This is a book that every environmental economist should have in collection. It covers a wide range of issues from the many aspects of biodiversity to its assessment and conservation. Its content is systematic and somewhat technical, and yet accessible for non-biologists. I use this book as an aid for research, and I've found that the case studies to be quite helpful.

This is book that every environmental economist should have in collection. It covers a wide range of issues from the many aspects of biodiversity to its assessment and conservation. Its content is systematic and somewhat technical, and yet accessible for non-biologists. I use this book as an aid for research, and I've found that the case studies to be quite helpful.

"Biodiverity II" is a fascinating and important collection of essays on nearly every facet of biodiversity. What makes this book so rich is that each essay is written by the leading expert in his or her field. And you don't need to be a scientist to enjoy Biodiversity II--I'm not, and I found it very accessible.

This is the book I have been looking for all my life! It is the magnificent accomplishment of numerous experts in the field of Mammalology. The level of authoritive detail is unparalleled in any Field guide, Book of Mammals, or Wildlife manual. Coupled with excellent Photos (almost all color) and plenty of information on every species, This book dominates the literature on the subject. As informative as a species account in a scientific journal, but easy to read, this book is an absolute must have for nature lovers, wildlife professionals and everyone in between! The hands down winner of my extensive animal library. Deserves more stars (10! ).

This book was indeed a welcome and valuable addition to our high school library. It provides an interesting and comprehensive commentary on each mammal, including such topics as the special features or habits, the risks to the animal in today's world, efforts being made for its protection, descriptions of typical dens or living quarters, social group characteristics, food preferences and hunting, etc. Each article is signed and then followed by a summary such as would be found in a field guide (size, common names, references, etc.). Includes indexes by both common and scientific names, a glossary, bibliography, and photography credits.

This is the most informative bat book that I've picked up so far. Lots of great information if you love bats and want to know more about them, or fear bats and are interested in learning to love them. Lots of great photos, but not a picture book at all. Probably too wordy for little kids, but great for adults.

without doubt Wilson and Reeder's book is THE source of information for people looking for mammals in museums and old scientific publications. the superb listing of synonyms, the listings of the scientist describing the clades, and the brief biogeographic notes makes this book invaluable for people having any taxonomic question. The main attitude seems to be one of splitters, giving a lot of specific names to various populations others consider a single species, the biogeography can be a little more detailed, but there is no other source with that thoroughness and completeness in mammalian taxonomy.
I'm anxiously waiting a new edition

I am a mammalogist new to the field. I designed my first investigation, a mammalian bioinventory of a park in Costa Rica in 1999. The Wilson book was extremely helpful, and I cited it no less than 10 times in my permit application. I reccommend this publication to any persons hoping to work with mammals or currently employed sampling mammal diversity.

(...)If you are an animal lover, or want to use the book as a reference guide, this book will appeal to you. (...) To date I have seen no other book quite like it on any book shelf. Every fact and aspect of animal life is included here and the photographs are absolutely out of this world! Classification, behaviour, habitat and everything you wanted to know about each species in the animal kingdom is contained here and it is quite in-depth. What a wonderful gift this would make for that special animal lover on your list, and it would also make an excellent coffee table book for yourself.

(...) Highly recommended and worth a million stars in rating.

This book arrives in a cardboard box type cover to protect your investment.

Once you open up the box, you will find one of the most beautiful books on animals you have ever seen. Not only is the photography superb, the details are fascinating. The contents are divided into eight sections:

Introduction, Habitats, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Fishes and Invertebrates. An Index helps you find the animal you are looking up super fast.

As a reference, this is outstanding, clear, comprehensive and thought-provoking. If you are a wildlife enthusiast, you will enjoy the photographic portraits of each animal. Each species profile is supported by symbols showing habitat, size, population and conservation status.

An introduction to the animal world helps to explain classification. The animal groups are listed and there are four pages to summarize the classification scheme used in this book.

The Habitats section is especially interesting as it describes how animals survive in grasslands, deserts, tropical forests, temperate forests, coniferous forests, mountains, polar regions, freshwater, oceans, coral reefs and even urban areas. Each page shows the habitat and then pictures of the animals living there.

The rest of the book is set up in a similar way for each section. First there is an introduction for the CLASS (Mammalia, etc) and then there is a introduction for each ORDER (Marsupialia). Then the families and species with detailed information. There is a map next to each animal picture showing where they live, their social unit, status, length, weight and pertinent information.

The Glossary helps to explain terms like species: a group of similar organisms that are capable of interbreeding in the wild and of producing offspring that resemble themselves.

The section on cats was especially beautiful, however in reality, cats really need their own book. >^..^<

This book is just gorgeous!

A beautiful visual book. The photography is captivating to say the least, the text though short is very informative , the layout is something else and very well designed : easy access to general information. Some have objected to the fact that there is no mention of the human species; to those I say that the book's cover does say: The definitive visual guide to the world's WILDLIFE. I do admit that since invertebrates form 97% of all the known animal species,the chapter concerning them was a bit lacking and too short. One may not find enough research material for any specific animal, but nevertheless it is nothing short of stunning, it's the kind of book the whole family will enjoy and every household should have.

