New Title

 

1) Loxton, Daniel and Donald R. Prothero. Abominable Science: Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids. 2013. Columbia University Press. Hardbound: 411 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S.

SUMMARY: Throughout our history, humans have been captivated by mythic beasts and legendary creatures. Tales of Bigfoot, the Yeti, and the Loch Ness monster are part of our collective experience. Now comes a book from two dedicated investigators that explores and elucidates the fascinating world of cryptozoology.
Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero have written an entertaining, educational, and definitive text on cryptids, presenting the arguments both for and against their existence and systematically challenging the pseudoscience that perpetuates their myths. After examining the nature of science and pseudoscience and their relation to cryptozoology, Loxton and Prothero take on Bigfoot; the Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, and its cross-cultural incarnations; the Loch Ness monster and its highly publicized sightings; the evolution of the Great Sea Serpent; and Mokele Mbembe, or the Congo dinosaur. They conclude with an analysis of the psychology behind the persistent belief in paranormal phenomena, identifying the major players in cryptozoology, discussing the character of its subculture, and considering the challenge it poses to clear and critical thinking in our increasingly complex world.

RECOMMENDATION: A MUST have for those with an interest in cryptozoology.

 

Featured Title

 

1) Poonswad, Pilai, Alan Kemp, and Morten Strange. Hornbills of the World: A Photographic Guide. 2013. Draco Publishing and Hornbill Research Foundation. Paperback: 212 pages. Price: $65.00 U.S./ £44.99.

SUMMARY: Hornbills (order: Bucerotiformes) are a group of distinctive and charismatic birds found only in Tropical Asia and sub-saharan Africa. There are two families (Bucorvidae and Bucerotidae), 15 genera, 57 species and 75 subspecies; 32 species are in Asia and 25 species in Africa. They are mostly large in size and have long bills surmounted in many species by a conspicuous casque. Hornbills are omnivorous, but each species feeds predominately on fruits or small animals. Many hornbills are important seed dispersers and benefit the forest ecology. During the breeding season, the female enters a nesting cavity, usually in a large hardwood tree. she seals herself inside the cavity in the majority of species and stays there for much of the nesting cycle while the male brings food to her and her young. Most hornbill species are forest birds, dependant on large expanses of primary tropical rainforest for habitat, while some inhabit drier savanna, but all are vulnerable to disturbance and habitat loss.
      Hornbills of the World is the first authoritative photographic guide to the order. All species are described and illustrated in multiple photographs showing both male and female, and distinct subspecies. There is additional information on:
- Evolution, Distribution and Relationships
- General Habits
- Feeding Ecology
- Breeding Ecology
- Social Life
- Threats and Conservation

RECOMMENDATION: A MUST have for anyone with an interest in these birds! This title is available in North Amerca from Buteo Books:

http://www.buteobooks.com/product/13996&affiliate=birdbooker.html

and in the United Kingdom from nhbs.com:

http://www.nhbs.com/hornbills_of_the_world_bkfno_205415.html

The Weekly Birdbooker Report

                                                   Photo copyright: Joe Fuhrman

My WEEKLY Birdbooker Report can be found here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2013/jul/28/scienceandnature-birds

New Titles

 

1) Mooallem, Jon. Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America. 2013. The Penguin Press. Hardbound: 339 pages. Price: $27.95 U.S.
SUMMARY: Journalist Jon Mooallem has watched his little daughter’s world overflow with animals butterfly pajamas, appliquéd owls—while the actual world she’s inheriting slides into a great storm of extinction. Half of all species could disappear by the end of the century, and scientists now concede that most of America’s endangered animals will survive only if conservationists keep rigging the world around them in their favor. So Mooallem ventures into the field, often taking his daughter with him, to move beyond childlike fascination and make those creatures feel more real. Wild Ones is a tour through our environmental moment and the eccentric cultural history of people and wild animals in America that inflects it—from Thomas Jefferson’s celebrations of early abundance to the turn-of the-last-century origins of the teddy bear to the whale-loving hippies of the 1970s. In America, Wild Ones discovers, wildlife has always inhabited the terrain of our imagination as much as the actual land.
      The journey is framed by the stories of three modern-day endangered species: the polar bear, victimized by climate change and ogled by tourists outside a remote northern town; the little-known Lange’s metalmark butterfly, foundering on a shred of industrialized land near San Francisco; and the whooping crane as it’s led on a months-long migration by costumed men in ultralight airplanes. The wilderness that Wild Ones navigates is a scrappy, disorderly place where amateur conservationists do grueling, sometimes preposterous-looking work; where a marketer maneuvers to control the polar bear’s image while Martha Stewart turns up to film those beasts for her show on the Hallmark Channel. Our most comforting ideas about nature unravel. In their place, Mooallem forges a new and affirming vision of the human animal and the wild ones as kindred creatures on an imperfect planet.
      With propulsive curiosity and searing wit, and without the easy moralizing and nature worship of environmental journalism’s older guard, Wild Ones merges reportage, science, and history into a humane and endearing meditation on what it means to live in, and bring a life into, a broken world.

