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Book of the Week: Conservation Biogeography

Continuing our weekly selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

Conservation Biogeography

by Richard J Ladle and Robert J Whittaker

What?

An authoritative key volume for students and researchers in this developing field.

Why?

The authors of Conservation Biogeography are both associated with the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford where the nascent field was formally defined in 2005. They state their aim in the preface as “[…]to expand the scope and agenda of conservation biogeography, to identify critical gaps and weaknesses, and to provide an introduction to the toolbox of concepts and methods – and thereby to produce a broad-based text for university courses and programmes.”

After defining the field, the chapters work their way through the impact of social values on conservation, biodiversity mapping and its processes, planning considerations, island biogeography, invasions and homogeneity, and the volume ends with discussions on the future prospects and challenges associated with the biogeographical approach to global conservation management.

Who?

Richard J. Ladle was the founding Director of Oxford University’s MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management. Since 2009 he has been working in Brazil as an international conservation consultant and science writer. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Alagoas, teaching and doing research on diverse and interdisciplinary aspects of conservation, biogeography and ecology.

Robert J. Whittaker is the current Academic Director of the MSc in Biodiversity, Conservation and Management, and holds the title of Professor of Biogeography in the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. He is a founding member and past President (2009–2010) of the International Biogeography Society. He is currently editor-in-chief of the Journal of Biogeography. He has a long-standing interest in island biogeography, patterns and processes controlling diversity, and the application of biogeography to conservation.

Book of the Week: Lives of Conifers

Continuing our weekly selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

Lives of Conifers: A Comparative Account of the Coniferous Trees

by Graham R. Powell

What?

A detailed account of the life cycle of conifers, and an analysis of their ecological and environmental importance.

Why?

This is a comprehensive reference work, by an expert in tree growth and morphology. The author has published over 40 refereed papers and more than 20 technical reports and handbooks during his 34-year career in the faculty of forestry and environmental management.

As well as being authoritative on the growth of conifers, this volume introduces the reader to environmental considerations and the reliance of humankind on the conifers.

Lives of Conifers is extensively illustrated throughout (see images below), with detailed comparative sequences of morphological portraiture, stylish diagrammatic representations of anatomical features and many informative charts and figures. The chapters follow the stages of the life-cycle and there is an extensive glossary.

Who?

Graham R. Powell is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Forestry and Environmental Management at the University of New Brunswick, Canada

The Metropolitan Field Guide reviews Crow Planet

“This book cleverly manages to blend personal stories with the natural history of crows and the wilderness of the city in a very entertaining read. No matter whether you’re a naturalist, urbanite, suburbanite or already an urban naturalist, this book will undoubtedly introduce you to some idea you never considered before.” More…

Read the full review of Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness at The Metropolitan Field Guide. It’s one of our favourite wildlife blogs – an excellent resource on urban wildlife and ecology.

Book Checks

Every month, we add more than 300 new book titles to our catalogue (you can find the list every month in our Monthly Catalogue). Publishers often announce their new titles to us months in advance of publication (which can turn into years…), and we find that by the time the books arrive into stock for the first time, some of the information we had initially catalogued about a title has changed.

The differences between the original announcement and the actual published book can range from a higher page number, or more illustrations, to a change in the order in which the authors are presented, or an amendment to the title or subtitle. Quite often the cover illustration undergoes several transformations. In very rare cases, the book will even have changed publishers. Even so, the earlier we hear about a book the better we like it, even if the finished product will look somewhat different.

In order to keep the information in our catalogue as accurate as it can be, we give each and every book that we have never seen before a thorough bibliographic check – in fact the cataloguing data for nearly every single book needs to be added to or amended. In the office, the new books are always referred to as the “book checks”, and this stack of each day’s book checks is the most popular place in the NHBS warehouse.

At the same time as verifying the bibliographic data, we evaluate the book and decide whether it’s a good fit for featuring on the NHBS homepage, or as a book of the week, and we make sure that the descriptive text reflects the contents of the book accurately.

This method of rigorous checking and evaluating ensures that no book is ever included in our emails, or in a flyer or advert, unless we are comfortable recommending it.