The last time I checked, North America includes Mexico. The book does not, as advertised, show illustrations of all species of North American mammals; species found only south of the Rio Grande are not included. Just once I would like to see a guide to North Ameican mammals that really covers all of North America.

The long awaited new field guid is out and I was able to get a copy. The first up to date treatment of all 442 North American mammals lies in front of me. I'm involved in mustelid research for the last ten years and when the pre-announcement came out, saying that all relevant subspecies, geographical and sexual variation to be included it was a must for me to get a copy.
I think in a coloured field guide the painted plates are the most important and hence most discussable part of such a book. My mood after carefully checking the guide is a little bit neutral as I don't know if it is well done or a catastrophy due to unbelivable bad "art" included in parts. Two illustrators made a fantastic job. Both have their own differnt stile and I can't decide if one is the better. Todd Zalewski painted the Opossum, Armadillo, Porcupine, Sewellel, Muskrat, Beaver, Marmots and all the squirrel relatives except the Chipmunks as well as the vole-lemming relatives in a briliant, colourfull and sharp art. The impression of the faces of especially the rodents results in indepth studies of these mammals. Great in a word ! Elizabeth McClelland was responsible for Gophers, Pocket Mice, Kangaroo Rats and the Ungulates. Her paintings are less colourfull and less sharp in contrasts but are brilliant due to her exact way of leading the brush when creating fur structure. When looking into the painted eyes you could think her candidates will jump out of the plates emediately. Brilliant ! Her talent is especially shown by some painting of gophers which were painted from a slight forewart angle.
What is strongly influencing the complete result are plates which show the complete opposite. If you are interested in Hares and Rabbits, Pikas, Jumping Mice, Woodrats, Rats and Grasshopper Mice don't buy this book ! A person called Ron Klingner made them. If you remember the film "Braindead" and the Devilmonkey you have an impression of what I'm talking about. One hardly can imagin if this guy ever had something to do with art or natural painting. Sorry, but words are missing. If shrews and moles are your favourit mammals you also should rethink your amazon order. Nancy Halliday sent her candidates either in a body building studio or fed those tiny animals untill fatt roles are visible through the fur. To me proportions also seem to be questionably. However, her chipmunks are better done.
But back to one of the promisses mentioned above and my particular interest im mustelids. It is a shame that for species with a lot of fur variation like the Long-tailed weasel or the Marten there is not much to get from the new guide. Although Martes americana varies from nearly blackish to light yellowish specimens there is only a tiny 4x3 cm drawing of one specimen in one corner of the relevant plate. Not to mention the more than two dozen subspecies of Mustela frenata to be found in North America. In general the carnivore plates are dissappointing although they are better than the Klingner caricatures. I would have wished that "Fisher-Powel" had discussed the artistric interpretation of the carnivores with his wife. In fact it seemed that he did so only concerning his favoured species which is quite well done.
To come to an end: Two artists have made a spectacular good job but I really asked myselfe who is to be made responsible for the inclusion of these desastrous plates by Mr. Ron Klingner who should get back to his work in painting undercups, vases or animal comics.

Kay Fuhrmann

The new guide book by Kays and Wilson is a great resource for identifying the mammals of North America. The old Peterson mammal guide book is badly out of date, both with respect to range and taxonomy. For example, it lists Grizzly Bear and Wolverine as residing in Colorado, when neither species has been sighted in the state in nearly 30 years. The new Kays and Wilson book also places the range map on the same page as the species description, which is MUCH more useful than placing all of the maps collectively in the back of the book (as is done with Peterson). The illustrations are sharp and the descriptions concise; everything that you would want in a field guide. The book also includes supplemental sections on tracks, scat and surface profiles for marine mammals (all of which are missing from the old Peterson mammal book).

What to do if you're trying to make something as stupid and boring as the bible into something that a poor gullible child will accept? This is the problem faced by the authors, and they do a half-way decent job of presenting bible idiocy as something partly entertaining as a comic book. Should be useful for gullible, brainwashed parents attempting to produce gullible, brainwashed children. Start them with Santa, and if they believe that, move on to the bible in comic book form.

Great idea with uneven results. Some superb art in places, but not always as an appropriate counterpoint to the accompanying Scriptures. The parts that do succeed are worth the cover price alone.

This book was well received by me and my teenagers. There needs to be more artistic interpretations like this that tackle scripture. Not every translation done in this book is accurate to the Word of God but every piece is brilliant in its own right. Bravo! Encore!

Dose not have any information other than names.

The writers of this book did a good job in compiling a complete list of the English names of the ordines, familiae, genera and species of all mammals of the world, provided with two orderly indexes.
It's a pity that the species order within a genus is alphabetically, instead of taxonomically.
To my opinion it's the only minus; I didn't find any other.