RECOMMENDATION: For those with an interest in wildlife conservation.

 

 

2) Spawls, Stephen and Glenn Mathews. Kenya: A Natural History. 2012. Bloomsbury/ T & A D Poyser. Hardbound: 448 pages. Price: $95.00 U.S./£50.00.

SUMMARY: For its size, Kenya probably has the most diverse range of habitats of any country in Africa, if not the world. Within its borders there are alpine peaks, montane forests, high plateaux, savannas, lowland forests, coastal woodlands and wetlands, and a string of varied lakes in the Great Rift Valley. The range of wildlife to be found in the region is correspondingly diverse. this book explores the wildlife and habitats in great detail and gives a thorough overview of Kenya's natural history.

RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those with an interest in Kenyan natural history.

 

New Title

 

1) D'Elia, Jesse and Susan M. Haig. California Condors in the Pacific Northwest. 2013. Oregon State University Press. Paperback: 208 pages. Price: $19.95 U.S.

SUMMARY: Despite frequent depiction as a bird of California and the desert southwest, North America’s largest avian scavenger once graced the skies of the Pacific Northwest, from northern California to British Columbia. This important volume documents the condor’s history in the region, from prehistoric times to the early twentieth century, and explores the challenges of reintroduction.

      Jesse D’Elia and Susan Haig investigate the paleontological and observational record as well as the cultural relationships between Native American tribes and condors, providing the most complete assessment to date of the condor’s occurrence in the Pacific Northwest. They evaluate the probable causes of regional extinction and the likelihood that condors once bred in the region, and they assess factors that must be considered in determining whether they could once again thrive in Northwest skies.

      Incorporating the newest research and findings and more than eighty detailed historical accounts of human encounters with these birds of prey, California Condors in the Pacific Northwest sets a new standard for examining the historical record of a species prior to undertaking a reintroduction effort. It is a vital reference for academics, agency decision makers, conservation biologists, and readers interested in Northwest natural history. The volume is beautifully illustrated by Ram Papish and includes a number of previously unpublished photographs.

RECOMMENDATION: A MUST have for anyone with an interest in the California Condor.

New Titles

1) Lever, Christopher. The Mandarin Duck. 2013. T & A D Poyser. Hardbound: 192 pages. Price: $80.00 U.S./£50.00.

SUMMARY: The Mandarin Duck is a small and (in the case of the males) spectacularly colourful species of waterfowl. Widely kept in aviaries around the world, populations often escaped to form wild colonies. One of the largest and best-studied is in southern England. Although declining and nowadays surprisingly hard to find, Britain's wild Mandarin population is probably more numerous than that of the duck's true home, China and the Russian Far East, where it is now endangered.
      This Poyser monograph is a detailed account of this beautiful duck's lifestyle and biology, with particular emphasis on invasive populations in Britain and overseas. It is a superb addition to the long-running and acclaimed Poyser series.

RECOMMENDATION: A MUST have for those with an interest in the species.

2) Prothero, Donald R.. Reality Check: How Science Deniers Threaten Our Future. 2013. Indiana University Press. Hardbound: 371 pages. Price: $35.00 U.S.

SUMMARY: The battles over evolution, climate change, childhood vaccinations, and the causes of AIDS, alternative medicine, oil shortages, population growth, and the place of science in our country—all are reaching a fevered pitch. Many people and institutions have exerted enormous efforts to misrepresent or flatly deny demonstrable scientific reality to protect their nonscientific ideology, their power, or their bottom line. To shed light on this darkness, Donald R. Prothero explains the scientific process and why society has come to rely on science not only to provide a better life but also to reach verifiable truths no other method can obtain. He describes how major scientific ideas that are accepted by the entire scientific community (evolution, anthropogenic global warming, vaccination, the HIV cause of AIDS, and others) have been attacked with totally unscientific arguments and methods. Prothero argues that science deniers pose a serious threat to society, as their attempts to subvert the truth have resulted in widespread scientific ignorance, increased risk of global catastrophes, and deaths due to the spread of diseases that could have been prevented.

