Customer Reviews

The Wildlife of Southern Africa : A Field Guide to the Animals and Plants of the Region

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While visiting So.Africa, I had a million questions on what I looking at. I found this book and carried it with me throughout the trip. When we went on game runs, I would check off what we saw and make reference notes (e.g. the Baboons were eating Jackalberries - I could reference both the mammal and the tree section). The variety of birds in the country (over 900) was astounding and having the book made it much more fun and interesting to look up. This is the only book I found that combined lower invertabrates, spiders and other arachnids, insects (including a large butterfly collection), fish, frogs, reptiles, birds, mammals,grasses-sedges-ferns&fungi,wild flowers, trees. Several people on the tour had me write down what we saw so they in turn could get this book and make notes. A good book combining everything in one neat package for those who like to play outside!

This is the most beautifully illustrated and comprehensive guide I've found for the wildlife of southern Africa. The invertebrate info is hard to find elsewhere, and the fact that this guide includes plants is a welcome bonus. If you buy one guide to carry with you on your trip, this should be it.

I just returned from a wonderful two week trip to South Africa and Botswana. In Botswana we spent 6 nights at camps in the bush. Here is my impression of this book.

Pros:
Sturdy, well-constructed book with excellent illustrations.

Cons:
Because this book tries to be all-inclusive and compact, it necessarily makes significant compromises. As a birder, I carried a separate bird book (by Ian Sinclair) which I enjoyed and used frequently. I therefore was not too concerned about the birding aspect of this book. However, if you tried using this book for birding you would be very frustrated. Many female and juvenile plumages are omitted. From a practical standpoint, many of the individual birds you are likely to see would not be identifiable with this guide.

For the identification of large mammals, this book is fine-- but honestly, how hard is it to identify lions, elephants, hippos and antelope (ok, the antelope can be tricky). It would be nice, however, if the descriptions discussed more about the lives of these creatures and their taxonomic relationships. A guide to animal tracks would have been wonderful. Looking at animal tracks on the dirt/sand roads that we travelled occupied a significant amount of our time. This book was no help. Out of 310 pages, only 21 are devoted to mammals.

Identifying flowers was also difficult. We came across a very common lily-like flower in the Okavango Delta which was in bloom in late March. It was interspersed with grass and presumably was arising from a bulb. I still don't know what it is. It wasn't in this book.

If you only want to carry one book (and field guides are heavy), this would be fine. If you have special interests, I would carry other guides as well (interestingly, the back of this book has an extensive list of suggested reading). If I were doing it again, I would probably still bring this book (for the insects, reptiles, amphibians, trees, and flowers), but I would also bring a guide for mammals. Also, check with the camps you are going to-- they may have books on their shelves.

lots and lots of detailed drawings of species. Everything you could hope to see in one book which is nice when weight and space are considerations. Some people might wish for photos but those books are usually not as complete.

Haven't taken this on the safari yet, but have gone through it to get familiar - it is fairly small (compared to the other book I got, Safari Companion), yet has hundreds of clear illustrations and descriptions of invertebrates, insects, birds, fish, mammals and plants. I think this is going to be a very useful tool!

I've traveled through southern Africa with this book a number of times. Very useful as a more general field guide. Nicely illustrated.

Great book - we used it on our journey through South Africa. Now that we're back, I'm going to make further notes in it based on what we saw.

A great resource for the flora and fauna of South Africa. Easy to keep with you at all times, well written, accurate and informative.