31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Best Guide for Field Use in Africa!, Aug 5 2006
By Laszlo Wagner - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Kingdon Pocket Guide to African Mammals (Paperback)
This compact little guide is a condensed version of The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals 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.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great help!, Nov 4 2009
By G. Walters - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Kingdon Pocket Guide to African Mammals (Paperback)
I wish I had purchased this book before I went to Africa. I would have been much better prepared for seeing the animals. I bought it to help me put captions with my pictures, and find my notes do not have accurate information. Either I did not understand my guide very well, or he did not know the information this book contains.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, Nov 10 2007
By C. Colberg "Smores Lover" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Kingdon Pocket Guide to African Mammals (Paperback)
This guide was an excellent reference on Safari, small size and well organized format made The Kingdon Pocket Guide to Africa easy to use in the field.