Animal Tracks and Signs (Natural History Pocket Guides) [Hardcover]

"The tracks and signs book is ideal for sorting out half-eaten nuts, scratched bark, pellets, droppings and foot prints found on a country walk. . .[this book is] well illustrated, comprehensive, and excellent value for money."--Birds
"The real value of this book lies in the wealth of behavioral and ecological information given in the abundant text. For example, you can find out what sort of animal is likely to be breaking apart wasps' nests, explanations of patterns produced by different quadrupeds walking and running, and why hedgehog droppings are so variable."--Bulletin of British and Ecological Society

First published in English by Collins in 1974, this substantially revised and extended edition is one of the first three volumes of Oxford University Press's new OIPocket Guide natural history series. The series fills the need for field guides for those who want to find out about the common organisms they come across during countryside excursions without having the specialist knowledge required to make detailed species identifications. All the books in the series are attractively designed and lavishly illustrated with high quality colour photographs and line drawings throughout. Animal Tracks and Signs is the only book in print that allows the reader to identify over 200 North-west European mammals and birds that have passed by from the evidence they have left behind. Whether one finds footprints, feeding damage, a skull or a hole in the ground, this book will describe how it was made and who by. A pleasure to dip into, it is also an essential tool for anyone who needs to identify remains, whether they are professional ecologists or schoolchildren collecting items for a nature table.

Preben Bang is a highly respected author and wildlife expert. First published in English in the 1970s, his unique Animal Tracks and Signs text, with illustrations by Preben Dahlstrom, has become an all-time natural history classic. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.