The gorgeous photos by the husband and wife team of Erwin and Peggy Bauer are irresistible in The Last Big Cats. A flip through the pages brings you close-up, action-packed images of all the big cats with corresponding chapters—lions, leopards, cheetahs, tigers, snow leopards, cougars, and jaguars.
   While your first instinct will be to just look and look and look, the text is definitely worth reading. The Bauers have spent years photographing and studying big cats and their knowledge is impressive. Erwin writes easily and like all good researchers readily cites distinguished experts in the field. He also shatters myths—the male lion is not a lazy good-for-nothing that lets the female do all the work—and sheds light on common cat mysteries. Are lions man-eaters? Well, some of them can be. Tigers loners? Mmm, maybe not so lonely.
   The Bauers are also up front about trying to photograph cats in the wild. It’s nearly impossible for some species, especially the cougar. The photography duo admirably admit in the introduction that some of the cat photos are from captive animals, though doing what comes naturally to them!

(Originally published in the Jan/Feb 2004 issue of YES Mag.)