Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1972.
Reviewed by Leigh Kimmel
This review originally appeared in Science Fiction & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter # 155, August, 1994.
At thirteen thick volumes, this isn't something that you're probably going to want to go out and purchase your own copy of. However it is one of the finest and most authoritative sources on the wealth of animal life past and present, so the writer who is trying to create a fictional ecosystem or just wants to research the habits of a real-life creature will want to become familiar with it at the library. Although some of the taxonomic description of individual species is too technical for the non-biologist, the general essays are quite readable and provide an excellent overview of the interrelationships between the various species in a given ecosystem.
Last updated November 4, 2010