Mark Avery’s Sunday book review this week looks at the new Atlas of the Mammals of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from Pelagic Publishing. Written and edited by a large team of highly skilled researchers, and with the backing of The Mammal Society, this remarkable new book “provides the most up-to-date information on the current distributions of both terrestrial and marine mammals in the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.”
Mark found it well worth the time and effort invested by the authors – “everyone who got together to produce this atlas should take a bow for achieving something good.” But of course, long-time wildlife conservation professional that he is, among his commendations, he offers a number of observations about opportunities for future enlargements of both the work itself and the study of the UK’s mammals in general, noting “[t]his atlas is a major step forward in our knowledge of UK mammals but it also shows how far behind birds (and some plants and insects) is the study of mammals in the UK.”
Links to Mark Avery’s Sunday book reviews appear in The Well-read Naturalist by special arrangement. You can find all of Mark’s past reviews as well as a wide-ranging collection of his other writings on his Standing Up for Nature website. Mark’s opinions regarding the books he reviews are his own.
