THE MOON BY WHALE LIGHT by...

THE MOON BY WHALE LIGHT by Diane Ackerman (Vintage: $11; 249 pp.). Nature writer Diane Ackerman summarizes her approach to the genre in the simple statement “There is a way of beholding nature that is itself a form of prayer.” She eloquently argues that every species has a right to exist and that humanity’s willingness to violate that right has grave implications for the future of the planet. Ackerman’s strength as a writer enables her to communicate the experience of encountering animals in their natural environments. She explains that bats eat vast quantities of insects and pollinate a wide variety of commercially important plants, but her sympathetic account of petting a bat does more to counter the false image of a nasty, rabid rat-with-wings. With equal skill, she describes swimming near the awesome bulk of a right whale, the gentle touch of a penguin chick begging for food--and the pain of being smacked in the shins by an alligator’s bony muzzle.