For me, book checking is also one of the most fun jobs ever – books arrive from all over the world, and they have that exciting “new” smell and feel to them. Every now and then there is a true gem amongst them, a book on an unusual subject, or one with truly outstanding illustrations, that turns out to be much more important than the initial cataloguing suggested.

Just last week, the book checks contained some very good titles. Highlights include:

The Crossley ID Guide: Eastern Birds – eagerly anticipated by us. We have a pre-publication offer on it until the end of April. My first reaction to seeing this book was that it’s a lot bigger than I thought it would be! I checked out the Steller’s Jay page, as I remember these birds so well from seeing them on the West Coast of Canada, and the illustrations, as promised, are startlingly different from the usual photographic field guide, and seem to make identification very easy. This one is definitely going on the NHBS home page!

The new edition of A Diperist’s Handbook should prove to be popular, as well, it is part of a series of similar handbooks published by the Amateur Entomologists’ Society, and the book production value is outstanding. A very useful addition to any entomologist’s library, and I can’t recall seeing any similar books on the same subject recently.

A new Crossbill Guide: Loire Valley – Loire, Brenne and Sologne. This series of nature travel guides is one of my favourites and we always look forward to seeing a new one published. Browse all the Crossbill wildlife travel guides.

The Human Planet Blu-Ray arrived today, and before we could even book it into stock, several people in the office declared their intention of buying a copy for their own use. (This is a recent BBC series, which examines how humans in extreme enviroments adapt to living with nature). The book accompanying the series came into stock last week.

A Field Guide to the Butterflies of Singapore: A well-illustrated photographic guide, published by a specialist natural history publisher in Singapore.

A customer reviews ‘Biebrza Site Guide’ by Lukasz Mazurek

We really enjoy receiving your feedback on the books and wildlife equipment we stock – here, Pierre, from Switzerland, shares his thoughts on the ‘invaluable’ Biebrza Site Guide by Lukasz Mazurek.

“I had doubts concerning price/quality but I bought this book when we visited Biebrza in May 2010 and I must say it is pretty fantastic. It was so useful and easy to use in the field. Very clear and detailed on bird locations and well laid out. Maps and indexes make it very easy to find what you are searching for. We had some stunning views of everything we wanted including Greater Spotted Eagle, Aquatic Warbler and unbelievable views of male Red-breasted Flycatchers and I am pretty sure we saved a lot of time and hassle. We just wouldn’t be able to see all that without this book.”

Share your views with NHBS customers around the world – click here to create a product review.

Customer reviews can be read in the ‘Reviews’ tab on each product page and here on the Hoopoe

Keith Betton reviews ‘Reed and Bush Warblers’

“Putting the spotlight on some hard-to-see warblers”

Keith Betton, chairman of the African Bird Club, shares his thoughts on the recently published Helm Identification Guide to Reed and Bush Warblers.

“In size and feel, this book is closest to the Helm volume on Sylvia Warblers, and similarly it is also an impressive tour de force. At the outset the authors deserve praise for tackling such a challenging group of genera which contain some of the most secretive species in the world! The families covered are Locustellidae, Acrocephalidae and Cettiidae – 112 species in 13 genera, of which 21 are on the British List.

The 42 colour plates by Brian Small are grouped together at the front of the book. These really are excellent, with usually just one or two species per page and a selection of distinctive races being shown with brief descriptions on the facing pages. The main species texts are really comprehensive, giving detailed accounts of structure and plumage and comparisons with similar species. Vocalisations are described and sonograms are shown, although – rather like the text – they are a bit on the small side! In contrast the colour distribution maps are superb – being large and clearly annotated to show the ranges of each race for both breeding and winter distribution. These ranges are also described, as are the choice of habitats. Movements, breeding habits, behaviour and moult are all treated in separate sections, as are in-hand measurements, which are also accompanied by diagrams of the wing formulae. A section on taxonomy and systematics allows for an explanation of recent changes. In my view it would have been helpful to include here the various names that readers may encounter when reading about the species elsewhere. Good colour photographs are included for all but the most obscure species, and helpfully these are positioned at the end of each species text. No detail has been spared in presenting information. The various appendices give information about the type localities and synonyms for each species, as well as body measurements based on fieldwork and museum specimens.

