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Title: Field Guide to the Mammals of the Indian Subcontinent : Where to Watch Mammals in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan by K. K. Gurung, Raj Singh ISBN: 0-12-309350-3 Publisher: Academic Press Pub. Date: 30 June, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 2 (2 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Quite Disappointed
Comment: I found this book to be overall pretty disappointing. First off, the illustrations are horrible. They look like children's cartoon drawings. Why don't the editors of mammal-books hire the same artists who do bird guides? The latter are generally really good.
Secondly, there is a lot of important information lacking. For example the book states that it describes "almost all the species that can be identified in the field easily". I was hoping for a book to 'the mammals of the indian subcontinent' (ALL of them) not a book of 'the mammals of the indian subcontinent that can be easily identified'. The whole section at the end on 'Where to Watch mammals' is pretty useless. I'll get that info from the 'Lonely Planet', thanks. That space should have been spent instead on descriptions (and better illustrations) of more species.
Rating: 3
Summary: Good field guide - bad entertainment
Comment: This book covers the land mammals of the Indian Subregion or in other words it cover: India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan. However, it also does exclude the smaller and often inconspicious mammals like baths, schrews, and most rodents. A number of small but often conspicious mammals are included. For instance both squirrels and pikas are included. In total it depicts and describes 106 species in deatail. It starts in the typical manner with an introduction to the region, mammals, and mammal observing. This section is highly usefull to the unexperienced reader, but will probably seem quite borring to most, as it is short and only mentiones the most bassal things. The next fourty pages is devoted to the mammal species themselves. This means that there is 2-3 species per page. About each species the book descibes identification, habitat, range (no range maps!), behavior, diet, breeding, status, and similar species. The text is not for pleasure reading, but it is highly usefull in the field. A thing to remember - not mentioned in the book - is that the status refers to subregion only, not the intire world. An example is the Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) which is described as endangered. The next pages are assigned to 12 colour plates with drawings of the mammals. The drawings are not especialy beautiful, but all the important details usefull in identification are remembered. The next 12 plates are devoted to animal tracks. The last third of the book describes 23 national parks/reserves in the region including the famous Chitwan NP and Sunderbars NP. These pages are the highlight of the book. In this part there is a map of each park and a quite thorrow descibtion of acces, accomodation facilities, season to go there, larger mammals of the area etc. Sadly similar chapters in other books have been shown to go quickly out of date. At the end of the book there is a chapter called "futher reading" which obviously seems equal to bibliograpy.
In total the book seems to be good in the field, but there are quite a few large lacks. For instance a number of large species known in the area are not mentioned at all. An example is the Toque Macaque (Macaca sinica). The Slender Lori (Loris tardigrandus) is mentioned only briefly in "similar species" of the Slow Lori ( Nycticebus coucang). This seems strange as the Slende lori occurs in a much larger part of the subregion. Sadley this is also a fact with a number of other species. They also use a number of outdated latin names. An example is the use of the genus Felis for all the smaller cats. In the beginning of the book they mention that the reason for the use of "old names" is because they are more familiar to people! But they are still incorrect in my opinion (I know other people don't find them to be so). It is however still a very good and usefull companion when watching wildlife in the region.
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Title: Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives by Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp, Tim Inskipp ISBN: 0691049106 Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr Pub. Date: 08 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Lonely Planet North India (North India, 1st Ed) by Mark Honan, Joseph Bindloss, Paul Greenway, Alan Murphy, Joyce Connolly, Anthony Ham, Sarina Singh ISBN: 1864503300 Publisher: Lonely Planet Pub. Date: October, 2001 List Price(USD): $21.99 |
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Title: Lonely Planet India (India, 10th Ed) by Sarina Singh, Arnold Barkhordarian, Charlotte Beech ISBN: 1740594215 Publisher: Lonely Planet Pub. Date: August, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.99 |
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