Martin Brown’s Lesser-Spotted Animals

Had enough of Hippos?  Bored with Bears?  Tired of Tigers?  Then this book is exactly what is needed, a tribute to these little-known rarely spotted alternative animals that have waited in the wings for so long.  Martin Brown’s artwork will probably seem familiar from the hugely successful Horrible Histories series, but here he gets the chance to be author as well as illustrator in a quirkily entertaining antidote to your average animal book.  Many of these hitherto unsung creatures, like the ili pika or the hirola antelope, are critically endangered, while so little is known about the Southern Right Whale Dolphin it is simply classified as ‘data deficient’.  Other stars celebrated here include the dagger-toothed flower bat, a gentle fruit-eating pollinator, the Cuban solenodon with its deadly bite, the endearingly pink lesser fairy armadillo and the prairie-dwelling black-footed ferret.  An amusingly different approach to natural history, fully of witty asides and jokey commentary, but also with a serious message about loss of habitat through human interference, tourism and hunting.