Australia: the East (Travellers' Wildlife Guides) [Paperback]

Les Beletsky (Author), Hannah Finlay (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2006

Easy-to-carry, entertainingly written, beautifully illustrated--"you will want to have this book as constant companion on your journey.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Les Beletsky is a professional wildlife biologist and university zoology teacher. Prior to taking up writing wildlife guides he conducted many years of field research on the ecology and behavior of birds. He is the author of numerous books, including Costa Rica, Belize, Ecuador, and Peru in this series.

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Interlink Publishing Group (August 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566566142
• ISBN-13: 978-1566566148
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,193,629 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome GENERAL Guide, March 3, 2010

By 

A. McNear (Santa Cruz, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Australia: the East (Travellers' Wildlife Guides) (Paperback)

First off, I am a big fan of Les Beletsky's guides; they are the perfect choice if you can only carry one guide with you since they are so general.

Of course, not every plant and animal is in this guide, but what it does have are the creatures you are MOST LIKELY to see. There is a good amount of mammals, birds, reptiles (snakes especially - and rightfully so when there are so many lethal species!), amphibians, fish, inverts, and plants and most of the animals I saw in various places throughout Queensland were in this book. Many people I was out nature-ing with commented on how unusual and useful this guide was.

What this book IS NOT, however, is specialized, so I would not recommend this book to a serious birder looking only for birds and determined to ID every species in the area, and the same is true for other specialists. This book is awesome for someone who does not know what they will see and/or is interested in looking for and identifying a range of animals and/or has so many heavy field guide and just can't afford to take them all.

One minor annoyance with this book (and the series) is that the range of a plant or animal isn't displayed as shaded regions on a map (which I prefer), but instead as abbreviated region names.