Chasing Cheetahs: The Race to Save Africa's Fastest Cat (Scientists in the Field)

Bishop's stunning cheetah photographs will draw readers into this appealing and balanced picture of a conservationist at work.

Striking photographs of the cheetahs, the people and landscape of Namibia, and the conservationists fully capture the dedication of these scientists, and the awesome power of the cheetahs.

Along with sharp views of the facility's experts and student volunteers working with cheetahs and taking general wildlife counts, Bishop provides plenty of stunning cheetah photography--both full-body and head shots--to beautifully complement Montgomery's detailed descriptions of daily routines, research projects, and medical procedures.

Gr 6-8—Cheetahs, the smallest of the big cats, are superbly adapted to their habitat and to running down their prey with blinding bursts of speed. Here Montgomery focuses her scientific attention and literary craft on the work of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) and its efforts to save the cheetah from threatened extinction. Quartered in Namibia, CCF director Laurie Marker and her team analyze scat, measure trees where cheetahs congregate, collect DNA to follow genetic lines, breed cheetahs for ultimate release in the wild, and rescue these animals from captivity when possible. Another major thrust is educating farmers, herders, and future farmers/herders (children) in how to coexist with a large predator that often prefers wild meat to domestic animals. To this concern, CCF breeds large Kangal guard dogs and sells them (at low cost) to herdsmen. Montogomery's lucid prose flows smoothly, and Bishop's elegant color photos bring it all into crystal focus. Interspersed with the narrative are information pages on specific topics, such as "Secrets of DNA" and "Taking the Measure of a Tree." Similar in scope to this team's excellent The Tapir Scientist (2013) and Kakapo Rescue (both Houghton, 2010), this is a readable, informative, and elegant book on an equally elegant feline.—Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

"Bishop's extreme closeups can't capture the cheetahs' blinding speed, but the cats' movie-star glamour is on prominent display, especially in a few breathtaking extreme closeups."
—Bulletin