Immensely interesting and readable account of Visser's work with New Zealand orca. It's primarily focused on the work she did as a PhD student and, given there were few cetacean scientists working in New Zealand at the time, and absolutely no-one working on orca, Visser basically built orca research in this country from the ground up during her time as a grad student. That, I think, makes this book particularly interesting, as readers almost learn as Visser does, following along as she tries new things, not knowing if they will work (and sometimes they don't). It's accessible, is what I'm saying.

It's also very informative. I've always like orca myself, but I didn't know a great deal about them, and now I really want to know more. Their social structure seems fascinating, especially how they care for disabled members of their pod, such as Prop, who was injured after a run-in with a propeller and who never reached the full size and strength of her pod-mates in consequence. It seems looking after Prop was a long-term endeavour that the rest of the pod was quite willing to undertake - the pod moved, on average, a third slower than other pods, and Visser theorised that it was done deliberately so that Prop could keep up. This is not even getting into the food sharing that kept her well-fed. Humans should behave so well!

Just a really enjoyable read.