This new book by Tanya Chan-ard, Jarujin Nabhitabhata and John W. K. Parr, published by Oxford University Press USA, and printed in China, offers a handy and much needed single volume illustrated reference to the lizards, snakes, crocodilians, tortoises and turtles of Thailand, many of which are found in neighbouring Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, and elsewhere in south east Asia.
It is marketed as the definitive resource for identifying and understanding all known species of reptile in the region.
Two formats are offered : a paperback edition which has a colour illustrated cover, and a hardback edition which has a utilitarian hard paperboard gilt-stamped binding. Both are tightly bound, printed on good quality stock and open flat for ease of use.
A Thai language version is planned.
The table of contents can be found online. The glossary and large clear diagrams of distinguishing features (in the introductory section only) will be very useful for novice users. I found the map of the administrative provinces very helpful.
This field guide offers the “most current information on each species' conservation status” and explains the current system of classifying the threat level of endangerment, making the presented information and terminology “understandable and useful”. Six pages are devoted to reptilian and conservation bodies, and the minutiae of CITES, where the Red List for Thailand is now utterly out of date. Rather too much effort has been expended on information of interest to careerists which could have been better spent elsewhere.
The guide provides species accounts for the 352 species confirmed from Thailand as of 31st December 2010, four years prior to publication. The species accounts present diagnostic notes, and cover behaviour, habitat, range (with an outline map), conservation status, and the book is indexed by common and scientific names by species number rather than by page number.
A number of cost saving measures in book production are immediately evident, poor editing being one giving a number of glaring typos, for example and picked at random : Gekkos (for Geckos page xxvii), Muster (for C.J.M. Musters, page 80), Draogon (!) (page 163).
The identification keys are mostly modified and simplified from primary sources, these are mentioned by author but not by title and are not cited in full in the selected bibliography.
The species descriptions are clear and simple and the type face makes for comfortable reading but the common names are given in English only, not much use to your local guide, and there is a complete lack of taxonomic information. The author(s) and date of publication of taxa are primary references and to exclude them offers a wholly unnecessary dumbing down to the reader.
I am all for uniformity in species descriptions ; if you are going to mention eye colour for one species (and it can be a very useful identification tool) then mention it for all. The challenge of course is that you would have to have handled all the species described rather than compiling the book from previously published sources.
Three illustrators provided all the figures for the book. No locality information is given for any of the illustrations and none of the illustrations are attributed. Not all species are illustrated, the majority of the illustrations are colour drawings from photos from life (often published elsewhere), a few are drawings of museum specimens and some are copies of drawings from reference publications.
The illustrations are generally very good quality and give the observer a good 'impression' and pointer to identification and clearly a great deal of time and effort has been taken to show colours and scale patterns but they have been published much too small in size to be of direct practical use in comparing with a live specimen in the field. The colour rendition and definition of head scalation in a good colour photograph puts the user light years ahead of struggling to use a magnifier to view scalation in a tiny colour drawing. It would not be possible to distinguish the Water Snakes Homalophis, Cerberus, Gerarda and Fordonia from their illustrations. The unique and truly wonderful Blunt-headed Tree Snake, Aplopeltura boa, is here depicted by a dreadful illustration harking back to the artistic style of the mid 1970s.
The ubiquitous House Geckos (Hemidactylus) are the reptiles most often encountered by the tourist and casual observer. There are four species in Thailand, and these, and the superficially similar Gehyra, are just crying out for simple colour photos for the identification of the species. The market has long since moved on from colour drawings being a reference standard in reptile field guides.
There are a scant few illustrations depicting either juveniles or sexual dimorphism, and none illustrating defensive posture mimicry.
Photos, photos, photos, much needed colour photos, the crux of a useful field guide : A Field Guide to the Reptiles of Thailand is completely bereft of colour photos.
Despite Thailand having a national anti-venom producer many fatalities from snake envenomation are recorded each year but even the simplest of advice on snake bite is lacking in this guide.
The Tree Snakes, Chrysopelea, are noted as being mildly venomous and the Cat Snakes, Boiga, as being 'rear-fanged and not considered dangerous to humans', yet the dangerously venomous Red-necked Keelback or Ular picung, Rhabdophis subminiatus, for which numerous medically significant envenomations have been reported stretching back as far as 1978, features it's entry without such mention – handle with care !
The authors struggle with differentiating between 'poisonous' and 'venomous' snakes, describing the elaphids as 'poisonous' and the viperids as 'venomous'. Both are venomous, although both may be poisonous if you eat them .
Overall a handbook very useful for the keys and clear descriptions and a very helpful contribution to the still poorly known reptile fauna of Thailand desperately threatened by human and agricultural pressures across much of the lowland habitats.
