Destination Wildlife: An International Site-by-Site Guide to the Best Places to Experience Endangered, Rare, and Fascinating Animals and Their Habitats Paperback – 7 April 2009

livre anglophone broché souple petit format récent (2009) présentant quelques haut-lieux mondiaux permettant de découvrir la faune sauvage; quelques 200 sites sont passés en revue succinctement illustrés de photos n&b; ce guide ne vous servira à rien d'autre qu' à vous donner des idées si vous ne savez pas où aller, mais ne comptez pas sur lui pour vous aider à préparer un voyage (préférer un guide spécialisé faune du pays concerné genre Bradt)

I bought this book recently because I have some vacation and wanted to see some wildlife I had never seen before. This book is great for getting a sense of the wildlife opportunities on each continent. It lists several wildlife destinations for each continent and provides a brief description of the park and types of animals that people might get to see there. It also provides helpful information regarding the best times of year to visit, contacts, cost estimates, and a few field tips. It certainly helped me narrow my upcoming trip to Africa down to Kenya and Rwanda.I gave this book four instead of five stars because it is missing a few very important places. I understand Brodowsky had to make some judgment calls in deciding which locations to include. However, she doesn't even include the entire continent of Antarctica. I went to the Antarctic peninsula a few months ago and can attest that it is the greatest wildlife destination in the world - bar none. I saw thousands of penguins, seabirds, leopard seals, elephant seals, and kayaked 5 meters away from a Humpback! Furthermore, the book doesn't include Komodo or Rinca Islands, Indonesia, the only places in the world to see the amazing Komodo dragons. Without discussing these two locations alone, the book is simply incomplete, so I would warn readers not to rely on this book exclusively for choosing wildlife destinations. Fortunately, these can easily be added in a future updated volume.Another difficulty I had with the book is simply prioritization and organization. The book is organized by continent, which is great if you want to get an idea of locations in a certain region. However, I think many people planning a wildlife trip begin not with a geographic focus but rather intending to see some particular type of wildlife. For example, some people like birdwatching while others prefer snorkeling. It would have been helpful for the book either to organize the destinations by such activities, or to perhaps have a symbol on each destination for quick reference (for example, a bird next to the destination's title would quickly indicate that it is a top place for birdwatching). At the end of the day, the descriptions for each destination are short enough that readers can figure out pretty quickly whether or not they are interested in traveling there. However, some means of quick reference would have been helpful.Despite these issues, Destination Wildlife is a worthwhile investment for anybody planning their next wildlife adventure. It gives you a great sampling of the world's wildlife destinations (as long as you remember to consider Antarctica and Komodo).