Customer Reviews

Amphibians and Reptiles of Madagascar, the Mascarene, the Seychelles, and the Comoro Islands

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Although there could be improvements, this book is a step up from the rest of the Madagascan herpetology books out there. Species are shown in beautiful, sharp, color photographs along with a description of the animal's distribution, habitat, distinguishing features, biology, and vivarium needs. The book isn't field guide size, but definitely a smaller portable size (~10" tall, ~6.75" wide, and <1" thick). My biggest complaint would be that there should have been more quantified diagnostic characters given for identifying the species: Instead of color descriptions or the like, I would have preferred having those along with morphological measurements like scale counts, length of toe webbing, or whatever else might be characteristic (there are some here, but they should have been listed for every species possible). I also would have liked common names (in English, French, and Malagasy would have been great). Even with those complaints, I still found the book helpful and enjoyable. This is a must-have for anyone interested in Madagascar's herps or cool herps from cool places in general, or planning to visit the "lost continent."

This is a very good book if you want to keep Amphibians and reptiles of Madagascar and neighbouring islands (some of them you shouldn't keep, because they are endangered and must not be kept!!!, but the book is mute on this point).
If you are interested in biology and in conservation this book, alas, has very little to offer