A Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife (1 Viewer)

Hi all,

Recently I managed to obtain a book about Arctic Wildlife so thought it a good idea to purchase a book on Antarctic wildlife.

The book is called A Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife- The Birds and Marine Mammals of the Antarctic Continent and Southern Ocean by Hadoram Shirihi and illustrated by Brett Jarrett.

This book is excellent and is another one of those books you will find difficult to put down because of its wow factor and the detail within.

It has 600 photographs covering all aspects of the regions natural history, 35 plates illustrating all of indigenous birds and marine mammals, a detailed text representing a new approach to identification and taxonomy of the birds and marine mammals.

Content includes:-

-Background to the research work
-Layout of the book-maps etc

Synopsis of the region

-Tha Antarctic and Subantarctic Environments:The Southern Ocean
-Geological History
-Geography and Climate
-Sea Environment
-Habitats and vegetation
-Avifauna
-Marine Mammals
-Conservation in the Region
-Checklist of Birds and Marine Mammals of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean
-History of Antarctic Exploration

Bird and Marine mammal topography
Species Accounts
Birds

-Penguins
-Great albatrosses
-Small and medium albatrosses
-Sooty albatrosses, giant petrels and distinct petrels
-Gadfly petrels
-Procellaria petrels and shearwaters
-Blue Petrel and prions
-Storm-petrels and diving-petrels
-Cormorants and shags of the Southern Ocean
-Gannets
-Large Skuas
-Stercorarius skuas
-Gulls and terns
-Endemic and indigenous species of subantarctic islands in the S indian and
S Atlantic Oceans and the Falklands
-Endemic and indigenous non-passerines, near passerines and passerines
of New Zealand's subantarctic islands

Marine Mammals

-Seals
-Cetaceans

Regional Descriptions (with tables of breeding species)

-Subantarctic islands off South America (and Checklist of Falkland Island birds)
-South Shetland Islands, Antarctic Penninsula and Weddell Sea
-South Atlantic Islands
-Subantarctic islands in the Indian Ocean
-Subantarctic islands south of New Zealand
-The Ross Sea
-East Antarctica

Other Regions and Islands

-Islands off southern Chile and southern Argentina
-Tasmania Group

Gateways to the Antarctic and other birds and marine mammals in southern South America, South Africa, Australia and new Zealand

-Ushuaia, the Beagle Channel and sea area of Tierra del Fuego
-Seabird and whale viewing off South Africa
-Observing Southern Ocean seabirds and cetaceans off Australia
-Seabird and sea mammal viewing around New Zealand.

The book was published in 2002 but you can get a copy from BirdForum for a very good price. Get it while you can as It may be out of print. Not sure if it has had a reprint.

The book is full of detail and research and compliments the complete Guide to Arctic Wildlife mentioned in an earlier thread. We now have complete books for both ends of the earth the arctic and antarctic regions.

Cheers

Dean

Cheadle Birder

This is a great book with loads of information. Very highly recommended. A bit bulky for holding and birding. Birds of Chile by Jarimillo, Burke and Beadle is a better field guide (for birds only) if you are doing trips out of Ushuaia. The Antarctic guide has so much interesting reading it is worth having just for the read at home. Now if I can only get to Kerguleun.

Michael

Hi Dean

A Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife is an absolutely fantastic book, my favourite field guide by a mile and it is amazing in its scope. I just wish I had had the chance to use it in the field. One day I hope. I look forward to getting the Arctic guide soon and hope it's half as good as Shirihai's book.
I can also recommend Shirihai and Jarrett's marine mammal field guide published last year.

E
(ex-Cheadle. Cheadle Cheshire that it)

Edward said:

Hi Dean

A Complete Guide to Antarctic Wildlife is an absolutely fantastic book, my favourite field guide by a mile and it is amazing in its scope. I just wish I had had the chance to use it in the field. One day I hope. I look forward to getting the Arctic guide soon and hope it's half as good as Shirihai's book.
I can also recommend Shirihai and Jarrett's marine mammal field guide published last year.

E
(ex-Cheadle. Cheadle Cheshire that it)

Click to expand...

Hi Michael and Edward,

I could not agree with you more. :clap:

A quick question... does anyone know how much the 2nd Edition of this book, published by Princeton / AC Black (2007/8), differs from the 1st, Alula (2002) edition? I have the old edition and, planning an Antarctic trip, am wondering whether I can justify ordering the new edition (I don't have access to a bookstore). Many thanks!

I have the first edition and have flicked through a copy of the second edition. The bird photos have been updated fairly thoroughly. I don't think the text is all that much different - for instance if my memory is correct the section on large albatrosses has a few extra paragraphs added as an endnote.

I agree it is a very good book - one of the few to properly treat all the different albatross forms for instance - but it should be noted that not everyone agrees some identification issues are as clearcut as the author suggests. See for example this review of the first edition.

http://elibrary.unm.edu/sora/wb/v33n04/p0265-p0267.pdf

Thanks for your comments Murray! I just had the following back from Guy Kirwan, the editor of both editions...

"Now to your question. I suppose I am biased, but I'm not receiving royalties! I'd get the new edition and I would get the marine mammals book that was mentioned in one of the postings to the forum that you directed me to (the same bias without royalties applies). The main difference, as the various correspondents pointed out, are the several hundred new photographs, many with detailed captions pointing out specific ID features. The difference, in groups such as the gadfly petrels, is actually pretty significant. In the first edition scarcely a single Pterodroma was well covered by photos; now nearly every species is (compared to guides like Harrison's or Enticott & Tipling's, for all species covered herein, the differences in photo quality are now, put simply, enormous: in fact there's no comparison). Textual updates to the great albatrosses, prions and certain other petrels were subject to meaningful revision, but most other avian groups were not dealt with this time (although some of the Tristan endemics were substantially improved, thanks to Pete Ryan). New accounts were added where necessary, e.g. New Zealand Storm Petrel. Three new plates were painted by John Cox, but also note that most of the images of cetaceans were replaced with relevant (and much better) images from the more recently published marine mammals guide. Furthermore, some of the text for marine mammals (e.g. Orcinus orca) was also revised, the checklists were updated and some new significant literature incorporated, although there sadly wasn't time for an exhaustive bibliographic update. Ultimately, we'd like to replace some of the other plates and text too, given more time and, hopefully, a third edition. There are also plans for a pocket guide covering the Antarctic Peninsula (text quite well advanced), but that won't appear for some while yet. Someone not planning to go to Antarctica might not really need the updated version, but anyone planning to do so should definitely get the new edition. If you can afford to go there (and I can't), then it would be crazy not to have the best book."

The first edition is superb - and based on GK's comments can only assume the 2nd is better. The amount of information and the number of photos contained in the book(s) are both phenomenal. An essential purchase for the world birder or indeed any visitor to the Antarctic / Subantantarctic.

a

If I recall correctly, the introduction to the second edition states that two albatross plates are brand new.

Second Edition is Fantastic and perhaps the single best field guide to include birds, mammals, history etc. ever published. Some small problems but it would be almost impossible to do better.

Highly recommended!

Steve