Amphibians and Reptiles of La Selva, Costa Rica, and the Caribbean Slope  •  Craig Guyer  •  Maureen A. Donnelly FIELD GUIDE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 420 PAGES This comprehensive guide, intended for the field, covers all the frogs, lizards, snakes, and other reptiles and amphibians of the Caribbean slope. (CRB177, $24.95)
Belize, Travellers' Wildlife Guides  •  Les Beletsky FIELD GUIDE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 492 PAGES An all-around field guide intended for the curious traveler, this book features color illustrations of 200 commonly encountered birds, 50 mammals, 150 coral reef creatures and 80 species of reptiles and amphibians. It also includes a good introduction to Belize, its natural history and conservation. (BLZ04, $27.95)
Costa Rica, Travellers' Wildlife Guides  •  Les Beletsky FIELD GUIDE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 448 PAGES This outstanding book is a field guide to the natural history of Costa Rica, featuring 350 color illustrations of commonly encountered birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles. Introductory chapters cover habitats, parks and conservation in Costa Rica. It's an all-around handbook, noteworthy for its color plates. (CRC11, $29.95)
Costa Rican Natural History  •  Daniel Janzen NATURAL HISTORY •  1983 •  PAPER  • 832 PAGES A thorough, prize-winning source reader on all aspects of the natural history of Costa Rica as edited by the iconoclast ecologist Daniel Janzen. This hefty book contains review articles by 174 contributors on birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, geology, climate, ecology and vegetation. It's illustrated, remarkably well written -- and rewarding for the serious general reader. While its audience is tropical ecologists working in Costa Rica, many of the plants and animals described exist throughout Central America. The format of the book invites selective reading on areas of particular interest. The species-by-species accounts are especially recommended. (CAM05, $49.00)
A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians  •  Robert Stebbins FIELD GUIDE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 533 PAGES This field guide covers reptiles and amphibians found from Northern Mexico to Alberta. With the variety of chuckwallas, whiptails and other localized lizards and snakes in Baja California, it is an indispensable guide to that region. Baja endemics are featured on four of the book's 56 plates. P.S. It's true that Santa Catalina Island has a rattleless rattlesnake -- although it's retiring and hard to see. With color photographs, newly revised range maps and very good descriptive information. (FG08, $22.00)
Galapagos, A Natural History  •  Michael H. Jackson NATURAL HISTORY •  1995 •  PAPER  • 316 PAGES • BEST SELLER • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE This comprehensive overview of the habitats, plants, birds, and animals of the islands, written with the curious visitor in mind, is practically mandatory reading. It's the single best overview of the archipelago. Jackson also includes a useful bibliography, wildlife checklists and a list of plants by vegetation zone. Illustrated with many charts and maps, we refer to the book often. (GPS03, $29.95)
Hawaii, Travellers' Wildlife Guides  •  Les Beletsky FIELD GUIDE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 350 PAGES An all-around field guide intended for the curious traveler, this handbook features color illustrations of commonly-encountered birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, and coral reef creatures. It also includes a good introduction to Hawaii, its natural history and conservation. It's a well written overview of just about everything natural you are likely to see, which like the other volumes in the series, showcases the author's ostentatiously bad sense of humor. It's rife with puns. (HWI50, $27.95)
An Island Called California, An Ecological Introduction to Its Natural Communities  •  Elna S. Bakker NATURAL HISTORY •  1984 •  PAPER  • 484 PAGES An introduction to the ecology and wildlife of the Golden State, this volume is filled with photographs illustrating a variety plants, animals and geological features found throughout the deserts, forests and coastline of California. (CAL11, $22.95)
Komodo, the Living Dragon  •  Richard Lutz NATURAL HISTORY •  1997 •  PAPER  • 180 PAGES A lively introduction to the Komodo dragon, with chapters on natural history, the remote islands where it is found, discovery, ecology and conservation, and recent efforts to breed the Komodo in captivity. (INS33, $16.95)
National Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife  •  Peter Alden FIELD GUIDE •  1995 •  PAPER  • 988 PAGES A compact introduction to the landforms, wild areas, mammals, birds, reptiles and insects of Africa, featuring contributions by experts and almost 600 color photographs. Most of the book is a field guide to commonly encountered birds, mammals and other creatures of the African continent. (AFR25, $23.95)
Naturalist's Big Bend, An Introduction to the Trees, Shrubs, Wildflowers, Mammals, Birds, Reptiles  •  Roland H. Wauer FIELD GUIDE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 149 PAGES A guide to commonly encountered plants and animals of Big Bend by the park's former chief naturalist with wildlife checklists, good descriptive information on the park and an extensive bibliography. Since it has few illustrations and most of those in black-and-white, the book is most useful as an introduction to the natural history of the park. (USW82, $15.95)
Peterson Field Guide to Reptiles and Amphibians, Eastern and Central North America  •  Roger Conant FIELD GUIDE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 616 PAGES A comprehensive field guide to Eastern and Central North America for the herpetologically inclined. With range maps, detailed descriptions, photographs and drawings of 595 species and subspecies of snakes, turtles, lizards, frogs, toads, newts and salamanders. At the heart of the book are 50 color plates. (FG46, $21.00)
Plants and Animals of the Pacific Northwest  •  Eugene Kozloff FIELD GUIDE •  1978 •  PAPER  • 264 PAGES This convenient guide is an excellent single-volume introduction to the natural history of coastal Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. Divided by habitat, it covers plant life in detail with some information on associated invertebrates, reptiles, amphibians and a few mammals. With hundreds of color photographs of the flora and fauna of the region, this is an essential handbook for the serious naturalist and good browsing for those with a more casual interest. (PNW10, $35.00)
Rain Forest Revealed  •  DK Publishing EXPLORATION •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 48 PAGES • YOUNG READERS (Age 4-8) A colorful illustrated children's guide to the plant and animal life of tropical rainforests, featuring transparent pages that allow young readers to explore the subject from many angles. (NAT66, $12.99)
Scats and Tracks of the Desert Southwest  •  James Halfpenny  •  Todd Telander FIELD GUIDE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 176 PAGES An essential pocket guide to tracks, scats and signs of not just the mammals of the region but also the reptiles, amphibians and birds. Each of the species gets a double-page spread with line drawings of the animal, scat and track, range map, and description. With shaded pencil drawings by Todd Telander. (SWU61, $9.95)
Snakes, The Evolution of Mystery in Nature  •  Harry W. Greene NATURAL HISTORY •  1997 •  HARD COVER  • 288 PAGES Published to wildly enthusiastic reviews in 1997, this illustrated volume documents the ecology and diversity of snakes worldwide. Anecdotal, informative and entertaining, snakes couldn't have asked for a better advocate than herpetologist Harry Greene -- and the photographs are stunning. (BST33, $60.00)
The Wildlife of Southern Africa, A Field Guide to the Animals and Plants of the Region  •  Vincent Carruthers  •  Kenneth Newman FIELD GUIDE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES • HARD TO FIND ELSEWHERE A handsomely illustrated field guide to the birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians, insects, fish and plants of Southern Africa, all in one compact volume. It features 1,200 illustrations and short descriptions of each species, including habitat and range. With contributions by experts and good color plates. A nice overview for even the keen naturalist; it covers -- for example -- over 600 of the 900 species of birds found in the region. (SAF59, $29.95)