Tropical Nature: Life and Death in the Rain Forests of Central and South America

Tropical Nature: Life and Death in the Rain Forests of Central and South America | Adrian Forsyth, Ken Miyata | Good mix of easy reading and information

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Tropical Nature: L...

	Tropical Nature: Life and Death in the Rain Forests of Central and South America Adrian Forsyth, Ken Miyata Touchstone, 1987 - 272 pages average customer review:based on 26 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Fascinating fantastic book

This book took me awhile to read because on almost every page I stopped and thought, "That's amazing" or said to my husband "Listen to this.". The illustrations are beautiful, the writing is clear with careful explanatons of complicated inter-relationships of plants, people, birds, and insects of the tropics.

If you want to be amazed, read this book.

"In many parts of tropical America, Indians have found a remarkable use for these soldier ants as practical first aid. The ants are picked up by the body and the jaws are placed over an open cut. The soldier will clamp her mandibles shut, and the Indian promptly twists her head from her body, making an efficient and readily available emergency suture."

" I was once in a rubber plantation in the lowlands of western Ecuador on a rare day when the sun made regular excursions out from behind the clouds. Every time the sun appeared, I heard what sounded like shots ringing out from the trees overhead. The sun was warming up the seed pods, which explosively propelled the walnut-sized seeds as far as thirty feet off. "

"Francis Putz, a botanist who has studied lianas in Panama, has suggested that it may be advantageous for trees to sway out of phase from their neighbors because this would tend to snap vine connections. Swaying out of phase is best accomplished by evolving different architectures, which in turn result in different flexibilies. The need for out-of-phase swaying might thus promote an increase in diversity of rain forest trees.....

There is an alternative to swaying. If swaying fails to shed hangers-on, a tree can prune itself, sending a liana tumbling down into obscurity at little cost to itself by dropping branches and entangled leaves, particularly if these branches and leaves are shaded."

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Good mix of easy reading and information

The two biologists who wrote this book have a rare mix of talent. They are both good scientists and good writers who can explain fairly complex theories while making it sound interesting. The book is also full of general observations and tips about the tropics. If you want to go to the tropics and take a look outside the hotel or the city, then this is a great book to read first.

FANTASTIC READ FOR ANY TRAVELER TO THE RAINFOREST

Tropical Nature was recommended by my travel agent when I booked my trip to Costa Rica. At times I found the text a bit too scientific for the average reader - but I did find the chapters extremely interesting and learned a great deal more about the vegetation/wildlife of Costa Rica than my nature guides were able to provide.

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an educational and interesting book

This is a book that we are using in a Tropical Ecosystem course at my University. The book is very insightful and educational, while at the same time being very interesting and easy to read.

no title

This was a very enjoyable book; actually a nature history book and probably the first one I've ever read. And I've discovered I like them. It was easy reading, but fascinating. Full of wonderful facts about the climate, flora, and fauna, mostly of Equador and Costa Rica. It should have been chock full of color photographs of all the stuff they were talking about, however. The small lead pencil drawings were very good, but since color is so important in a rain forest, the black and white drawings seemed inappropriate. It almost makes me want to go back again, this time to a biology field station, and especially, to be in the forest at night. And to sit for a while in the same spot. Contained a good explanation of the climate at the equator, where the world's rainforests are. The authors lent a very personal, readable tone to their book, as if they were just in conversation with you.

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reviews: 1, 2, page 3, 4, 5, 6

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