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The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals is a most precious volume. It is a work of almost heroic proportions, more akin in its scope and feel to the great monographs of the nineteenth century than a modern work. Yet it is also a field guide and works admirably as such. What has won this book pride of place on my bookshelves, however, is the extraordinary fusion it represents between science, natural history, and art. Kingdon's
African Mammals is a very special human achievement. It is, I sense, a love letter to a place that has nurtured, instructed and given its author space to grow. In a world of ever-increasing specialisation and division of labour, I fear we will not see a similar work again."
--Tim Flannery in BBC WILDLIFE
"Of the many guides we considered, the best was
The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals. Extremely comprehensive, with excellent illustrations and good maps, this has something for anyone travelling to Africa."
--Judging Panel for the 1997 BP NATURAL WORLD BOOK PRIZE
"All naturalists resident in or visiting the continent should have a copy. It is much more than a field guide."
--Jeremy J D Greenwood in HABITAT
"For anyone planning an African safari, this guide should be as essential as binoculars..."
--David Tomlinson in NEW SCIENTIST
"A good field guide, whatever its subject, is a delight to have on ones bookshelf, and this one is a topper. One main, magnificent first for this guide is that it covers all known mammals of Africa, not just the large ones. This is an exquisite book to have, even if you have no intention to ever visit Africa (but then you are likely to change your mind after this Kingdon experience)."
--Hans Kruuk in MAMMAL NEWS
"Travellers and students of wildlife should take notice--this volume sets the standard for the field... A childhood in British East Africa and more than 25 years of producing atlases of the mammals have equipped Kingdon with a possibly unrivaled knowledge of his subjects, and this yields unusual and thought-provoking insights... As an artist and sculptor who works in abstract, impressionistic and illustrative styles, Kingdon brings an immediacy to his drawings that escapes all other field guides... The 1150 or so mammals that earn a place in his book are not just represented by the usual police-style profiles, but also by pictures of gripping emotion and playful naughtiness--usually several, sometimes many, for each species... Buy this book for yourself andfor anyone else who likes nature just to know that you possess several thousand of Kingdon's wonderful drawings... This is quite simply a superb and authoritative work by an author of unsurpassed credentials and talent for his task. Everybody will delight in it."
--Mark Pagel, University of Oxford, in NATURE
"Since the appearance of his seven-volume encyclopaedia of East African mammals in the 1970s, Kingdon has become a figure of high distinction in conservationist circles. His extraordinary talents as a writer and painter have been dedicated to an astonishingly beautiful and detailed records of African fauna and the ecosystems that sustain them. This makes his new field guide rather more than a handbook...The richness of information is exemplary. The illustrations would make a big cat purr... It is one of Kingdons strengths, both as a naturalist and as an artist, that he is interested in how animals look and feel to each other... His drawings and paintings stress the elegant functionality of body geometry, the way animals use facial and body patterns for visual signalling."
--John Ryle in THE GUARDIAN
"...this is not merely a very
good field guide, but in all probability the
best field guide to African mammals ever published."
--INTERNATIONAL ZOO NEWS
"There are about 1150 species of mammal found in Africa. All of them are mentioned in this remarkable book. ...any birdwatchers travelling to Africa really should take a copy with them."
--BTO NEWS
"This book sets a new standard for field guides to mammals with regard to complete coverage of the mammals species of Africa, excluding Madagascar, in a compact and portable format, and with regard to the quality of its color drawings and maps. I highly recommend this book for the serious Africa traveler and naturalist."
--Jan Decher in JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY
Jonathan Kingdon, one of the foremost authorities on African mammals, has both written and illustrated this entirely new field guide which sets new standards in African mammalogy.
All the known species of African land mammal are covered in a concise text providing full information on identification, distribution, ecology, evolutionary relationships and conservation status. The focus is always on the mammals as seen in the field and on their ecology and evolutionary interrelationships. Introductory profiles summarise the characteristics of the various mammal groups, and coverage of several of the more complex groups of small mammals is simplified by reference to genera, though all 1150 African species are listed.
The most up to date classification and species list is employed. Twelve newly recognised species of bushbaby, fourteen newly named baboons, guenons and mangabeys and nine newly recognised colobus monkeys contribute to the most modern possible treatment of the primates. New species of bats, rodents and fox are also included as well as a fully revised listing of the duikers, squirrels and genets.
Kingdon combines his long personal experience of Africa and his artistic talent with the best that modern natural history and biological science can offer. Listing all 1150 species and with over 480 colour pictures and 280 maps covering some 460 mammal species groups, this book will be an essential companion to all visiting Africa or with an interest in the mammals of the continent.
