A Field Guide to the Mammals of South-East Asia

Surprisingly, this is the first field guide to the mammals of South-East Asia. I say surprising largely because, as the book’s dust-jacket rightly points out, this is one of the richest and most diverse parts of the world for mammalian species. Additionally, many species are still little known and difficult to see, while new species are being discovered on a regular basis.

This guide will certainly help aid identification of the region’s species. It contains all that you would expect to find in a good field guide, including more than 70 plates and detailed accounts of field characters, behaviour and habitat, together with distribution maps (except for the cetaceans). For several species the footprints are included and for others (mainly the bats, mice and shrews) there are line drawings of skull and teeth structures (although the inclusion of these may be more for the specialist users of this guide). Overall, the book very closely follows the format of the very successful and widely used Field Guide to the Mammals of Britain and Europe by van den Brink.

The guide succeeds in its intent to increase awareness of the diversity of wildlife in the region. I could find very little to quibble with either in the text or the plates, though one would always like more information or a wider range of illustrations - for example, like where or in what national park it might be possible to see some of these fine beasts. But it is equally arguable that the purpose of a field guide is to leave you wanting to know more than can be contained within the scope of the book.

A surprising inclusion, or perhaps concern, was a short section on the various ways of capturing mammals. To me this was unnecessary and detracts from the main purpose of the guide, which is surely to encourage observation without interference; nor, apart from one or two bats, was it explained why or when catching would be relevant. This is perhaps balanced a little by the equally short section on conservation of the region’s mammals, which concludes that an unfortunately high number are listed as Endangered or Critically Threatened.

It is to be hoped that this guide is successful in spreading the message about about the appeal, range and requirements of these species that live in one of the most highly populated areas of the planet. For me, one of the successes of the guide is that I will certainly know a Confucian Niviventer (Niviventer confucianus), or Chinese White-bellied Rat, when, or if, I ever see one.