Ernest Thompson Seton (1860–1946)

A collection of animal stories that sparked a nationwide literary controversy, which had to be resolved by the President of the United States? It is wonderfully ironic to look back at the insults traded, and the accusations of "anthropomorphism", and "sentimentalism" - I conclude (as a 21st century zoologist), that the criticisms were totally bogus, and this work is actually a fantastic perspective on nature and wildlife, as well as an enchanting read and a wonderful advocate of show more environmentalism.
All this fuss (known as the "nature fakers controversy") seems to have been a reaction against a sympathetic portrayal of animals and nature at the beginning of the 20th century. Not that the stories in this book are particularly fluffy and cuddly. Virtually every short story ends with the violent death of the protagonist; often at the hands of humans. It could be, in fact, a rather distressing collection of stories, and I wouldn't necessarily recommend reading them to your children at bedtime. But the point is that the animals are portrayed as individuals, with character, personality, and emotional drives; and that seemed to annoy much of "society" at the time, including President Teddy Roosevelt.
But enough of the politics. The book itself is highly evocative, extremely convincing, and clearly stems from the author's genuine and extensive experience studying animals in the wild. The first story tells of a wolf, hunted down by the author himself - yet there is no doubt with whom the reader identifies; and it isn't with the author. He then tells of the antics of a crow leading his flock, a cottontail rabbit, dogs, foxes, a mustang, and finally, a humble partridge. But even in those stories that I began to read without much empathy for the protagonists, by the end of each one you feel you've got to know them intimately, and that their lives are immensely rich and complex. How much understanding of nature we must inevitably be missing no matter how carefully we look! In the end, this is an important and powerful book. In the best naturalist tradition, very much real and enlightening: maybe not science, but not sentimentalism either. show less

This book should really be titled Wild Animals of Yellowstone Park, because that's exactly what it is. One by one, Seton tells about the different mammals that live in Yellowstone. Unfortunately, his descriptions of the wildlife leave something to be desired. He wrote them at a time when not much was actually known about the animals' habits, so for many it's just a brief page telling where the animal is found, what it eats, that's about it. Now and then he has a story to share- Steon is much show more more in his element (or at least more fun to read) when he's telling a story. He has a lot to say about skunks because he used to keep them as pets, and a lot to say about bears because they hung out around hotels and garbage dumps in the park.... There is one chapter in the book however, which is the entire reason I am keeping it on my shelf. It's about badgers. And while speaking of badgers, Seton tells of a boy in a prairie town near Winnipeg who has a natural affinity with animals, gets lost in a storm, takes shelter in a badger den and is befriended by the badger, who had just lost her mate and young to a trapper. The boy lives with the badger for two weeks before he is found and brought back home. I instantly recognized this story: it's Incident at Hawk's Hill! The names are all different, Seton says it was at Bird's Hill, but I'm sure when Eckert novelized the story he changed names for privacy. All the more this makes me think the badger story really was based on truth.

more at the Dogear Diary show less

This is a delightful collection of animal stories,engaging and informative. They are all comprised from true events Seton observed (in a few cases he even includes himself in the stories) and while revealing a lot about wildlife behavior and animal nature, they are also just darn good stories in and of themselves. Seton was a very good storyteller. Sometimes the tales reflect their times, in ways that might be upsetting to some readers. For example, in a story about bears in Yellowstone show more park, the author has no qualms telling how garbage was routinely dumped in a large open pile, and people seemed pleased that the bears would gather here to eat. Even when they recognized one particular bear cub was sickly from eating trash, they blamed the mother bear for allowing him to eat whatever he chose, rather than taking responsibility themselves for giving the bears access to garbage!

There's a story about a bighorn ram who leads a determined hunter in a pursuit that lasted- according to Seton's account- several months. There's a charming story about a mother blue-winged teal who must lead her ducklings a fair distance over land to their first water source when the pond near her nest dries up. The chapter about kangaroo rats was mostly the author's observations of one he captured and kept in a large box with dirt to tunnel in, as well as digging up its nest to see the layout of the tunnels. I enjoyed the story about a sparrow who was raised by canaries, resulting in some confusing behavior. There are two stories that feature dogs and coyotes. The first was about a rather foolish dog who was teased by wild coyotes; the second about a poor coyote pup who was captured and tormented in every way thinkable by children and grown men alike until she escaped. Having learned all the hurts mankind was capable of inflicting, this coyote was particularly wise when she finally made her own way in the wild and raised a family of even smarter coyotes (not without difficulty!) Her story was my favorite of the lot.

from the Dogear Diary show less

An amazing mish-mash of information about "woodland" creatures and plants, fairy stories (of the "brownies in the wood" type), "origin" stories of various creatures and plants, activities to do and learn from, rampant sexism, and cultural appropriation. Some of the info and activities were actually interesting, and possibly even useful (edible plants, dangerous plants and creatures), but the style was so cutesy it was hard to extract the useful stuff. The sexism didn't relate to people, but show more to the woodland creatures - he describes raising a monarch butterfly from a caterpillar, and gives, without any explanation, a description of the butterfly which fits the male and not the female. At that point I realized that none of his descriptions (except one - he does talk about female sparrows as well as male) include sexual dimorphism - he describes one form of each creature, without even suggesting that there might be variations. The cultural appropriation is another mish-mash - he "admires" "Indians" and "the Red Man", and shows it by telling origin stories which...may have had roots in one or another tribe's beliefs, but feel more like they're entirely made up. He also lays out activities like a Council Fire, with again parts drawn from many different peoples - sand painting, a song in...maybe an actual Native American language, maybe just gibberish he made up, I can't tell. It's a pity, because he seems to actually be a good observer of the life around him, but this book is essentially unreadable now (and probably wasn't too hot when it was new). show less