Please welcome Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of the books The Hidden Life of Dogs and Tribe of Tiger. Elizabeth will be here to sign and discuss her latest book, The Hidden Life of Deer, a narrative masterpiece and a naturalist's delight.
In the fall of 2007 in southern New Hampshire, the acorn crop failed and the animals who depended on it faced starvation. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas began leaving food in small piles around her farmhouse. Soon she had over thirty deer coming to her fields, and her naturalist's eye was riveted.
Throughout the next twelve months she observed the local deer familiesas they fought through a rough winter. She hiked through her woods, spotting tree rubbings, deer beds, and deer yards - she discovered a vast hidden world. Deer families are run by their
mothers. Local families arrange into a hierarchy. They adopt orphans; they occasionally reject a child; they use complex warnings to signal danger; they mark their territories; they master local microclimates to choose their beds; they send countless coded messages that we can read, if only we know what to look for.