RECOMMENDATION: For those with an interest in science education (or lack thereof).

 

3) Suzuki, Mamoru. Birds' Nests of the World. 2001 (English edition: 2013). Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. Hardbound: 73 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S.

SUMMARY: Mr. Mamoru Suzuki was born in Tokyo in 1952. He attended Tokyo College of the Arts, and is a professional artist and keen student of the birds of the world. Mr. Suzuki is a renowned author and illustrator for multiple Japanese artistic books on nature, including The Book of Birds’ Nests; Nest Poems: A collection of poems and illustrations; and the Black Cat Sangoro series.He has published essays about his own collection of birds’ nests, and has exhibited both his artwork and his nests in cities all over the world.

       In the 1990s, Mr. Suzuki began visiting the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology (WFVZ), a non-profit natural history museum in southern California, to draw and paint bird egg and nest materials in the collections.Mr. Suzuki’s artistic books on birds caught the attention of the Staff of the WFVZ, and in 2010, Dr. Linnea Hall (Director of the WFVZ) and Mr. René Corado (Collections Manager) discussed the possibility of translating Mamoru’s 2001 book -- “Birds’ Nests of the World”—from Japanese into English, and the current project was born.

      The book contains breeding information for hundreds of birds of the world, depicted creatively and scientifically.It will serve as a wonderful family learning book, as well as a scientific reference for ornithologists and bird watchers who want to learn more about the nesting and breeding habits of the birds of the world.

RECOMMENDATION: A well illustrated introduction to bird nesting behavior. The book is available here: http://www.wfvz.org/cms/index.php?option=com_oscommerce&osMod=product_info&Itemid=59&catID=41&products_id=164

New Title

 

1) D'Amato, Peter. The Savage Garden, Revised: Cultivating Carnivorous Plants. 2013. Ten Speed Press. Paperback: 374 pages. Price: $25.99 U.S.

SUMMARY: For fifteen years, The Savage Garden has been the number one bestselling bible for those interested in growing carnivorous plants. This new edition is fully revised to include the latest developments and discoveries in the carnivorous plant world, making it the most accurate and up to date book of its kind.
You may be familiar with the Venus flytrap, but did you know that some pitcher plants can—and do—digest an entire rat? Or that there are several hundred species of carnivorous plants on our planet? Beautiful, unusual, and surprisingly easy to grow, flesh-eating plants thrive everywhere from windowsills to outdoor container gardens, in a wide variety of climates. The Savage Garden is the most comprehensive guide to these fascinating oddities, gloriously illustrated with more than 200 color photos. Fully revised with the latest developments in the carnivorous plant world, this new edition includes:
• All the basics—from watering and feeding to modern advances in artificial lighting, soil, and fertilizers.
• Detailed descriptions of hundreds of plants, including many of the incredible new species that have been recently discovered and hybridized.
• Cultivation and propagation information for all the plant families: pitcher plants, Venus flytraps, sundews, rainbow plants, bladderworts, and many other peculiar plants from the demented mind of Mother Nature.
      Whether you’re a beginner with your first flytrap or an expert looking for the latest exotic specimen, this classic book has everything you need to grow your very own little garden of horrors.

 RECOMMENDATION: A MUST have for anyone with an interest in these plants!

Reprinted Title

 

 

1) Wallace, Alfred Russel. Island Life. 2013. The University of Chicago Press. Paperback: 528 pages. Price: $30.00 U.S.

SUMMARY: Alfred Russel Wallace is best known as the codiscoverer, with Charles Darwin, of natural selection, but he was also history’s foremost tropical naturalist and the father of biogeography, the modern study of the geographical basis of biological diversity. Island Life has long been considered one of his most important works. In it he extends studies on the influence of the glacial epochs on organismal distribution patterns and the characteristics of island biogeography, a topic as vibrant and actively studied today as it was in 1880. The book includes history’s first theory of continental glaciation based on a combination of geographical and astronomical causes, adiscussion of island classification, and a survey of worldwide island faunas and floras.

      The year 2013 will mark the centennial of Wallace’s death and will see a host of symposia and reflections on Wallace’s contributions to evolution and natural history. This reissue of the first edition of Island Life, with a foreword by David Quammen and an extensive commentary by Lawrence R. Heaney, who has spent over three decades studying island biogeography in Southeast Asia, makes this essential and foundational reference available and accessible once again.

RECOMMENDATION: For those with an interest in Wallace's writings, evolution, or island biogeography.

