Meant to Be Wild: The Struggle to Save Endangered Species Through Captive Breeding

DeBlieu ( Hatteras Journal ) here offers an important entree into the highly politicized, often ill-managed programs meant to protect the mounting number of endangered species. Reporting on projects concerning the California condor, the Florida panther, the North Carolina red wolf, Arabian oryx and Puerto Rican parrot, she presents news that is mostly unpleasant and seldom encouraging. Readers glimpse an elaborate system of life-support tools, ranging from radio-controlled collars with tranquilizer darts to in vitro fertilization. Personality rifts and philosophical controversy emerge in the programs. Although DeBlieu notes that successes occur, she keeps aim on her target--humankind. Our ruinous legacy of greed, she charges, is destroying animal habitats and eroding whatever good work is achieved through captive breeding. Photos not seen by PW . Nature Book Society main selection. (Oct.)