Travellers' Wildlife Guides Peru (Paperback)

by David L. Pearson (Author), Les Beletsky (Author), Priscilla Barrett (Illustrator), David Beadle (Illustrator), David Dennis (Illustrator), Daniel Lane (Illustrator) "Ecotourism or ecotravel is travel to (usually exotic) destinations specifically to admire and enjoy wildlife and undeveloped, relatively undisturbed natural areas, as well as indigenous..." (more)
Key Phrases: tall secondary forest, common forest anole, stubfoot toads, South America, New World, North America (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Praise for Costa Rica "The illustrations are superb, the text simple and direct... if you go, take this book" Bird Praise for Mexico "I would not want to visit this region without this book in my backpack. Very strongly recommended." Birdwatching --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
From the world-famous Machu Picchu Incan ruins high in the Andes Mountains, to Lake Titicaca in southern Peru, to the Iquitos area of Amazonian northeastern Peru, travellers want to experience tropical forests and other stunning habitats and catch glimpses of exotic wildlife. In this book is all the information you need to find, identify, and learn about Peru's magnificent animal and plant life.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 492 pages
• Publisher: Interlink Books (November 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566565456
• ISBN-13: 978-1566565455
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #63,234 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #1 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Ecosystems > Tropical
  #9 in	Books > Travel > Latin America > South America > Peru
  #14 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Travel > Ecotourism

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for the Average Ecotourist, October 29, 2005

By	John D. Sherwood (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The "Traveller's [sic.] Wildlife Guides" are designed for travelers who desire more background on a country's flora and fauna than one can typically glean from a national park brochure or even a good guide. The main strength of these guides is their relatively low price. Illustrated field guides for exotic destinations can easily cost over $60. These guides, by comparison, are a steal at just under $20. The main weakness is that they are not comprehensive. They provide information and illustrations for common birds, reptiles, mammals, and insects, but not for exotic species. Hence, serious birdwatchers will also need to purchase James F. Clements and Noam Shany's "A Field Guide to the Birds of Peru."

In every other sense, however, the Pearson guide is marvelous. The introductory chapters on Peru's ecotourism business, its geography and habitats, parks and reserves, and ecology and natural history are extremely well-written and highly informative. The second half of book is a field guide with pictures on one page and descriptions on the adjacent page. The descriptions are brief and to the point. They also contain symbols for the habitat types each species prefers. For common bird identification, I found this guide to be much easier to use in the field than the Clements and Shany guide, which provides pictures in one part of the book and descriptions in another. This book worked well as a companion to Clements and Shany because it enabled me to focus on common birds first and if I could not find my bird in the Pearson list, I then cracked open the Clements and Shany guide.

In addition to the Peru guide, Interlink Books also publishes "Traveller's Wildlife Guides" for Australia, Costa Rica, Belize and Northern Guatemala, Brazil, and Ecuador and the Galapagos.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good place to start, April 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Peru: The Ecotravellers' Wildlife Guide (A Volume in the Ecotravellers' Wildlife Guides Series) (Ecotravellers Wildlife Guides) (Paperback)

I purchased this book to take with me to the Manu Reserve in Peru. It offered a very nice overview of the wildlife of the area, though I did see quite a few birds, reptiles and mammals that were not included. The illustrations and narratives are well done.
I wish the section on snakes was larger and the guide just touched on plant life.
My biggest wish is that the insect section would be expanded. There are 1,000 kinds of butterfly in Manu alone, yet the guide hardly touched the subject.
An all inclusive guide to all the plants, insects and wildlife would be far from portable, so if you are looking for a travel guide this does its job nicely. Hopefully you can carry this and let your guide haul around the Birds of Ecuador and other more comprehensive guides.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Common insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, June 7, 2005

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Part the Interlink Books "Travellers' Wildlife Guides" series, Peru provides identification and location information on Peru's most frequently seen animals. This 502 page identification guide offers full-color illustrations of more than 500 of Peru's most common insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Enhanced with a species index, Peru provides up-to-date information on the ecology, behavior and conservation of the animals listed, as well as information on Peru's habitats and the most common plants visitors will encounter. With brief descriptions of Peru's most frequently visited parks and wildlife reserves, this handy, highly portable manual will prove to be an invaluable companion for appreciating the diversity and wonderful of Peruvian wildlife in their native settings.