When it comes to field guides, Princeton University Press has long held a position of honor and respect among both professional and amateur naturalists for consistently providing exceptional levels of accuracy and attention to detail. With its new and updated illustrations, revised identification information, and the addition of twenty recently recognized species to its contents, the new second edition of Mammals of North America by Roland Kays and Don Wilson more than upholds this well-earned reputation.
All 462 species of mammal found in North America north of the U.S. – Mexico border are fully illustrated, textually explained, and their ranges located and clearly depicted on easy-to-read maps. To make the guide as easy to use in the field as possible, each species included is completely profiled with other closely related species in a facing page spread; maps and textual explanations running down the left hand page and illustrations running down the right. When it comes to field guide organization, nothing could be more simple or more effective in providing quick access to information in the field that this very lay-out, and the authors and editorial staff of Princeton are to be heartily commended for employing it.
Of course, a field guide cannot solely be judged on how well its pages are arranged; many other matters must also be considered. Among the most important of these is the completeness, utility, and accessibility of the information provided in the text. Here Kays and Wilson have truly excelled. They have clearly defined to what level of detail Mammals of North America has been written to provide, then they have created and rigorously adhered to a highly effective format for the presentation of their information. A straight-forward structure (clearly explained in template form within the book’s introduction) has been established for each species account that organizes information in a manner so that the most important points are always foremost in the text and that four key elements – the single most important identifying feature of the animal, physical traits, behavior, and habitat – are always presented.
Naturally, the quality of illustrations must also be a point of assessment when discussing the value of any field guide, and in this area of assessment, Mammals of North America also distinguishes itself. One hundred twelve color plates, all specifically drawn for this guide, depict each animal in a natural position that would be thought most helpful in aiding its identification. In addition to this, further illustrations of such key identifying features as the skulls, jaws, teeth, and genital bones are also inserted into the plates as necessary. Furthermore, helpful plates depicting such valuable field images as the downward looking dorsal view of bow-riding whales and dolphins have been included, as have depictions of that ever-useful tool of mammal field identification – scat.
As the authors clearly note in the book’s introduction, this guide is meant for field use, thus detailed discussions of behavior, ecology, and conservation have intentionally been omitted to conserve both its size and weight (a decision for which all who carry multiple guidebooks into the field will profoundly thank them). This is entirely understandable as lengthy tracts on such topics are of little use to the identification of a mammal in the field. However even if Mammals of North America is used purely for “armchair naturalism” (a common and highly enjoyable use of field guides, to be sure) it will certainly pique the interest of the reader and encourage further exploration.
Titles: Mammals of North America (Second Edition)
Series: Princeton Field Guides
Authors: Roland W. Kays and Don E. Wilson
Publisher: Princeton University Press (site) (blog)
Format: Paper and Cloth; 248 pp., 112 color illus., 102 line illus., 460 maps
ISBN13: 978-0-691-14092-6 (Paper)
ISBN13: 978-0-691-14278-4 (Cloth)
In accordance with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255, it is disclosed that the copy of the book read in order to produce this review was provided gratis to the reviewer by the publisher.
