- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Princeton University Press (10 Jan 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0691122393
- ISBN-13: 978-0691122397
- Product Dimensions: 19.1 x 12.8 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
1,410,988 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #77 in Books > Science & Nature > Nature > Wild Animals > By Region > Africa
- See Complete Table of Contents
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Jonathan Kingdon loves biology and art. This felicitous combo delivers a delightful book. . . . His knowledge is impressive, and his drawings and paintings wonderful, full of information and character. . . . A great guide, from leaf-plucking gelada to long-eared hedgehog. Take it to any African country. -- Maggie McDonald, New Scientist
Anyone with an interest in Africa and the animals that roam through the various ecosystems, from lowland rainforests, savannahs, grasslands, to deserts and shrublands, should invest in a copy of noted African mammal expert Jonathan Kingdon's pocket guide of African mammals. . . . [T]he book [is] perfect for serious fieldwork and the vacation traveler. -- "Biology Digest
Anyone with an interest in Africa and the animals that roam through the various ecosystems, from lowland rainforests, savannahs, grasslands, to deserts and shrublands, should invest in a copy of noted African mammal expert Jonathan Kingdon's pocket guide of African mammals. . . . [T]he book [is] perfect for serious fieldwork and the vacation traveler. -- "Biology Digest
Product Description
This is an essential guide for anyone with an interest in wildlife who visits Africa--from the tourist on safari to the more experienced naturalist. Compact and beautifully illustrated, it is ideal for use in the field, while its coverage is the most comprehensive for any book of its size.
- First pocket guide to cover every species of terrestrial African mammal
- Adapted from the highly acclaimed Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals
- Fully illustrated with the author's superb color artwork
- Easy-to-read distribution maps
- Concise text and clear layout for quick, easy reference
- Practical format makes it ideal for use in the field
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
28 of 28 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This compact little guide is a condensed version of "The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals" (ISBN: 0713665130) by the same author. That book is easily the best overview of African mammals, with detailed info on each species/genus, but it is not really practical for use as a field guide (see my review of it).
This book contains the same illustrations arranged in a format that makes them handier for actual identification in the field.
It is very comprehensive, covering every single species of African mammals with the exception of bats, rodents, insectivores, elephant-shrews and hyrraxes, which are usually represented by one species for each genus. But every single genus is represented, and of rodents, every species of squirrel is dealt with separately.
Maps and brief info on distribution and ecology of each taxon is now to be found on the pages facing the illustrutions.
The latter are a mixed bag, as in the original work: while most are quite good, even excellent and life-like, others are quite awful, either showing animals with stiff, straight limbs/bodies as if drawn with a ruler (like the Crowned Monkey) or in highly unnatural positions (like the Potto with the limbs twisted out, or the Cheetah standing up like a circus horse).
All things considered, this is easily the best field guide to mammals of Africa, though for more in-depth information on each taxon, you may still want to have the original book in addition to this one.
This book contains the same illustrations arranged in a format that makes them handier for actual identification in the field.
It is very comprehensive, covering every single species of African mammals with the exception of bats, rodents, insectivores, elephant-shrews and hyrraxes, which are usually represented by one species for each genus. But every single genus is represented, and of rodents, every species of squirrel is dealt with separately.
Maps and brief info on distribution and ecology of each taxon is now to be found on the pages facing the illustrutions.
The latter are a mixed bag, as in the original work: while most are quite good, even excellent and life-like, others are quite awful, either showing animals with stiff, straight limbs/bodies as if drawn with a ruler (like the Crowned Monkey) or in highly unnatural positions (like the Potto with the limbs twisted out, or the Cheetah standing up like a circus horse).
All things considered, this is easily the best field guide to mammals of Africa, though for more in-depth information on each taxon, you may still want to have the original book in addition to this one.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I purchased this field guide as a companion to a week in Kruger Park, ZA. I consider myself something of a field guide 'geek' owning several dozen on various fauna, but I am far from familiar with African mammals so purchased the Kingdon guide - I would have been lost without it.
Firstly the layout of the guide and its small size were excellent - very easy to travel with and use. It was very well thumbed by the end of the week and thoroughly added to the enjoyment of my trip. It certainly helped when distinguishing genet species, antelopes as well as smaller unusual stuff like blesmols.
However there were a few 'niggles'. Firstly the text lacks alternative common names, so looking up 'grey rhebok' and 'grey duiker' got me nowhere. Grey rhebok are only listed as mountain rhebok and I am still none the wiser as to whether 'grey duiker' even appears in the guide under a synonym?
Some of the illustrations left something to be desired particularly with proportions of facial features especially on the smaller antelope and mongooses, not aiding ID.
Most frustrating though were some of the range maps. These are invaluable in a guide of this nature that covers such a large area and a diverse phylum, but several examples let me down. For example Kruger was full of ground squirrels, yet none of the species listed in the Kingdon guide has a range that includes the Kruger area. The same occurs with a monkey species I saw on the Natal coast.
Overall however the guide was excellent, it just didn't offer me the complete solution and I will be hitting the internet to ID some of the things I failed to ID in the field. I would probably have got on better with the full Kingdon guide, but as I always struggle with airline baggage limits the pocket guide was a compromise that I was forced to make.
Firstly the layout of the guide and its small size were excellent - very easy to travel with and use. It was very well thumbed by the end of the week and thoroughly added to the enjoyment of my trip. It certainly helped when distinguishing genet species, antelopes as well as smaller unusual stuff like blesmols.
However there were a few 'niggles'. Firstly the text lacks alternative common names, so looking up 'grey rhebok' and 'grey duiker' got me nowhere. Grey rhebok are only listed as mountain rhebok and I am still none the wiser as to whether 'grey duiker' even appears in the guide under a synonym?
Some of the illustrations left something to be desired particularly with proportions of facial features especially on the smaller antelope and mongooses, not aiding ID.
Most frustrating though were some of the range maps. These are invaluable in a guide of this nature that covers such a large area and a diverse phylum, but several examples let me down. For example Kruger was full of ground squirrels, yet none of the species listed in the Kingdon guide has a range that includes the Kruger area. The same occurs with a monkey species I saw on the Natal coast.
Overall however the guide was excellent, it just didn't offer me the complete solution and I will be hitting the internet to ID some of the things I failed to ID in the field. I would probably have got on better with the full Kingdon guide, but as I always struggle with airline baggage limits the pocket guide was a compromise that I was forced to make.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this book for a safari holiday in Tanzania. It did the job asked of it, providing helpful identity data on a range of mammals, while being physically nice and light. It was also comprehensive, covering smaller mammals properly, and not just the usual larger/more common ones. However its scope is all Africa, so it contained a lot of data on species and sub-species that we weren't going to see - while details on the ones we did see was just a bit too sketchy. The maps helped a lot, but there were just too many. Some of the variants we came across (Roosevelt sable, Nyasa wildebeest) weren't mentioned at all. In the case of mammals I think photos are also very helpful - I would like to have seen some of these for the larger animals at least.
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