness that was not bred out.
Interesting facts – no one could wipe out coyotes, no matter how hard they tried. In fact, efforts to eradicate coyotes pushed them to have higher populations and move them into all areas of the country. Another interesting fact is that horses were apparently native to the Americas before they vanished from the continent, but continued on in Asia and Europe. This explains why they adapted so wonderfully to the Plains after being re-introduced by the Spanish in the colonization periods.
I read “To You We Shall Return” by Joseph M Marshall III earlier this year and found a lot of crossover between the facts regarding plains animals in this book with the indigenous myths of Marshall’s book. I’d recommend reading them both for two different aspects of the same topic.
I had no idea that the Plains were once so interesting, full of unique flora and fauna, and not just a huge flat field that it appears to me now when I drive through rows and rows of identical corn rows for hundreds of miles. I particularly enjoyed reading about the author’s own experiences with his “pet” wolf-hybrid and their wildness that was not bred out.
Interesting facts – no one could wipe out coyotes, no matter how hard they tried. In fact, efforts to eradicate coyotes pushed them to have higher populations and move them into all areas of the country. Another interesting fact is that horses were apparently native to the Americas before they vanished from the continent, but continued on in Asia and Europe. This explains why they adapted so wonderfully to the Plains after being re-introduced by the Spanish in the colonization periods.
I read “To You We Shall Return” by Joseph M Marshall III earlier this year and found a lot of crossover between the facts regarding plains animals in this book with the indigenous myths of Marshall’s book. I’d recommend reading them both for two different aspects of the same topic.