Field Guide to Mammals of Australia - Paperback

by Peter Menkhorst (Author), Frank Knight (Author)

This fully revised and updated edition of A Field Guide to the Mammals of Australia is the only comprehensive guide to identifying all 382 species of mammals known in Australia. This book provides concise and accurate details of the appearance, diagnostic features, distribution, habitat, and key behavioral characteristics of all mammals known to have occurred in Australia or its waters since the time of European settlement. Each double-page spread provides all the information needed to identify an animal, a full-color illustration of the entire animal, a smaller diagram of diagnostic features, a distribution map, and species description and measurements, including details of how to differentiate between similar species.

Identification keys are provided for groups that are difficult to identify to species level, including keys to the genera of small marsupials, rodents, and bats, and all marine mammals likely to be washed on to an Australian beach: whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and the Dugong.

Author Biography

Peter Menkhorst has been fascinated by Australia's flora and fauna for most of his life. He has participated in fauna surveys in many parts of Australia and has worked in wildlife research and management in Victoria for thirty-five years. He has published widely in the scientific and popular literature, including editing an Australian bird guide.

Frank Knight worked as an illustrator for CSIRO for twenty-five years. He has been a member of and has exhibited with the Society of Animal Art in New York. He has also illustrated a number of natural history books, including an Australian bird guide.