jurek
Well-known member
Finaly I have time to post longer review.
Review of Handbook of the Mammals of the World, Vol. 2. Hoofed Mammals.
Overall, high quality book, which seems to achieve its double function - informative enough for scientific reference, but also attractive and readable enough to fascinate normal reader. Included are aardvark, pangolins (for some reason included with hoofed mammals), elephants, hyraxes, perissodactyls and artiodactyls. Omitted are sirenians, which presumably will be in volume 4.
Most family texts are excellent. Unfortunately, text on elephants is mostly about African Savanna, just occasionally mentioning Asian. The family text on Giraffes is too brief and practically omits okapi.
Photos are very good, and sometimes jaw dropping, for example Musk Deer climbing monkey-like a tree and Spanish Ibex on impossibly overhanging rock. Plates are well drawn, and species texts are generally informative, if sometimes too brief.
I would wish better descriptions of photos. Some are fragments of main text or have little relation to the photo. Authors likely used stock photos and appear not to know the context of photographed behavior.
I would wish, most of all, more detailed treatment of subspecies and individual variation. This is huge shortcoming when subspecies differ greatly in their apperance, ecology and conservation status. It is better than in Volume 1. on carnivores, but still poor. Variation of Wild Boar are perfectly described but mostly not illustrated, while subspecies of Red Deer, in contrast, are well illustrated but not described in the text.
I would also prefer more illustration of individual variation, especially as this is likely to be identification reference to many poorly known tropical species. Individual variation is usually not presented, not even eg. spotted fawns of deer (in volume 1., cubs of large cats were illustrated). This will be even bigger problem in the next volume, Primates, where eg. juvenile langurs and subordinate and dominant males of orangutans and baboons are strikingly different.
I would also welcome separate chapters on Social Organization and Vocalizations. They are briefly tucked under Breeding or omitted altogether. This was not such a problem for birds, but is a big omission of highly social mammals. This will be even bigger problem in the upcoming volume of Primates.
I am also missing inline citations, because current approach makes facts unverifiable. Given that Wikipedia, absolutely popular source, has inline citations, this omission is not needed.
So I am left wondering eg. over the source of such claims as Caucasian Wisent was a separate species (usually regarded as a subspecies of Wisent, and a poorly differentiated one) or proposition that Common Hippos could still swim in historic times from mainland Africa to Madagascar.
I was also puzzled by inconsistent treatment of introduced populations – some included on the maps, some not. Domestic and feral forms are also covered or omitted without clear pattern. So we learn lots about Llama and Alpaca, but nothing about Mouflon, and the world's most numerous and commercially important ungulate, Wild/Domestic Cattle is hardly mentioned! Overall, I would welcome full treatment of taxa extinct in historical times, like Walker´s Mammals of the World.
And the most, ehm, extremely controversial part – species treatment of Bovidae, which were split into about twice more species. There are ca. 11 species of Klippspringer, 4 of African Buffalo and so on. Justification of this is mostly missing, referring to unpublished material to appear in book form. From the scant facts, many so-called species seem neither diagnosable, separately evolving, nor worthy of species rank under any concept. Oversplitting resulted in large populations of hybrids eg. Ibex in C Caucasus and large populations of uncertain species, eg. Buffalo in N Uganda. So I very much doubt if this treatment is practical. User of usual species concept, at least, by substituting species by subspecies, can still easily use this chapter.
Summing up – excellent book, but slightly worse than HBW or HMW Volume 1. Probably best reference to most world's ungulates, although some individual species have better single-volume treatments.
Review of Handbook of the Mammals of the World, Vol. 2. Hoofed Mammals.
Overall, high quality book, which seems to achieve its double function - informative enough for scientific reference, but also attractive and readable enough to fascinate normal reader. Included are aardvark, pangolins (for some reason included with hoofed mammals), elephants, hyraxes, perissodactyls and artiodactyls. Omitted are sirenians, which presumably will be in volume 4.
Most family texts are excellent. Unfortunately, text on elephants is mostly about African Savanna, just occasionally mentioning Asian. The family text on Giraffes is too brief and practically omits okapi.
Photos are very good, and sometimes jaw dropping, for example Musk Deer climbing monkey-like a tree and Spanish Ibex on impossibly overhanging rock. Plates are well drawn, and species texts are generally informative, if sometimes too brief.
I would wish better descriptions of photos. Some are fragments of main text or have little relation to the photo. Authors likely used stock photos and appear not to know the context of photographed behavior.
I would wish, most of all, more detailed treatment of subspecies and individual variation. This is huge shortcoming when subspecies differ greatly in their apperance, ecology and conservation status. It is better than in Volume 1. on carnivores, but still poor. Variation of Wild Boar are perfectly described but mostly not illustrated, while subspecies of Red Deer, in contrast, are well illustrated but not described in the text.
I would also prefer more illustration of individual variation, especially as this is likely to be identification reference to many poorly known tropical species. Individual variation is usually not presented, not even eg. spotted fawns of deer (in volume 1., cubs of large cats were illustrated). This will be even bigger problem in the next volume, Primates, where eg. juvenile langurs and subordinate and dominant males of orangutans and baboons are strikingly different.
I would also welcome separate chapters on Social Organization and Vocalizations. They are briefly tucked under Breeding or omitted altogether. This was not such a problem for birds, but is a big omission of highly social mammals. This will be even bigger problem in the upcoming volume of Primates.
I am also missing inline citations, because current approach makes facts unverifiable. Given that Wikipedia, absolutely popular source, has inline citations, this omission is not needed.
So I am left wondering eg. over the source of such claims as Caucasian Wisent was a separate species (usually regarded as a subspecies of Wisent, and a poorly differentiated one) or proposition that Common Hippos could still swim in historic times from mainland Africa to Madagascar.
I was also puzzled by inconsistent treatment of introduced populations – some included on the maps, some not. Domestic and feral forms are also covered or omitted without clear pattern. So we learn lots about Llama and Alpaca, but nothing about Mouflon, and the world's most numerous and commercially important ungulate, Wild/Domestic Cattle is hardly mentioned! Overall, I would welcome full treatment of taxa extinct in historical times, like Walker´s Mammals of the World.
And the most, ehm, extremely controversial part – species treatment of Bovidae, which were split into about twice more species. There are ca. 11 species of Klippspringer, 4 of African Buffalo and so on. Justification of this is mostly missing, referring to unpublished material to appear in book form. From the scant facts, many so-called species seem neither diagnosable, separately evolving, nor worthy of species rank under any concept. Oversplitting resulted in large populations of hybrids eg. Ibex in C Caucasus and large populations of uncertain species, eg. Buffalo in N Uganda. So I very much doubt if this treatment is practical. User of usual species concept, at least, by substituting species by subspecies, can still easily use this chapter.
Summing up – excellent book, but slightly worse than HBW or HMW Volume 1. Probably best reference to most world's ungulates, although some individual species have better single-volume treatments.
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Of course in mammals there are not only vocalizations, but communication is also visual and by smell. 
