- Hardcover: 464 pages
- Publisher: Firefly Books (Oct 20 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 155407178X
- ISBN-13: 978-1554071784
- Product Dimensions: 25.6 x 18 x 3.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.6 Kg
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#190,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #21 in Books > Science > Nature & Ecology > Field Guides > Mammals
- #22 in Books > Outdoors & Nature > Field Guides > Mammals
- #36 in Books > Travel > Polar Regions > Arctic
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Booklist
This field guide to Arctic wildlife is a thorough examination of the territory, with emphasis on habitat. In the introductory pages, the author defines the region and then discusses its geology, climate (including such unique phenomena as aurora borealis, parhelia, mirages, ice blink, water sky, and whiteout), exploration, and habitats and what it takes for organisms to survive the harsh conditions. The introduction concludes with a look at threats, including global warming.
Following all the background information is expansive coverage of the wildlife, divided into separate sections for birds and mammals. Arrangement is by major taxonomic groupings, and for each grouping, there is an overview followed by species accounts. For example, the section on loons includes the common loon, the yellow-billed loon, the Arctic loon, the Pacific loon, and the red-throated loon. Each account provides identifying characteristics, confusion species (other species for which the one in question can be mistaken), size, voice (an interesting detail), distribution, diet, breeding, and variations. Range maps denoting location are provided, as are full-color photographs showing birds in their habitats. In addition, color plates illustrate the species in each taxonomic group. "A Visitor's Guide to the Arctic" and an index listing the common, alternative common, and scientific names of wildlife complete the volume.
It is obvious that this book was carefully researched and that the author has strong sentiment for the animals of this environmentally fragile area. Large public and academic libraries considering this purchase should find readership among those researching the Arctic or simply wanting to browse a lovingly presented guide. cheryl ward
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
'Richly informative about the ways and whereabouts of every creature from the Siberian tit to the showshoe hare.' The Times (November 2006) 'It makes me dizzy just thinking about the amount of work that must have gone into this book. It is packed with well-researched information and deserves to be the ultimate Actic wildlife guide for a long time to come.' BBC Wildlife (February 2007) 'An attractive book [which] does provide a very good explanation of how the Arctic works as an ecosystem.' Birding World (June 2007) 'A very good book which will be hard to better.' IBIS (2007) 'A well-produced, accurate and attractive book, beautifully presented and illustrated, and giving excellent coverage of Arctic birds and mammals.' British Birds (August 2007)
--This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
Inside This Book
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (8 customer reviews)
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Only birds and mammals, but all of them, Oct 23 2009
By Marissink Marcus - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife (Hardcover)
This is a very good book, but some of the reviews are exaggerating a bit. First of all, there are no "thousands" of species in this book (nor in the Arctic), but "only" 213 birds and 77 mammals. Second, there are no fishes (whales and dolphins are mammals), nor plants.The reasons why I do not give this book five stars:
- The plates that help to identify the animals are spread throughout the book, not in direct connection to the description, nor together in the middle or at the back. That makes it a bit hard to find them.
- Some of the photos are not perfect (and this is even more striking given the overall quality of the other photos).
- The descriptions of the distributions are sometimes incomplete, at least outside the Arctic region.
- It would have been nice if Northern Scandinavia had been included - to me, it's Arctic enough!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truely complete, Dec 31 2007
By R. Stam - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: A Complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife (Hardcover)
This book is one of the best wildlife guides I have ever seen and by far the best wildlife guide of the arctic regions. I can recommand this book to anyone going (or living) there. The book starts with about 50 pages of introduction. In this part of the book different aspects of the region are described, such as geology, climate and a history of humans in the arctic. After that it really starts: some 300 pages filled with information of all kind of birds followed by another 100 pages about arctic mammals. Altogether this is a very complete, well illustrated guidebook. A "must have" for everyone interested in arctic wildlife!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
incredible resource, Nov 26 2007
By M. Testani - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: A Complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife (Hardcover)
This book is so incredibly in-depth on arctic species - from thousands of birds, fish, mammals, etc. There are great photographs as well as scientific illustrations for almost every species mentioned.There is also a great exploration guide for each species - both as an introduction to the type of animal and where they predominate and also by specific species within those categories. The book then provides information on specific environmental habitat for that breed, their food sources, how they feed (methods), reproduction, how they live (where they sleep), specific sizes, confusion with near species, how they communicate etc.
The beginning of the book also goes into great detail about the different types of arctic habitat, seasonal changes and the delicate ecosystems as well as environmental changes and threats due to global warming and pollution. The text is scientific, so it sometimes takes a little reading to be able to draw parallels between species and changes in environment (not as direct as say, Greenpeace would be.) But definitely a must have for an encyclopedic library on Arctic wildlife.
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