New Title

 

1) Mapes, Lynda V. and Steve Ringman. Elwha: A River Reborn. 2013. The Mountaineers Books. Paperback: 176 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S.

SUMMARY: In the fall of 2011, the Times was on hand when a Montana contractor removed the first pieces from two concrete dams on the Elwha River which cuts through the Olympic range. It was the beginning of the largest dam removal project ever undertaken in North America—one dam was 200 feet tall—and the start of an unprecedented attempt to restore an entire ecosystem. More than 70 miles of the Elwha and its tributaries course from the mountain headwaters to clamming beaches on the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Through interviews, field work, archival and historical research, and photojournalism, The Seattle Times has explored and reported on the dam removal, the Elwha ecosystem, its industrialization, and now its renewal. Elwha: A River Reborn is based on these feature articles.
      Richly illustrated with stunning photographs, as well as historic images, graphics, and a map, Elwha tells the interwoven stories of this region. Meet the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe, who anxiously await the return of renowned salmon runs savored over the generations in the stories of their elders. Discover the biologists and engineers who are bringing the dams down and laying the plan for renewal, including an unprecedented revegetation effort that will eventually cover more than 700 acres of mudflats.
      When the dam started to come down in Fall 2011—anticipated for more than 20 years since Congress passed the Elwha Restoration Act—it was the beginning of a $350 million project observed around the world. Elwha: A River Reborn is inspiring and instructive, a triumphant story of place, people, and environment striving to come together.

RECOMMENDATION: For anyone with an interest in the history of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.

New Title

1) Chacon, Federico Munoz and Richard Dennis Johnston. Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: A Pocket Guide. 2013. Cornell University Press. Paperback: 172 pages. Price: $14.95 U.S.

SUMMARY: Costa Rica is a remarkable place for amphibians and reptiles. Known for its biological diversity, conservation priorities, and extensive protected lands, this small country contains 418 herpetological species including the dangerous Fer-de-Lance and Black-headed Bushmaster, the beloved sea turtles, and numerous dink, foam, glass, and rain frogs. Additional species are thought to be nearing extinction while others have been introduced only recently.

      Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica is the perfect introductory guide to this diverse herpetofauna in a format that makes it easy to carry into the field. The focus is on identification with entries for all species in the country, including scientific and English common names, as well as the older names for the many species that have been recently reclassified. Key ID marks are noted as well as adult sizes. Range maps identify the region(s) where species are known to be present. Color photographs and drawings are provided for over 80 percent of the species, representing those that are most likely to be encountered. Designed with ease of use in mind, this guide will be a great aid to the observer in identifying the specimen at hand.

RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those with an interest in the herpetofauna of the region.

2) LeBuhn, Gretchen and Noel Pugh. Field Guide to the Common Bees of California: Including Bees of the Western United States. 2013. University of California Press. Paperback: 175 pages. Price: $21.95 U.S.

SUMMARY: This engaging and easy-to-use natural history guidebook provides a thorough overview of native and honey bee biology and offers tools for identifying the most common bees of California and the Western United States. Full-color illustrations introduce readers to more than 30 genera of native bees, noting each one's needs and habits and placing them in their wider context. The author highlights bees’ ties to our own lives, the food we eat, and the habitat we provide, and suggests ways to support bees in our own backyards.
      In addition to helping readers understand and distinguish among major groups of bees, this guide reveals how bees are an essential part of healthy ecosystem and how many plants, including important crop plants, depend on the pollination they provide. As growing evidence points to declining bee populations, this book offers critical information about the bond between plants and pollinators, and between humans and nature. Thoroughly researched and full of new insights into the ancient process of pollination, Field Guide to the Common Bees of California; Including Bees of the Western United States is invaluable for the window it opens onto the biodiversity, adaptive range, and complexity of invertebrate communities.

RECOMMENDATION: A well illustrated introduction to the bees of the region.

The Weekly Birdbooker Report

                                                   Photo copyright: Joe Fuhrman

My WEEKLY Birdbooker Report can be found here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2013/jul/14/1

New Titles

 

1) Landes, Joan B., Paula Young Lee, and Paul Youngquist (editors). Gorgeous Beasts: Animal Bodies in Historical Perspective. 2012. The Pennsylvania State University Press. Hardbound: 231 pages. Price: $49.95 U.S.
SUMMARY: Gorgeous Beasts takes a fresh look at the place of animals in history and art. Refusing the traditional subordination of animals to humans, the essays gathered here examine a rich variety of ways animals contribute to culture: as living things, as scientific specimens, as food, weapons, tropes, and occasions for thought and creativity. History and culture set the terms for this inquiry. As history changes, so do the ways animals participate in culture. Gorgeous Beasts offers a series of discontinuous but probing studies of the forms their participation takes.

