So that's another unusual species then, which I hadn't heard of. Must update Australian mammal field guide... Note by Chlidonias: this thread split off from here: http://www.zoochat.com/24/david-fleay-wildlife-park-show-species-452143/
it's the one above the Common Brushtail, although it has since been split into caninus and cunninghami.
Yeah, I see that (mountain brushtail possum). Which mammal guide do you have - I presume the 2nd edition (which I have) of Menkhorst and Knight? There is a third edition from 2010, any thoughts on whether that is much more useful? Are there any other useful guides (apart from Andrew's Finding Mammals)?
https://www.andrewisles.com.au/all-stock/publication/field-companion-to-the-mammals-of-australia Booktopia - The Mammals of Australia by Ronald Strahan, 9781877069253. Buy this book online. Both books are excellent, the second is not a field guide and is a bit pricey (if you can find it). Hix
the one I have with me is the 2001 first edition, the one with my other books is the 2004 second edition. I haven't seen the 2010 third edition.
I have the third edition, though I can't say if it's any better than any other edition as it's the only one I've seen. It doesn't have separate illustrations for Short-eared and Mountain Brushtail however there are separate species texts and maps for them and it says 'Short-eared Brushtail Possum and Mountain Brushtail Possum' next to the illustrations with the note that 'discriminating features suitable for field identification have not been determined'.
Thanks LD, I'll see if I can find a copy this weekend and do a bit of a comparison. Online reviews state that it includes "all 382" Australian mammals, which is not many more than the 2nd edition's "all 378". Thanks Hix. Do you think the first Ronald Strahan & Steve Van Dyck book you linked above is better than the Menkhorst & Knight one? If so, why? I also saw this interesting book on the CSIRO website: Taxonomy of Australian Mammals (Taxonomy of Australian Mammals, Stephen Jackson and Colin Groves, 9781486300129). Anyone encountered this? Insane price though.
I actually saw that and had a flick through it in the gift shop of the Queensland Museum in Brisbane. It was pretty interesting but quite a heavy read with pages of dense, technical text with no pictures or anything like that. I would certainly have bought it though if it was cheaper (I think it was priced at $199) and if I wasn't flying Jet Star with tight baggage restrictions.
the Strahan book is completely different to the field guide, it is more the sort of book you have on your bookshelf for reference. Older editions available from Amazon for less than $4 though: https://www.amazon.com/MAMMALS-AUSTRALIA-Ronald-Strahan/dp/1560986735 Another mammal book is Cronin's Key Guide: I have it with my other books but I can't remember if it includes all species, or otherwise how much use it is. https://www.amazon.com/Cronins-Key-Guide-Australian-Mammals/dp/1741751101
I don't think I have Menkhorst and Knight (if I do, I don't really use it). The Strahan and van Dyck book is probably the definitive tome, and I use it for identifications and information - but it stays at home, never goes into the field (too big and way too heavy). The Field Companion, however is brilliant. It had descriptions of all the species, keys to everything, and each group is given a 'frustration rating', to indicate how difficult it is to identify related species. For instance, Monotremes have a frustration index of 1, whereas dunnarts have an index of 8. (Virtually all my books are in storage and I haven't seen them for many months, so the examples given above are probably not exact, but you get the idea.) Hix
the Andrew Isles site has a couple of images of the pages inside to give an idea: https://www.andrewisles.com/all-stock/publication/field-companion-to-the-mammals-of-australia I've never seen the book myself, looks good, but really it looks inferior to the Menkhorst and Knight field guide for practical use.
I know this is an old thread but since I've just come back from two years of Australian mammaling I thought I'd put in my two cents. The only two books I've encountered that actually included "all"* mammals were the above mentioned Menkhorst & Knight (drawings) and Ronald Strahan & Steve Van Dyck field companion (photos). Everything else usually omitted a bunch of dasyurids if not more. *even those don't include everything since they are already a couple years old and so don't include some of the newer splits (like f.e. Long-nosed Bandicoot, Short-eared Rock-wallaby etc) Out of these two Menkhorst is alright for IDing easy species like the bigger possums, macropods and to get an idea of the overall bigger picture of what's around but it's almost useless for the more difficult species like some of the bandicoots or the small dasyurids and rodents. There's no ID keys, no pics of key features like the underside of feet for the small stuff, etc. (When I was up on Cape York this was the only mammal book I had with me and it was absolutely useless for Bandicoots. Even if I'd caught one it wouldn't have told me what to look for...(dentition)). The Strahan field companion could have done with larger sized pictures but it's really the only useful book for the more difficult groups. They do compliment each other to an extent but if you can only take/have one Strahan is the way to go.
