Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 590
EAN num: 9781868724512
ISBN number: 1868724514
Label: Struik Publishing houses
Manufacturer: Struik Publishing houses
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 310
Printing Date: May 25, 2005
Publishing house: Struik Publishing houses
Release Date: May 25, 2005
Sale Popularity Level: 517462
Studio: Struik Publishing houses
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
This guide embraces over 2000 carefully selected plants and animals, large and small, that are likely to be encountered during a visit to any part of the region. It is ideal for all nature lovers, with over 1200 species illustrated and many more identifiable from the text by reference to similar species. Each chapter has been written by a leading expert in the field, most of whom have published major works in their own right.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Essential for a Safari for Africa. Used by our guide. Fun to use to idenitify all wildlife in South Africa.
Rated by buyers 
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I just returned from a wonderful two week trip to South Africa and Botswana. In Botswana we spent 6 nights at camps in the bush. Here is my impression of this book.
Pros:
Sturdy, well-constructed book with excellent illustrations.
Cons:
Because this book tries to be all-inclusive and compact, it necessarily makes significant compromises. As a birder, I carried a separate bird book (by Ian Sinclair) which I enjoyed and used frequently. I therefore was not too concerned about the birding aspect of this book. However, if you tried using this book for birding you would be very frustrated. Many female and juvenile plumages are omitted. From a practical standpoint, many of the individual birds you are likely to see would not be identifiable with this guide.
For the identification of large mammals, this book is fine-- but honestly, how hard is it to identify lions, elephants, hippos and antelope (ok, the antelope can be tricky). It would be nice, however, if the descriptions discussed more about the lives of these creatures and their taxonomic relationships. A guide to animal tracks would have been wonderful. Looking at animal tracks on the dirt/sand roads that we travelled occupied a significant amount of our time. This book was no help. Out of 310 pages, only 21 are devoted to mammals.
Identifying flowers was also difficult. We came across a very common lily-like flower in the Okavango Delta which was in bloom in late March. It was interspersed with grass and presumably was arising from a bulb. I still don't know what it is. It wasn't in this book.
If you only want to carry one book (and field guides are heavy), this would be fine. If you have special interests, I would carry other guides as well (interestingly, the back of this book has an extensive list of suggested reading). If I were doing it again, I would probably still bring this book (for the insects, reptiles, amphibians, trees, and flowers), but I would also bring a guide for mammals. Also, check with the camps you are going to-- they may have books on their shelves.
Rated by buyers 
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I've traveled through southern Africa with this book a number of times. Very useful as a more general field guide. Nicely illustrated.
Rated by buyers -
lots and lots of detailed drawings of species. Everything you could hope to see in one book which is nice when weight and space are considerations. Some people might wish for photos but those books are usually not as complete.
Rated by buyers -
Haven't taken this on the safari yet, but have gone through it to get familiar - it is fairly small (compared to the other book I got, Safari Companion), yet has hundreds of clear illustrations and descriptions of invertebrates, insects, birds, fish, mammals and plants. I think this is going to be a very useful tool!
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