      This collection presents the work of a wide range of scholars, critics, and thinkers from diverse disciplines: philosophy, literature, history, geography, economics, art history, cultural studies, and the visual arts. By approaching animals from such different perspectives, these essays broaden the scope of animal studies to include specialists and nonspecialists alike, inviting readers from all backgrounds to consider the place of animals in history and art. Combining provocative critical insights with arresting visual imagery, Gorgeous Beasts advances a challenging new appreciation of animals as co-inhabitants and co-creators of culture.

      Aside from the editors, the contributors are Dean Bavington, Ron Broglio, Mark Dion, Erica Fudge, Cecilia Novero, Harriet Ritvo, Nigel Rothfels, Sajay Samuel, and Pierre Serna.

   

2) Poliquin, Rachael. The Breathless Zoo: Taxidermy and the Cultures of Longing. 2012. The Pennsylvania State Unviersity Press. Paperback: 259 pages. Price: $29.95 U.S.

SUMMARY: From sixteenth-century cabinets of wonders to contemporary animal art, The Breathless Zoo: Taxidermy and the Cultures of Longing examines the cultural and poetic history of preserving animals in lively postures. But why would anyone want to preserve an animal, and what is this animal-thing now? Rachel Poliquin suggests that taxidermy is entwined with the enduring human longing to find meaning with and within the natural world. Her study draws out the longings at the heart of taxidermy—the longing for wonder, beauty, spectacle, order, narrative, allegory, and remembrance. In so doing, The Breathless Zoo explores the animal spectacles desired by particular communities, human assumptions of superiority, the yearnings for hidden truths within animal form, and the loneliness and longing that haunt our strange human existence, being both within and apart from nature.

 RECOMMENDATION: These titles are the first two volumes in the Animalibus: Of Animals and Cultures series.

New Titles

1) Everard, Mark. Britain's Freshwater Fishes. 2013. Princeton University Press. Paperback: 144 pages. Price: $27.95 U.S./£17.95.

SUMMARY: Britain hosts a diversity of freshwater environments, from torrential hill streams and lowland rivers to lakes, reservoirs, ponds, canals, ditches, and upper reaches of estuaries. Britain's Freshwater Fishes covers the 53 species of freshwater and brackish water fishes that are native or have been introduced and become naturalized. This beautifully illustrated guide features high-quality in-the-water or on-the-bank photographs throughout. Detailed species accounts describe the key identification features and provide information on status, size and weight, habitat, ecology, and conservation. Written in an accessible style, the book also contains introductory sections on fish biology, fish habitats, how to identify fishes, and conservation and legislation.

      This book features:

• Covers all of Britain's freshwater fishes
• Features beautiful photos throughout
• Includes detailed information on 53 species, the places they inhabit, and their roles in Britain's ecosystems
• Attractively designed and easy to use

RECOMMENDATION: A well illustrated guide to the freshwater fishes of the region.

2) Jameson, Conor Mark. Looking for the Goshawk. 2013. Bloomsbury. Hardbound: $28.95 U.S./£18.99.

SUMMARY: The book traces Conor Jameson's travels in search of the Goshawk, a magnificent yet rarely seen (in Britain at least) raptor. Each episode of the narrative arises from personal experience, investigation, and the unearthing of information from research, exploration and conversations.
      The journey takes him from an encounter with a stuffed Goshawk in a glass case, through travels into supposed Goshawk territories in Britain, to Berlin - where he finds the bird at ease in the city. Why, he wants to know, is the bird so rarely seen in Britain? He explores the politics of birdwatching, the sport of falconry and the impact of persecution on the recent history of the bird in Britain and travels the length of Britain, through central Europe and the USA in search of answers to the goshawk mystery. Throughout his journey he is inspired by the writings of T H White who told of his attempts to tame a Goshawk in his much-loved book.
      It's a gripping tale on the trail of a most mysterious and charismatic bird.

 RECOMMENDATION: More of a travelogue than a book about Goshawk biology.

New Title

 

1) Macnamara, Peggy with John Bates and James H. Boone. The Art of Migration: Birds, Insects, and the Changing Seasons in Chicagoland. 2013. The University of Chicago Press. Hardbound: 203 pages. Price: $25.00 U.S.

