Mamíferos de Venezuela

Abstract

J. O. Linares 1998. Mamiferos de Venezuela. Sociedad Conservacionista Audubon de Venezuela, Apartado 80.450, Caracas 1080-A, Venezuela, 691 pp. ISBN 980-6326-16-4, price (paperback), US$69.00. The book, written in Spanish, presents basic information for 327 living species of mammals that commonly occur in 9 bioregions of Venezuela. British Petroleum provided financial support. This book follows the basic organization of the most recent publications for the Neotropics, such as Emmons and Feer (1997) and Eisenberg (1989). The book includes the following sections: preface, acknowledgments, introduction, a key to the mammalian orders, species accounts, and appendices, as well as sections on biogeography, conservation, glossary, bibliographic references, and 2 indexes (for common and scientific names). The introduction explains the arrangement of the book, with an overview of information presented for each species. The author illustrates the taking of standard measurements and defines the abbreviations used in the main text. Characteristics used in the key to orders are precisely explained, but the arrangement of numbers is confusing because they do not follow a consecutive sequence. At the beginning of the species accounts, orders, families, and subfamilies are described with precision, and keys are included for their recognition, but similarly confusing problems are observed in the key to orders. The account of each animal is arranged under several headings: identification, variation, similar species, natural …