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Okavango mammals (1 Viewer)

Jon Turner

Well-known member
We're off to the Okavango late next month, so I thought I ought to get a field guide to the local mammals we should see. A quick search shows lots of possibilities.
Anything you would recommend?
 
You do not say much about what you're looking for, but I found the Stuart's “Pocket Guide [to] Mammals of Southern Africa” to be packed with information and told me almost everything I needed to know about the mammals. (The other stuff I found on the Internet). It only weighs a few ounces, so is great for traveling and more convenient than a digital guide.

If you want a reference for home use etc., there are recent updated editions of the Stuart's Field Guide to Mammals of Southern Africa, and Kingdon's Field Guide to African Mammals.
 
Thank you Jim. Most of the rest of the group haven't been to this part of Africa (let's say south of the Sahara!) so for most it will be looking for and at everything!
I've been to East Africa but not further south than Dar-es-Salaam. The bigger animals are relatively easy, but there are all sorts of small jobs which will be trickier and some pre-research with a book would be useful.
I'll do the search again, looking for the books you have suggested.

Thanks again.
 
You do not say much about what you're looking for, but I found the Stuart's “Pocket Guide [to] Mammals of Southern Africa” to be packed with information and told me almost everything I needed to know about the mammals.

If you want a reference for home use etc., there are recent updated editions of the Stuart's Field Guide to Mammals of Southern Africa, and Kingdon's Field Guide to African Mammals.


I would agree guides by Chris and Tilde Stuart cover pretty much everything. I would personally recommend their Field Guide to Mammals of Southern Africa - it covers all the small mice, bats, etc, as well as larger animals. This must be the same book as Jim recommends as a home reference, but it is not a big book at all (certainly less in size than, for example, the standard bird guide books to the region or the Collins European guide) and I would say ideal for field use.
 
One small point - it is a photographic guide, rather than illustration, which may not be to everyone's style, but the images are good and I don't remember ever struggling with identifications with this book.
 
I would agree guides by Chris and Tilde Stuart cover pretty much everything. I would personally recommend their Field Guide to Mammals of Southern Africa - it covers all the small mice, bats, etc, as well as larger animals. This must be the same book as Jim recommends as a home reference, but it is not a big book at all (certainly less in size than, for example, the standard bird guide books to the region or the Collins European guide) and I would say ideal for field use.

I was looking at this revised, expanded edition which Amazon lists as coming out in 2014:

http://www.amazon.com/Stuarts-Field...94&sr=1-4&keywords=mammals+of+southern+africa

It's 456 pp and 2 lbs if Amazon is correct. I agree it is not too heavy for the field, but it is not exactly light either. However, I find birders (including myself) tend to have lower tolerance for lugging around substantial mammal guides since they will already be lugging around a bird guide.

In any event, I suspect you are thinking of something like this 2011 edition which is listed at 1.4 pounds and 150 pages less:

http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-M...94&sr=1-2&keywords=mammals+of+southern+africa

Regards,
Jim
 
I recently took the Kindle version of the Stuart and Kingdon field guides to southern Africa with me. That's a good lightweight solution if you have a Kindle or tablet (and it sort of works on a smartphone too, though not as well).
 
I recently took the Kindle version of the Stuart and Kingdon field guides to southern Africa with me. That's a good lightweight solution if you have a Kindle or tablet (and it sort of works on a smartphone too, though not as well).

Was just going to edit my post to refer to that, but you beat me to it! Though I've never been comfortable with having only an electronic field guide as a primary reference, I would certainly consider them as a back up or reference for traveling purposes.
 
I recently took the Kindle version of the Stuart and Kingdon field guides to southern Africa with me. That's a good lightweight solution if you have a Kindle or tablet (and it sort of works on a smartphone too, though not as well).

Do you know if there is an android version which will work on my Acer? Although my wife has a Kindle.... which we could easily take!

Thanks
 
Do you know if there is an android version which will work on my Acer?

Thanks

You can get the Kindle app for Android and then you should be able to use it fairly easily on any android device. You should also be able to download it onto your device so that you don't need a data connection to read it.
 
'If you want a reference for home use etc., there are recent updated editions of the Stuart's Field Guide to Mammals of Southern Africa, and Kingdon's Field Guide to African Mammals.'

Jim and Jos,
what are the latest illustrations by Kingdon like, I found his quirky take on the posture of some animals rendered the illustrations useless for ID.

Cheetah on the cover is an example of what I mean though that renders no ID issues however his Mongoose illustrations proved useless to ID any but the most obvious of them!

Kingdon in my opinion, should concentrate on emphasising key ID points in easy to study poses instead of straying over to the artistic side.

Am I being harsh?


Cheers, Andy
 
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