Extreme vet: tales of conservation adventures

Move over, all creatures great and small. William B. Karesh, an ordained minister and vet, takes readers on incredible, mundane and sobering adventures in Appointment at the Ends of the World: Memoirs of a Wildlife Veterinarian (Warner Books).

Rather than charming English villages and farm animals behind fences, Karesh stalks wild animals, those not familiar with humans except as harbingers of threat or death. These animals snort, paw, clack tusks and attack without notice.

Karesh thrives on the rush from caring for these beasts. He grew up in Charleston, S.C. nursing wild animals such as birds, raccoons, squirrels and ducklings orphaned in his neighborhood. Like many Baby Boomers, Karesh also watched Mutual of Omaha