Deadly instinct

Feast your gaze on Deadly Instinct, an action-packed exploration of the toothier side of nature, magnificently illustrated with award-winning wildlife photos drawn from the National Geographic Image Collection. This eye-popping chronicle is a visceral testament to the will of every creature to survive.

Astonishing multi-image sequences capture life-or-death encounters, move by heart-pounding move. A leopard seal snatches and dispatches a penguin in a grisly underwater drama. Steller’s sea eagles wage an angry battle over a single precious fish. Cheetahs team up to take down an antelope in an unusual and rarely documented way. And a giant pill millipede rolls itself into a protective, armored ball to escape predation. You’ll marvel at the intriguing techniques used by would-be prey to outsmart their attackers and discover why learning to play rough is a vital skill for many young creatures.

Tantalizing chapters—with themes like Landscapes of Fear, Displays of Aggression, The Struggle for Life, and The Priority of Play—reveal fascinating insights on wildlife behavior and offer interviews with expert wildlife photographers. National Geographic luminaries such as Joel Sartore, Chris Johns, Brian Skerry, Melissa Farlow, Darlyne Murawski, and Norbert Rosing share captivating personal accounts of their most exhilarating wildlife shoots, their work in the field, and their passion for their subjects. To create this stunning collection, the photographers called on their well-honed skills, field-tested courage, and high-tech camera equipment. The result is a visual thriller of near-cinematic beauty, a mesmerizing life-and-death drama, and a showcase of the world’s most incredible animals, as you’ve never seen them before.

Hardcover