- Paperback: 340 pages
- Publisher: Oxford University Press; Revised edition edition (Sep 23 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0195550994
- ISBN-13: 978-0195550993
- Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 340 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,653,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
`This well produced paperback book offers guidance to a vast wealth of seldom seen animals inhabiting the Australian continent via the signs they leave behind ... this book is excellent value as a means to bypass the lifetime of tracking experience which we would all like to possess but few of us have the time or ability to achieve. The writing style is clear and concise and nothing is left unexplained including the fact that you cannot hope to achieve identifications to species level in all cases.' Ian Tew, Journal of Natural History, 1997, 31
`an informed coverage by an author who really knows what she is talking about ... A quick flick through the pages showed lots of photographs, line drawings (both detailed and simple), distribution maps and clear, concise text ... this is an excellent example of this sort of book: it is full of information, easy to use and will serve as a very useful handbook in the field ... For anyone interested in Australian mammals, this is an invaluable book ... it will be a welcome text for naturalists and ecologists alike.' Paul Ward, 1997 British Ecological Society Journal of Animal Ecology, 66
`The book will be indispensable equipment for bushwalkers, naturalists, students, zoologists and other professionals, in fact, for anyone wanting a better understanding of Australia's unique mammal fauna.' Ethology, Ecology and Evolution 9: 1997 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
`an informed coverage by an author who really knows what she is talking about ... A quick flick through the pages showed lots of photographs, line drawings (both detailed and simple), distribution maps and clear, concise text ... this is an excellent example of this sort of book: it is full of information, easy to use and will serve as a very useful handbook in the field ... For anyone interested in Australian mammals, this is an invaluable book ... it will be a welcome text for naturalists and ecologists alike.' Paul Ward, 1997 British Ecological Society Journal of Animal Ecology, 66
`The book will be indispensable equipment for bushwalkers, naturalists, students, zoologists and other professionals, in fact, for anyone wanting a better understanding of Australia's unique mammal fauna.' Ethology, Ecology and Evolution 9: 1997 --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
Tracks, Sctas and Other Traces contains hundreds of illustrations and extensive text, and is organized in an accessible format for easy identification of the visible traces left by Australian mammals in their passage.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Reading tracks in the wild is not always easy. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Reading tracks in the wild is not always easy. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Book with Hard to Find Info,
By A Customer
This review is from: Tracks, Scats and Other Traces: A Field Guide to Australian Mammals (Paperback)
This is a fantastic book. All very useful information, hard to find all in one place. I don't know of any similar work for the general reader.Nothing compares to being able to know that an animal you rarely or never see actually lives in an area and has passed by recently. The descriptions of footprints and the drawings were clear enough that I was able to determine an exact species from macropod (from a good set of prints) on the basis on the footprint alone. This also matched up with the expected distribution for this species (also shown in the book, next to its scat picture). I haven't come across any random bones in the bush yet to be able to identify from the descriptions given in the book, but the section on bones is as clear and concise as the rest of the book. The coverage of other sorts of signs (scraping, scratch marks, etc) is also quite handy and clear. There are some improvements I would like to see in any future editions. I would like to see a scale marker in *every* single scat picture. This would be preferable to taking all the photos at the same scale (which they mostly seem to be) because at that scale the droppings of the bats become very hard to distinguish. The *ideal* I think would be to have all the pictures at 'life size' from a particular distance, with a zoomed-in picture with a scale marker. *All* the pictures should be in colour (except the skeletal pictures). Each scat should have a description, and a picture of an unbroken and a broken pellet. Some are like this, but not all. The description for the scat could describe the changes in the scat throughout the year as the diet of the animal changes. This could at least be done for all the common and well-known animals. The other problem with the scat pictures is that they are of varying ages. The colour changes greatly with age (very fresh = very green, aging to various shades of brown). Some of the pictures are of semi-fresh scats, and the others are quite old. However, these issues do not detract from the usefulness or quality of this edition - I just hope to see some extra features in any future editions! It is a massive task to collect all this information and pictures, and even though this book is the only one of its kind that I know of for general readers, I am sure that if there were other books on the same topic, this would still stand out as a high quality and invaluable resource for australian naturalists!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Useful field guide.,
By A Customer
This review is from: Tracks, Scats and Other Traces: A Field Guide to Australian Mammals (Paperback)
This is an extremely useful field guide for lovers of wildlife in Australia. Many animals are nocturnal and leave only small clues to their presence. With this guide I have been able to sleuth out a number of previously unobserved species. The descriptions of tracks, scats and traces are clear and thorough and there are many useful photographs, illustrations and distribution maps.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Useful field guide.,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Tracks, Scats and Other Traces: A Field Guide to Australian Mammals (Paperback)
This is an extremely useful field guide for lovers of wildlife in Australia. Many animals are nocturnal and leave only small clues to their presence. With this guide I have been able to sleuth out a number of previously unobserved species. The descriptions of tracks, scats and traces are clear and thorough and there are many useful photographs, illustrations and distribution maps.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Book with Hard to Find Info,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Tracks, Scats and Other Traces: A Field Guide to Australian Mammals (Paperback)
This is a fantastic book. All very useful information, hard to find all in one place. I don't know of any similar work for the general reader.Nothing compares to being able to know that an animal you rarely or never see actually lives in an area and has passed by recently. The descriptions of footprints and the drawings were clear enough that I was able to determine an exact species from macropod (from a good set of prints) on the basis on the footprint alone. This also matched up with the expected distribution for this species (also shown in the book, next to its scat picture). I haven't come across any random bones in the bush yet to be able to identify from the descriptions given in the book, but the section on bones is as clear and concise as the rest of the book. The coverage of other sorts of signs (scraping, scratch marks, etc) is also quite handy and clear. There are some improvements I would like to see in any future editions. I would like to see a scale marker in *every* single scat picture. This would be preferable to taking all the photos at the same scale (which they mostly seem to be) because at that scale the droppings of the bats become very hard to distinguish. The *ideal* I think would be to have all the pictures at 'life size' from a particular distance, with a zoomed-in picture with a scale marker. *All* the pictures should be in colour (except the skeletal pictures). Each scat should have a description, and a picture of an unbroken and a broken pellet. Some are like this, but not all. The description for the scat could describe the changes in the scat throughout the year as the diet of the animal changes. This could at least be done for all the common and well-known animals. The other problem with the scat pictures is that they are of varying ages. The colour changes greatly with age (very fresh = very green, aging to various shades of brown). Some of the pictures are of semi-fresh scats, and the others are quite old. However, these issues do not detract from the usefulness or quality of this edition - I just hope to see some extra features in any future editions! It is a massive task to collect all this information and pictures, and even though this book is the only one of its kind that I know of for general readers, I am sure that if there were other books on the same topic, this would still stand out as a high quality and invaluable resource for australian naturalists! |
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