Product Description

Hailed as 'a rare combination of learning, decent writing and knock-your-eyes-out photography' by The Times and 'an ultimate in natural history books' by the Irish Times when it was published in its first edition, this encyclopedia has become the definitive reference work on mammals for the 21st century. It covers the behaviour, diet, distribution, and evolution of every known living mammal in the world in clear, accessible language, and is illustrated throughout with spectacular photographs and original artwork, including breathtaking photo-stories of momentous events, such as how a cheetah learns to hunt, an elephant's early years, and life in the pouch for a kangeroo. There are also feature articles on a range of fascinating topics, among them: Why do primates have big brains? Why do lions roar? And what are the costs of motherhood for seals? Written by an international team of experts and edited by renowned zoologist Professor David Macdonald - whose documentary Meerkats United was voted the best wildlife film of all time by BBC viewers - this new edition has been comprehensively revised and updated to reflect the most recent developments in modern zoology. It offers authoritative coverage of each species, and contains brand new photographs, maps, and illustrations, as well as essays on special topics, from conservation to the evolution of primates; from human culture to disease in the Tasmanian devil. An essential work for zoologists and natural historians, this book is also a stunning point of reference for families and for anyone interested in the mammals of the world.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #244276 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 976 pages

Review
A proven success and a fascinating read...The Encyclopedia of Mammals certainly gives you excellent value for money. Painstakingly compiled, the encyclopedia is packed with fascinating information. The photography and illustrations are also very impressive...I cannot recommend it highly enough. James Beattie, Outdoor Photography

Review
A proven success and a fascinating read...The Encyclopedia of Mammals certainly gives you excellent value for money. Painstakingly compiled, the encyclopedia is packed with fascinating information. The photography and illustrations are also very impressive...I cannot recommend it highly enough. (James Beattie, Outdoor Photography )

Irish Times
'an ultimate in natural history books'

Customer Reviews

Impressive, but capable of improvement
Whilst I am very pleased to have this book, I do not wish to give unqualified praise. I think the coverage is unfortunately scanty in some areas, and often says nothing about familiar species.

This is a beautiful book with a lot of lovely pictures and information, and not over-populist in its content. However given the number of mammalian species, there is a limit to what you can cover in 1000 pages, and I think the balance is sometimes unfortunate. It is sometimes said that this encyclopaedia covers all mammalian species, however a great many are found only in a list of names. Entire families are given this treatment. Many other species are covered only with an uninformative three-line one-column entry. The coverage of bats is particularly weak, which is disappointing given that such a large proportion of mammalian species are bats. I have a slimmer encyclopaedia covering all vertebrate animals, which has at least a drawing of and a paragraph describing at least one representative of every mammalian family.

Just because an animal is familiar doesn't mean you will find any information on it. I give two examples. 1. A recent BBC programme on African wild-life spent some time showing Simien Foxes hunting African Mole Rats, a common and unusually large rodent much used as a human food source. It is related to the Bamboo Rat eaten in SE Asia. If you look up the African Mole Rat in the index, you will be referred to the section on Mole-Rats, which is an entirely different group of rodents. When you eventually find it many pages away, there is only a misleading and brief mention. 2. If, like many tourists, you travel to the high Andes of Peru or Bolivia, you will probably see Mountain Viscachas, and very little else. They are much photographed, featured in TV programmes, etc. But you will find no information on this animal beyond its name. However a drawing of the rarely-seen Plains Viscacha is provided.

The taxonomic list of all mammals would be much improved if it had page cross-references to the main section of the book.

Thoroughly comprehensive.
Far more detailed than any other mammalian encyclopaedia that I have come across. It includes many excellent pictures and illustrations, as well as a very usefull size comparison of each animal next to a man.
Information about the state of species populations is given, as is the state of endangerment.
Case study-like articles, about 2 pages in length, provide interesting facts about many of the mammals in the book.
The only caveat, however, is that it did not include humans in the book. We are the only living mammals left out of the book, but should deserve as much as the other great apes for that is what we are.
However, an excellent purchase, and something that I will spend countless hours reading and learning.

A comprehensive, easy to read and gorgeous book
The new encyclopedia of mammals is a pleasant and surprising mix of photographs, illustrations and text that consisely but comprehensively describes every mammal known to man today. The layout is easy to navigate considering the amount of information within the pages and the mix of scientific and layman's information is refreshing as was a diagramatic comparison of physical size rather than just a given measurement.