Customer Reviews

Rodents of the World

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When you mention the subject of rodents people wrinkle up their noses and shudder a bit. Because mankind has lived in close proximity to (and has been plagued by) mice and rats many people have strongly negative feelings about the entire order and some are even unaware that it includes diverse animals such as the prairie dog (which is a type of ground squirrel), the porcupine, the beaver and the hog-sized capybara of South America. As a matter of fact over 40 percent of the world's mammals are of the order Rodentia. This book gives an overview of this fascinating branch of animals that have existed (relatively unchanged) since Late Paleocene epoch, about 60 million years ago.

The book is divided into 8 chapters. They are:

*1 Rodents and People
*2 Form and Function
*3 Reproduction
*4 Evolution and Distribution
*5 The Order Rodentia
*6 Sciuromorpha: Squirrel-like Rodents
*7 Myomorpha: Mouse-like Rodents
*8 Caviomorpha: Cavy-like Rodents

The book is well written but not overly scientific. It is generously supplied with dozens of full color photographs of varying quality. I am an avid bird watcher but I enjoy a wide variety of wildlife including many (but not all) of the members of the order that this book gives an excellent description of, that of rodents.

I happend to run across this book while doing a search for rodents. It's a great book, but it could have been better. What was intriguing to me was that, generally, when you think of a rodent, you think of something small, like a mouse or a hamster, etc. It's hard to believe that the largest rodent is the size of a dog, and grazes right along side cattle. This book would be good for anyone doing research on these particular animals, or if you just feel like reading up on them.