Customer Reviews

Neotropical Rainforest Mammals: A Field Guide

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's the most usefull book I own related with the mammalfauna proyects ( inventories, education, management ) we are doing in Central and Western Colombia. Every aspect of the text and illustrations has proven to be very usefull and practical. The taxonomical descriptions are generaly good enough to clasify the bigger species in the field, and the habit and habitat descriptions coincide mostly with our own experiences. The distributionmaps included in the text are also very usefull. The illustrations are sometime a little small, but have proven to be easily recognized by the local habitants, what is extremely usefull during quick inventaries. The relation price-quality is outstanding

The Good:
This is the most comprehensive guide to rainforest mammals that I have found. The text covers just about everything you could ask for, even giving dentation patterns for the various families in case you stumble onto a skull in your wanderings.
The Bad:
Unfortunately, probably to save money, this guide uses the technique of placing all the pictures together, separated from the text. I much prefer the more expensive technique of putting the text on a page facing the pictures. Here, though, the guide falls down by failing to put cross-references on the page facing the pictures, necessitating a flip back to the index in most cases to locate the text.
The Ugly:
Whoever was responsible for quality control for this book should find another job. I was ready to return the book as defective when I noticed an "errata sheet" that explained that the page with the text corresponding to plate 1 was actually located following page 193. This is much too serious an error to occur in a published guide.
The bottom Line:
The best thing to say about this field guide is that it is disappointing. If you are planning a trip to the rainforest in the near future, and you are interested in mammals, then buy the guide despite its shortcomings. Otherwise, wait for a revision.

This book, referred to by many other authors, is THE guide for this group of Mammals. I found it indispensible for use in the rainforest, even if most mammals are very hard to see. The perfect illustrations, combined with the thorough descriptions and clear distribution maps, make it easy to determine what kind of animal you've seen. Very helpful to understand the local guides are the translations of the names in many tongues.

A thorough guide, my only qualm being that the depictions of the rainforest mammals (in black and white) are nowhere near the level one comes to expect from bird guides.

Adorei este livro, à muito tempo não vejo um livro sobre mamíferos neotropicais com este. A primeira vez que o li foi na universidade onde eu estudo. Sou aluno de veterinária e pretendo trabalhar com animais silvestres, por isso gostaria de ter este livro. Gostaria de saber mais sobre trabalhos ou livros publicados por estes autores. Um abraço, Adriano Carneiro (Pernambuco- Brasil).