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Product Description
Product Description
This title is intended as a companion volume to "A Complete Guide to the Snakes of Southern Africa". It features the 516 reptile species for the subregion (27 tortoises, 337 lizards, 151 snakes and one crocodile) that are currently described in the scientific literature.The introductory section covers the following: how to use this book; distribution patterns of southern African reptiles; the diversity of reptiles; the Biology of reptiles; behaviour; finding and observing reptiles; and snakebite.
About the Author
Graham Alexander is an associate professor at the University of Witwatersrand, where he lectures courses in physiology, environmental physiology, evolution, and biogeography. He supervises several postgraduate students working on herpetological research and has published more than 30 scientific papers and book chapters. His research on snake biology has been the subject of many documentaries that have appeared on National Geographic Channel, Discovery Channel and the SABC. He was editor of African Journal of Herpetology and an associate editor for African Zoology from 2000-2006. Alexander has previously worked as a curator at FitzSimons' Snake Park and as curator of herpetology at the State Museum in Windhoek Johan Marais is an entrepreneur, naturalist and photographer, who has contributed significantly toward the conservation of reptiles in the past three decades. He has lectured widely on the topic, is past chairman of the Herpetological Association of Africa, serves as a member of the Crocodile Specialist Group (Species Survival Commission) of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and is the chairperson of the South African Reptile Conservation Assessment.. Marais has authored a range of books (including the popular A Complete Guide to the Snakes of Southern Africa), technical papers and popular articles, both locally and abroad. He spends a great deal of time researching reptiles in southern Africa (particularly in Namibia and Mozambique), as well as working on reptile surveys in Malawi and Mozambique. Marais is currently registered for a Masters' Degree at the University of the Witwatersrand.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Southern Africa is blessed with an extraordinarily diverse and rich reptile fauna that compares favourably with other parts of Africa of equivalent size. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Southern Africa is blessed with an extraordinarily diverse and rich reptile fauna that compares favourably with other parts of Africa of equivalent size. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I guess its my own fault for buying a guide instead of a field guide. What I wanted was an identification guide to allow me to identify species of reptiles seen in the field in southern Africa. What I got was a nicely presented, quite readable book about reptiles.
It has a nice and informative general introduction before splitting up all the reptiles into groups which are then discussed. Whilst this works well for well-known and infamous species like the venomous snakes and Nile crocodile, some quite large groups such as skinks, sand-lizards and geckos have all the species lumped together and though there are many nice photos of SOME of the species and a full list of the species in each group - the book does NOT tell you how to identify them to species level which kind of defeats the purpose of a book like this. I recognise that many species might be difficult to identify without a specimen in-hand but at the least each species diagnostic features should be described anyway. Some of the species' groups descriptive text is very cumbersome as well and it is not always easy to find what features are most important in telling apart similar species. As an example I was reading the section on cobras with the hope of being able to find out how to tell if you are looking at one of the spitting cobra species or not (quite a useful bit of knowledge I would think) but the descriptions did not provide this information. A section on telling apart similar species would have been highly recommended here. Even more frustratingly the distribution maps are by group rather than for each species, so prove to be fairly useless for the large groups (Especially for those that contain species that are noted to have restricted ranges that again could help in the identification of individual species).
Overall, I'm not sure who this book is aimed at. Its too detailed for a casual wildlife enthusiast who probably doesn't want to know the clutch sizes and scale counts, but not detailed enough for anyone who actually wants to be able to identify the lizards that they see. The photos are very nice though.
It has a nice and informative general introduction before splitting up all the reptiles into groups which are then discussed. Whilst this works well for well-known and infamous species like the venomous snakes and Nile crocodile, some quite large groups such as skinks, sand-lizards and geckos have all the species lumped together and though there are many nice photos of SOME of the species and a full list of the species in each group - the book does NOT tell you how to identify them to species level which kind of defeats the purpose of a book like this. I recognise that many species might be difficult to identify without a specimen in-hand but at the least each species diagnostic features should be described anyway. Some of the species' groups descriptive text is very cumbersome as well and it is not always easy to find what features are most important in telling apart similar species. As an example I was reading the section on cobras with the hope of being able to find out how to tell if you are looking at one of the spitting cobra species or not (quite a useful bit of knowledge I would think) but the descriptions did not provide this information. A section on telling apart similar species would have been highly recommended here. Even more frustratingly the distribution maps are by group rather than for each species, so prove to be fairly useless for the large groups (Especially for those that contain species that are noted to have restricted ranges that again could help in the identification of individual species).
Overall, I'm not sure who this book is aimed at. Its too detailed for a casual wildlife enthusiast who probably doesn't want to know the clutch sizes and scale counts, but not detailed enough for anyone who actually wants to be able to identify the lizards that they see. The photos are very nice though.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Nice but dissapointing...
18 Jun 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Finally i received my copy of the guide to the reptiles of southern Africa !
The lay out is exactly the same as the other Johan Marais book, snakes of southern Africa, and as i think snakes of is great i was very dissapointed by the reptiles of book.
Why you are asking ? Well i have got the impression that the book is the snakes of southern africa with a little addition,an addition that is not specified enough.
The snakes are allready cramped together,dwarf bitis species for example are put together as dwarf adders and are generally spoken of,snakes so special for the region merit it to be seperated into species instead of being piled together.
The lizard chapter was for me the most dissapointing part. All the lizards (few exeptions) are cramped together in little family groups and not described or shown seperated on the maps, a big mis as a lot of the reptiles of southern Africa have a small distribution range. Why i ask myself ? Mister Marais is capable of making great books as shown before,photowork is great,lay out,but not it is not enough in my opinion.
So if you want to know something about the reptiles of southern africa,this book is great. Do you need some expert advise on distribution,species etc...sorry this is not what you need.
better books excist: Snakes of southern africa,Chameleons of southern africa and the southern african tortoise book still rule....
The lay out is exactly the same as the other Johan Marais book, snakes of southern Africa, and as i think snakes of is great i was very dissapointed by the reptiles of book.
Why you are asking ? Well i have got the impression that the book is the snakes of southern africa with a little addition,an addition that is not specified enough.
The snakes are allready cramped together,dwarf bitis species for example are put together as dwarf adders and are generally spoken of,snakes so special for the region merit it to be seperated into species instead of being piled together.
The lizard chapter was for me the most dissapointing part. All the lizards (few exeptions) are cramped together in little family groups and not described or shown seperated on the maps, a big mis as a lot of the reptiles of southern Africa have a small distribution range. Why i ask myself ? Mister Marais is capable of making great books as shown before,photowork is great,lay out,but not it is not enough in my opinion.
So if you want to know something about the reptiles of southern africa,this book is great. Do you need some expert advise on distribution,species etc...sorry this is not what you need.
better books excist: Snakes of southern africa,Chameleons of southern africa and the southern african tortoise book still rule....
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