By W. Curtis Preston
Book Price: $49.99 USD
£35.50 GBP
PDF Price: $34.99

Cover | Table of Contents | Colophon

Colophon

The animal on the cover of Backup & Recovery<\i> is an Indian gavial (sometimes spelled gharial), a resident of deep, fast-moving rivers in India and neighboring countries. Growing six to seven meters long, the gavial is one of the largest members of the crocodilian family. It is most notable for its extremely long, narrow snout. This snout, which is lined with razor-sharp teeth, is perfectly suited for catching and eating fish, the gavial's principal food. The narrow shape results in little water resistance, making rapid side-to-side snatches easy. The many sharp teeth are effective for holding onto struggling, slippery fish. The gavial's short, poorly muscled legs makes moving on land very awkward, and thus it only emerges from the water for nesting and basking in the sun. Like other crocodiles, the gavial has often been accused of being a man-eater. Findings of human remains and jewelry in gavial stomachs has perpetuated this belief, but since Hindi burial rituals in the gavial's habitat involve setting the cremated body afloat in the river, this is probably where these items come from. However, this animal is as poorly suited for eating humans as it is well-suited for eating fish.

Gavials are highly endangered, and came close to extinction in the 1970s. Thanks to conservation efforts there has been some recovery of the gavial population. They have been protected since the 1970s, but males are still sometimes hunted for their snouts, which are said to have aphrodisiac properties. Gavials can also become caught in fishing nets, resulting in their death.

In summary, in the words of this book's author: "Let's see . . . huge, intimidating, ugly creature that's not actually harmful to humans . . . That sounds like backups to me!"

The cover image is a 19th-century engraving from the Dover Pictorial Archive. The cover font is Adobe ITC Garamond. The text font is Linotype Birka; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont's TheSans Mono Condensed. The production editors for Backup & Recovery<\i>, eMatter Edition were Ellie Cutler and Jeff Liggett. Linda Walsh was the product manager. Kathleen Wilson provided design support. Lenny Muellner, Mike Sierra, Erik Ray, and Benn Salter provided technical support. This eMatter Edition was produced with FrameMaker 5.5.6.