Guide books
 

Hi all - I'm wondering if any of you know which books the guides use on drives and walks when they show us what we're looking at? I saw books for just the birds of southern Africa, and bookds for mammals. Is there one that covers the spectrum? If you have any thoughts, I'd appreciate it.

Next time a guide asks, I want to be able to say, with confidence, "red-billed quelea!"

What books would probably depend on where you go. Guides obviously have books they can refer to (they usually carry one or two in the vehicles), but I've never seen one dive for a book on a game drive or a walk to ID a species, fauna or flora. The good guides know what they're looking at. The only comprehensive book I'm familiar with is Duncan Butchart's 'Wild about the Okavango-- All-in-one guide to the common animals and plants of the Okavango Delta, Chobe National Park and Caprivi Strip.' As well as illustrating and describing many species ranging from invertebrates to grasses, it also illustrates and describes such things as habitats and has a useful page of 'references and further reading.' It should be available in all camps and lodges in the region. The copy I've got was published by Wilderness Safaris. It's a handy enough size for taking on drives, and not expensive..about 15 USD (though I've mentioned in another thread that somebody on amazon.com was asking 200 USD, so it must be regarded in some circles as a collector's item).

John

Thanks for the input John! In my experience, the guides generally used those books to show the uninitiated (me!) photos of birds that may have flown off - to show us, for instance, the difference between a male and female of a given species. So no, my guides didn't dive for the books, either. I'm thinking specifically of books that were geared to Southern Africa. Should have written down some titles while there, I guess!

Cooncat: there are two guides to Southern Africa birds that are typically used -- the Sasol guide or Newman's birds of Southern Africa. Both are good and you can learn your bird species from either.

I have not seen a guide show pictures of mammals so I'm not sure what they would use. The Kingdon Field Guide to African Mammals is generally considered to be the most comprehensive, and like the bird guides it is illustrated. You may decide you prefer one with photos instead, they will lack likely lack the thorough information of the Kingdon guide but it is nice to see real photos -- I have one called The Mammal Guide of Southern Africa by Burger Cillie. It provides the brief summary info but I what I really like is there are good photos of each species. I also highly recommend The Safari Companion by Richard Estes. Rather than identification it focuses on a summary of behavior for each mammal species which is fun to refer to.

The back cover of this book (it's several years old) says other titles in the series are 'Wild about Johannesburg', 'Wild about the Lowveld' and 'Wild about Cape town'. So without knowing for sure, I'd imagine a comprehensive book for the whole of southern Africa would have to be a hefty volume. There must be somebody in this forum who knows if there's a book like that. Or you could email Wilderness to ask what's available. Maybe it's out of date, but the email address inside the book is [email protected]

John

Thanks again~ I will look these up!