314 pages. Colour figures, outline maps, keys to species. 24 x 16cm.
Hardback. 9780199736492. GBP 81.00
Paperback. 9780199736508. GBP 25.99.
It is marketed as the definitive resource for identifying and understanding all known species of reptile in the region.
Two formats are offered : a paperback edition which has a colour illustrated cover, and a hardback edition which has a utilitarian hard paperboard gilt-stamped binding. Both are tightly bound, printed on good quality stock and open flat for ease of use.
A Thai language version is planned.
The table of contents can be found online. The glossary and large clear diagrams of distinguishing features (in the introductory section only) will be very useful for novice users. I found the map of the administrative provinces very helpful.
This field guide offers the “most current information on each species' conservation status” and explains the current system of classifying the threat level of endangerment, making the presented information and terminology “understandable and useful”. Six pages are devoted to reptilian and conservation bodies, and the minutiae of CITES, where the Red List for Thailand is now utterly out of date. Rather too much effort has been expended on information of interest to careerists which could have been better spent elsewhere.
The guide provides species accounts for the 352 species confirmed from Thailand as of 31st December 2010, four years prior to publication. The species accounts present diagnostic notes, and cover behaviour, habitat, range (with an outline map), conservation status, and the book is indexed by common and scientific names by species number rather than by page number.
A number of cost saving measures in book production are immediately evident, poor editing being one giving a number of glaring typos, for example and picked at random : Gekkos (for Geckos page xxvii), Muster (for C.J.M. Musters, page 80), Draogon (!) (page 163).
The identification keys are mostly modified and simplified from primary sources, these are mentioned by author but not by title and are not cited in full in the selected bibliography.
The species descriptions are clear and simple and the type face makes for comfortable reading but the common names are given in English only, not much use to your local guide, and there is a complete lack of taxonomic information. The author(s) and date of publication of taxa are primary references and to exclude them offers a wholly unnecessary dumbing down to the reader.
I am all for uniformity in species descriptions ; if you are going to mention eye colour for one species (and it can be a very useful identification tool) then mention it for all. The challenge of course is that you would have to have handled all the species described rather than compiling the book from previously published sources.
Three illustrators provided all the figures for the book. No locality information is given for any of the illustrations and none of the illustrations are attributed. Not all species are illustrated, the majority of the illustrations are colour drawings from photos from life (often published elsewhere), a few are drawings of museum specimens and some are copies of drawings from reference publications.
The illustrations are generally very good quality and give the observer a good 'impression' and pointer to identification and clearly a great deal of time and effort has been taken to show colours and scale patterns but they have been published much too small in size to be of direct practical use in comparing with a live specimen in the field. The colour rendition and definition of head scalation in a good colour photograph puts the user light years ahead of struggling to use a magnifier to view scalation in a tiny colour drawing. It would not be possible to distinguish the Water Snakes Homalophis, Cerberus, Gerarda and Fordonia from their illustrations. The unique and truly wonderful Blunt-headed Tree Snake, Aplopeltura boa, is here depicted by a dreadful illustration harking back to the artistic style of the mid 1970s.
The ubiquitous House Geckos (Hemidactylus) are the reptiles most often encountered by the tourist and casual observer. There are four species in Thailand, and these, and the superficially similar Gehyra, are just crying out for simple colour photos for the identification of the species. The market has long since moved on from colour drawings being a reference standard in reptile field guides.
There are a scant few illustrations depicting either juveniles or sexual dimorphism, and none illustrating defensive posture mimicry.
Photos, photos, photos, much needed colour photos, the crux of a useful field guide : A Field Guide to the Reptiles of Thailand is completely bereft of colour photos.
Despite Thailand having a national anti-venom producer many fatalities from snake envenomation are recorded each year but even the simplest of advice on snake bite is lacking in this guide.
The Tree Snakes, Chrysopelea, are noted as being mildly venomous and the Cat Snakes, Boiga, as being 'rear-fanged and not considered dangerous to humans', yet the dangerously venomous Red-necked Keelback or Ular picung, Rhabdophis subminiatus, for which numerous medically significant envenomations have been reported stretching back as far as 1978, features it's entry without such mention – handle with care !
The authors struggle with differentiating between 'poisonous' and 'venomous' snakes, describing the elaphids as 'poisonous' and the viperids as 'venomous'. Both are venomous, although both may be poisonous if you eat them .
Overall a handbook very useful for the keys and clear descriptions and a very helpful contribution to the still poorly known reptile fauna of Thailand desperately threatened by human and agricultural pressures across much of the lowland habitats.
314 pages. Colour figures, outline maps, keys to species. 24 x 16cm.
Hardback. 9780199736492. GBP 81.00
Paperback. 9780199736508. GBP 25.99.
Last edited: