Handbook of the Mammals of the World

Had an email saying available from 15th April

 

I also saw an e-mail, from 2 weeks ago, in which they state, shipping starts around 10-15 april.

 

I just got an email from them saying "We have just received the first copies and are beginning with the shipping. This involves a bulk shipment to the US which will leave in a week to ten days and arrive, we hope in early May. Depending on how long customs clearance takes, I estimate that you will receive the volume mid- to late May."

I want it NOWWW! Haha

 

I've just had a quick flick through my copy of volume 3. Some of the plates are much worse than I feared. Everything else appears to be of the usual high standard. I can't for the life of me understand why the publisher used this artist it really impacts the quality of the publication. Has anyone else received their copy yet?

 

Species inflation is something I've thought about. Common sense tells me that if you have X amount of one subspecies and Y amount of another and neither population is sustainable is it really that bad to mix them instead of the whole species going extinct? We tend to put our present time as bias but maybe the future of the world and seeing a tiger a 100 years from now may mean going generic on everything at least to the species level. Look at what we already do with reticulated and rothschild giraffe. Now would it really be that bad to keep the Indochinese Malayan, Sumatran and South China Tigers alive by blending them.

And yes I know full well that I am not a scientist but I never claimed to be just a farmer and a history teacher.

 

@Dicerorhinus, that is what I already feared.... But somehow Nash managed to be the world primate illustrator.... Although Llobet is better by far.... Fortunately, Llobet will be drawing in the next volume....

I wonder how large is the Primate volume compared to the previous two?

I am still waiting eagerly for the e-mail that my copy is underway....

 

I agree wholeheartedly with this.

There simply isn't the necessary political willpower or resources being allocated to preventing megafaunal extinctions to be worrying about subspecific populations for their own sake. We're in a major extinction event, and should be acting accordingly.

What should guide decision making is a taxa's ability to fill a niche in a post-extinction event world. So there might be justification for preserving both the cold adapted Siberian and tropical Sumatran tiger. But it's hard to see what difference it makes if we were to try to repopulate Iran with African cheetahs, or India with African lions. Presumably they will eventually radiate out again into different subspecies in time... if they get the chance.

 

I'm not saying necessarily that we interfere with the naturally created subspecies in the wild but at the same time we should be thinking about making the hard choices - do we have the tiger as a whole or risk losing them all because of genetic bottlenecks by smaller and smaller subspecies groups.

It seems "generic" animals get a bad wrap in the zoo world when I really see them as the future. And no I am not saying AZA institutions should go on full roadside zoo and bred ligers but serious what the difference between different "subspecies" of Lion if they are all separately on the brink, why not bring them together and wow you instantly have large numbers and brand new genes.

 

Because you then still lose a lot of biodiversity. Biodiversity is not only on species level, but also on gene level.

I don't think the discussion should go about saving some species, which will always be the charismatic megafauna...

One should focuss more on protecting whole ecosystems instead of focussing just on furry cats.

We won't see many megafaunal extinctions, the only ones likely to go extinct forever are javan rhino, possibly sumatran rhino and such species. That have no real captive population. BUT we will see many other extinctions in invertebrates, amphibians and other small animals and that's much more worrying....

 

Well look far in the future, what if Zoos were the only place with megafauna would you rather have unsustainable populations of Malayan, Indochinese, South China, and Sumatran or one Sustainable population of 'Southeast Asia Tiger"? Hard choices yes but we tend to think in our minds that present conditions will always be the same. Planning for the long term future is essential. This goes to hoofstock as well.

 

I am not that scared of a bit smaller population being unsustainable, as inbreeding is not that bad as everybody cries. I would see it more as a bottlneneck, but especially species as cheetah have showed that they can overcome that.

In Zoos there are other rule applying than in the wild, especially concerning genetics, as we have some tricks to keep them as diverse as possible....

 

My copy is on his way to the Netherlands, expected to arrive at 23st of April. I am very excited but afraid to be very disappointed about the plates....

 

My copy arrived today and I have to say I think the plates are mostly fine as far as I can see. The colour is noticeably a little out on a few (Saimiri, for example) and a couple have a few too many taxa to a page (like Ateles) but overall I think they do the job very well.

Is it me or has the Gorilla plate changed since the pre-publication images? Might be imagining it but it looks different.

 

Maguari, I still haven't had the time to take a good look through the book but the contrast in quality of the plates to the first two volumes is stark. The fact that all animals are in the same posture makes the plates sterile and I feel it's a little lazy. Some of the species don't really resemble their real world counterparts either. The ateles and callitrichid plates stick in my mind here. As you say the plates are often crowded. Is it just me or has Nash recycled drawings published in other books?
The rest of the book seems to be of a high quality but it baffles me why the publisher used this illustrator!
Has anyone else revived their copy yet?

 

Ah, I see (partly) why we (partly) disagree - I prefer all the animals on a plate to be in the same pose to aid comparison, so that's a positive for me.

I certainly don't think I'd have noticed any problems with the actual images themselves if I hadn't read this thread, barring the oddly-coloured squirrel monkeys and the slightly leering Allen's Swamp Monkey. Definitely a few that would have benefited from being split between two plates though.

The marmosets and tamarins are the same as in this booklet, which I also own: [ame=http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marmosets-Tamarins-Conservation-International-Pocket/dp/1934151203/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367268996&sr=8-1&keywords=marmosets]Marmosets and Tamarins Conservation International Pocket Guide Series: Amazon.co.uk: A Rylands, RA Mittermeier, AF Coimbra-Filho, EW Heymann, Stephen D Nash: Books[/ame]

But I like them in that publication as well!

 

I'd understand the uniformity in a field guide but these are certainly not Field guides.

It would be interesting to hear some more opinions it's not really a big deal it's just a book after all!

 

No, but it's still nice to play 'spot the difference'!

The plates sections are sort of 'non-field' guides though - a guide that has the luxury of not needing to be portable - and I quite like how the plate layouts resemble a normal field guide, including when the poses are matched.

Oh, indeed!

(albeit rather an expensive one!)

 

Most of the plates are fine, but of much lower quality then the previous volumes, but some appear to crowded (ateles, some guenons, galago etc.). I also do not like all the animals to be in the same posture, especially when the posture is ugly, as in most of the langurs, chimps etc....

Many of the drawings are recycled, all the lemurs are from "Lemurs of Madagascar", many drawings are from "Primates of West Africa" and there will be more.

I do not see this a a field guide, but more as a good encyclopedia, so I would nog expect the animals being drawn exactly the same. And I do not see the need to draw 10 supspecies of White throated guenon and 8 of guereza etc, that makes it unnecessary crowded....

But the most disappointing would be the drawings of proboscis monkey and orang utan....

 

Received my copy yesterday . I have not had a chance for a good look yet , but do not think the plates are brilliant - useful for indicating differences between species/sub-species but from far from life-like . However , there are lots of brilliant photos , many of some of the rarer and often newly identified species . Look forward to dipping into it again soon .