walker's primates of the world: by ronald m. nowak with an introduction by russell mittermier,...
TRANSCRIPT
Walkers Primates of the WorldBy Ronald M. Nowak with an introduction by RussellMittermier, Anthony Rylands andWilliam R. Konstant.The Johns Hopkins University Press. 224 pp. ISBN 0-8018-6251-5 Price: £13.00
Although I had never seen this book before, on open-ing it I discovered that (in essence) I had been using it formany years, because apart from the 39 page introductionit is the primate section from the renowned WalkersMammals, a work now in its sixth edition. The bookprovides an excellent overview of the primate specieswith up to date information on everything from tax-onomy (currently undergoing many changes) to physiol-ogy. There are also photographs or illustrations of all themain species. The introduction provides a general view ofprimate diversity with some details of species range and asmall section on threats and conservation issues,although given the current threatened status of many ofthese animals I would have liked to have seen moreemphasis on this. In many ways this is an excellent work,but its target audience is unclear since any animal spe-cialist will almost certainly possess a copy of its parentwork and so would be unlikely to buy it. Even the mostinterested non-specialist reader is unlikely to be attractedto the academic format of large masses of text printed inrather a small font size combined with black and whitephotographs and illustrations. This latter point high-lights what I feel is one of the books major failings Ð the
lack of colour photographs or illustrations. Colour is ofmajor importance to many primates, particularly mon-keys. The young in several species di�er radically in col-our from their parents, and genital areas may have brighthues (including ¯uorescent blue!) for purposes of sexualsignalling. Several species are extremely sexually di-morphic with colour again being a signi®cant factor.From a personal (and practical) point of view I am oftenasked to identify particular species of monkey and fre-quently di�erences in the colour of markings is diag-nostically important. It could be argued that colouredphotographs of all these animals would be di�cult toobtain, which might hold some water except that exactlythis has been achieved in another recent work Ð ThePictorial Guide to the Living Primates (Rowe, 1996).Despite its shortcomings, Walkers Primates is a book Icannot but recommend for its scope and the level of itsscholarship. I do wonder who will buy it though.
References
Rowe, N., 1996. The Pictorial Guide to the Living Primates, Pogonias
Press, pp. 260, ISBN 0-9648825-1-5, Price $ 59.95.
Alan BatesHead of Education
Twycross ZooAtherstone
Warwickshire, CV9 3PX, UKE-mail address: [email protected]
PII : S0006-3207(99 )00097-5
Primate CommunitiesEdited by J.F. Fleagle, C. Janson and K. Reed (1999)Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 329 pp. ISBN0 521 62967 5 (pbk) Price: £18.95
Individual primate societies have been comprehen-sively studied and relevant information published formany decades. However, comparisons between di�eringprimate communities have been lacking. This, the editorsinform us, is the raison detre for this book. PrimateCommunities presents a collection of papers of the higheststandard, the list of contributors reading like a WhosWho of primatology. The subject matter is diverse andthought provoking, and pitched at an academic level. Anice feature is the combination of ®eld research and moretheoretical papers, combined with an end of sectionreview by the editors which pulls together the strands ofinformation opened up by each of the contributingauthors. The editors have also cross-referenced a lot ofthe text allowing the reader to jump to relevant informa-tion elsewhere in the book. With an avid interest in
Madagascan primates I found the chapter detailing theircommunities very informative. However, containing as itdoes the largest diversity of endemic primate species, onemight expect this region to warrant a greater contribu-tion. On the plus side, the number of graphs, pictures andtables is well received. Far too often similar books fallshort of reaching their potential due to the lack andquality of accompanying graphics. I do wonder however,notwithstanding the extra cost, whether colour pictures,graphs and maps would not be more suitable. A numberof the primates in the accompanying photos are largelyunrecognisable. One picture in particular of a Siamangleaves a lot to the imagination.
Ross SnippEducation O�cer/Research Coordinator
Twycross ZooEast Midlands Zoological Society
AtherstoneWarkwickshire, CV9 3PX, UK
E-mail address: [email protected]
PII : S0006 -3207 (99)00098 -7
Book reviews / Biological Conservation 97 (2001) 127±129 129