The Hunt: The Outcome Is Never Certain Hardcover – Illustrated, June 14, 2016

I am a big fan of nature documentaries, and nobody does it better than the BBC: if you've seen "Planet Earth", "Seas of Life", or "Frozen Planet", then you'd likely agree. After reading this book and seeing the images within, I'm very excited to watch "The Hunt" television series which the text is based on.The book examines predators and prey. This aspect of life has been covered in previous BBC series, but "The Hunt" goes in-depth into this one very interesting topic. A variety of species are covered, from the big cats and birds of prey to insects and microscopic sea life. It's interesting how complex the hunting process is for some of these animals - some spend a lot of time watching their prey and learning their habits/schedule; other species cooperate as a team and then share the prize. Equally as interesting is how animals have evolved physical and psychological features that give them a better chance of surviving encounters with predators.The book's subtitle, "The Outcome is Never Certain", very much comes into play - failure is more likely than success for the predators. The large cats on the African plains, which include lions and cheetahs, fail to catch their prey a majority of the time. In fact, they expel so much energy in pursuit of prey that the decision to pursue is not taken lightly -- they have to pick their prey carefully as to not waste energy on something with little chance of success. It reading through the book, you appreciate just how privileged the modern human species is to avoid the whole predator/prey situation.The final portion of the book tells you how the very talented crew of camera operators and other technicians were able to capture such stunning footage for the BBC production. The camera are incredibly complicated, some with extremely long lenses so that the team is able to get footage from far away without disturbing the animals or the scenario. The camera are mounted to everything from a tripod, to a specially-rigged vehicle, to the back of an elephant. It's incredibly fascinating to see the lengths the crew will go to get these amazing images for all of us to see.If you enjoy nature, and are specifically interested in the predator-prey relationship, then don't hesitate to read this - it's one of my favorite books this year.

The book The Hunt is the companion book to the BBC documentary series by the same name. Each of the seven chapters in the book relates to one episode in the documentary; five are about habitats, one is an introduction to the general topic of the challenge of the hunter and the hunted and the last chapter is about the process and challenge of filming and photographing hunts in the wild. The photography is amazing, I've tried conjuring up other adjectives but they all sound cliche. Out of thousands of photos of course only the best made it to the book. The content of the text and the photos is about the hunt not just about the kill, so the content is about the habitat, the creature, the necessities it requires to live, its options for prey, what the challenge is and how the hunt is done. Environmental conditions such as weather patterns that change the predator's hunting grounds or food selections is one factor in the challenge to the hunter, for example. The photos are about camoflage and the process, the beauty of the running or the impressive look and cooperation to group hunts is to be appreciated; the book is not gory. Since the series has not yet been aired in my country I have only this book to go by, but I can't wait to see the documentary films, as they are sure to be more impressive when seen with these wild creatures in motion and with more views of the habitat with the sounds to help us immerse into the experience. If you enjoy books of nature photography, if you like seeing photos of wild creatures and gorgeous wild habitat scenes and want to learn more about predators and their prey, and how hard it is to live the life of a predator, this is a great book. The paper is of high quality, thick and glossy, with quality all color photographs and a good readable font. I rate this 5 stars = I Love It.

The Hunt is a companion to the latest BBC documentary featuring David Attenborough. It hasn't aired yet in the US, so I can't really comment on the show or how the book relates to it. I'm sure it will be as fantastic as BBC's past work.As for the book itself, the photography is beautiful, as expected from BBC. The photos are extremely clear. I appreciated that the book takes advantage of its size to include a lot of full-page spreads. It really allows you to appreciate the beauty of the wildlife.The theme of this book is a bit odd for a BBC production. Most of the past BBC documentaries have focused on a particular type of wildlife or biome. This one focuses on a type of activity (hunting). The book covers different types of predators in different types of environments, from cheetahs to killer whales. It works together well as a common theme to tie together the disparate photos.That said, most of the photos don't scream "HUNT" as much as the one on the cover of this book. Indeed, there are only a dozen or so shots of a hunt "in action" (and very little of predators actually killing prey). Given how difficult it is to photograph wildlife, it's a credit to the BBC team that they even managed to get such spectacular photos.Overall, I'd probably wait to watch the TV series. If you find yourself craving more information afterwards, this would be a great book to pick up.