SUMMARY: Tiny ruby-throated hummingbirds weighing less than a nickel fly from the upper Midwest to Costa Rica every fall, crossing the six-hundred-mile Gulf of Mexico without a single stop. One of the many creatures that commute on the Mississippi Flyway as part of an annual migration, they pass along Chicago’s lakefront and through midwestern backyards on a path used by their species for millennia. This magnificent migrational dance takes place every year in Chicagoland, yet it is often missed by the region’s two-legged residents. The Art of Migration uncovers these extraordinary patterns that play out over the seasons.   Readers are introduced to over two hundred of the birds and insects that traverse regions from the edge of Lake Superior to Lake Michigan and to the rivers that flow into the Mississippi.
      As the only artist in residence at the Field Museum, Peggy Macnamara has a unique vantage point for studying these patterns and capturing their distinctive traits. Her magnificent watercolor illustrations capture flocks, movement, and species-specific details. The illustrations are accompanied by text from museum staff and include details such as natural histories, notable features for identification, behavior, and how species have adapted to environmental changes. The book follows a gentle seasonal sequence and includes chapters on studying migration, artist’s notes on illustrating wildlife, and tips on the best ways to watch for birds and insects in the Chicago area.
      A perfect balance of science and art, The Art of Migration will prompt us to marvel anew at the remarkable spectacle going on around us.

RECOMMENDATION: If you liked Macnamara's Architecture by Birds and Insects you'll like this book. 

The Weekly Birdbooker Report

                                                  Photo copyright: Joe Fuhrman

My WEEKLY Birdbooker Report can be found here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2013/jul/07/1

New Titles

1) Burke, Thomas E.. Land Snails and Slugs of the Pacific Northwest. 2013. Oregon State University Press. Paperback: 344 pages. Price: $35.00 U.S.

SUMMARY: Terrestrial mollusks, the second largest phylum in the animal kingdom, are vitally important to the earth’s ecology. With the publication of Land Snails and Slugs of the Pacific Northwest, a definitive and comprehensive guide to snails and slugs of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and western Montana is finally available.

      Primarily an identification guide, this richly illustrated volume offers complete information on the range of terrestrial mollusk shapes, sizes, and characteristics. It presents an overview of their habitat requirements as well as details of land snail and slug ecology, collection and preservation methods, and biogeography.

Land Snails and Slugs of the Pacific Northwest is an essential reference for biologists, horticulturalists, gardeners, and naturalists, and anyone wishing to identify species in the field.

      This book features:

• Identification keys and species accounts for most of the 245 taxa of terrestrial slugs and snails in the region
• 280 full-color photographs of 155 species and subspecies

• Range maps for most species

RECOMMENDATION: A must have for those with an interest in these terrestrial invertebrates.

 

2) Shipman, Pat. A Guide to the Little Cayman Nature Trail. 2012. Self-published. Paperback: 53 pages. Price: $10.00 U.S.

SUMMARY: This is the only book to offer an introduction to Cayman ecology. Lavishly illustrated, this small book can be carried with you as you walk the Nature Trail. It will help you to identify and understand the plants, reptiles, birds, snails and crabs you encounter. You will want to keep this book as a permanent reference to Little Cayman wildlife. Charming and accessible, reading this book feels as if the author is taking you for a walk along the trail and telling you stories about what you are seeing. As essential guide!

 

3) Shipman, Pat and Alan Walker. A Guide to the Seashells of Little Cayman. 2013. Rocky River Press. Spiralbound: 145 pages. Price: $25.00 U.S.

SUMMARY: This is the only book to focus on the seashells of the Cayman Islands, in particular Little Cayman. Hundreds of color photographs of nearly 100 of the most common shells help the amateur shell collector to identify treasures found on the beach. Unlike academic malacology books, which are organized taxonomically, this book is organized by general shape and size of each shell. This book is written in accessible language and tells readers about the size, color, diet, and habitat where each mollusc lives, as well as quirky information about various species. Learn how the Flame Helmet pounces on its sea urchin prey, how the egg cockles leaps out of boats, and how the fragile and exquisite spirula is formed. A small book, this volume can easily be slipped into a beach bag or pocket and taken with you to the beach. This is a charming and in invaluable guide for anyone interested in Caribbean shells and particularly those of the Cayman Islands. Written by a pair of retired professors who live on Little Cayman part-time, this book will spark your curiosity and teach you to appreciate the beautiful shells of Little Cayman.

RECOMMENDATION: These two guides will be useful for anyone visiting or living on Little Cayman.