In creating this book the authors have taken advantage of molecular analysis based on DNA comparisons. These studies have turned some of our understandings upside down. For example, research strongly suggests that two accepted races of Aberrant Bush Warbler are in fact races of Sunda Bush Warbler. Also who would have thought that Grasshopper and Lanceolated Warblers were not closely related? It appears that that they are seated in different clades, and Grasshopper Warbler is actually more closely related to Chinese Bush Warbler – and therefore is likely to be a Bradypterus and not a Locustella!

A number of these taxonomic issues are discussed in the introductory chapters. The authors have adopted a pragmatic approach and have been flexible in deciding the scope of the book to ensure the inclusion of the most challenging genera. Among their decisions is the adoption of Iduna as a sister genus to Acrocephalus for four species usually accepted as being in the genus Hippolais (Eastern and Western, Sykes’s and Booted Warblers), while Thick-billed Warbler is put in the genus Phragamaticola. Similarly Chestnut-headed Tesia is on its own in the genus Oligura. The recent splitting up of Spotted Bush-Warbler is only partly followed, with the authors recognising the creation of Baikal Bush-Warbler (Bradypterus davidi), but not West Himalayan Bush Warbler (Bradypterus kashmirensis). Similarly Anjouan Brush-Warbler (Nesillas longicaudata) is lumped into Madagascar Brush-Warbler.

When it comes to the use of English names, the choice stays fairly close to the IOC List, although occasionally the Clements name is favoured instead, and on some occasions the authors have adopted names that are used by neither – such as Kinabalu Bush-Warbler (for Bradypterus accentor) and Kiritimati Warbler (for Acrocephalus aequinoctialis). One species that followers of Clements will find missing is Victorin’s Scrub-Warbler. Although treated as a Bradypterus in that list, it has been renamed as Victorin’s Warbler by IOC and placed in the genus Cryptillas next to the Crombecs and Longbills in the family Macrosphenidae. Those who are interested in the choice of races will again have plenty to discuss – although space does not allow details to be listed here.

It would be a mistake to think that there is little left to learn about these Old World families. For example, how did we overlook the Large-billed Reed Warbler? Identified from a single specimen collected from India in 1865, it was 140 years before it was detected again – and yet since 2006 three have been trapped in Thailand. Similarly Timor Bush Warbler was described from two specimens collected in 1932, and then not seen again. But just a year ago it was rediscovered in good numbers, while nearby on the island of Alor this or perhaps another species has now been discovered. Recognising that the relationships between the species in this book will probably change before a second edition is printed, the authors have wisely included an appendix which summarises some of the likely revisions likely to result from recent research. For example Little Rush Warbler and Evergreen Forest Warbler are both likely to be split into several new species, while Javan Bush Warbler and Russ et Bush Warbler may be lumped, as may also Styan’s Grasshopper Warbler and Middendorff’s Grasshopper Warbler.

An amazing amount of work has gone into this volume, and it certainly gets my personal “book of the year” award.”

Share your views with NHBS customers around the world – click here to create a product review.

Your review will be posted in the ‘Reviews/Write a review’ tab on the product page and may feature here on the Hoopoe

Five reasons to use a Batcorder

EcoObs’ Batcorder is the first of a new generation of autonomous bat recording devices designed to produce higher quality recording and automated identification. The key benefits of the Batcorder system are:

1 .Save time and reduce costs

By automatically analysing bat calls, the Batcorder will save you significant amounts of time. The exceptional quality of recordings made by the Batcorder means you can be more certain of correctly identifying a species either automatically or manually. Automatic species identifications can be carried out in a few minutes (watch our short video to see the process in action).

2. Higher quality recordings

The unique omni-directional microphone, as well as the reduction in echoes from the main body of the unit, ensure a clear picture of bat activity at the recording site. The sensitive bat call trigger ensures that the vast majority of recordings made by the Batcorder are from bats. Recordings of other sounds (crickets, rustling leaves, water, wind and wind turbine movements) are under most circumstances not recorded at all.

3. Consistent results

In contrast to other bat detectors, each Batcorder and its microphone are calibrated for a fixed sensitivity. Thus, the comparison of bat activity recorded at different locations is guaranteed to be unbiased.

4. Flexible autonomous use

The Batcorder is a weatherproof autonomous recording device designed to be left in the field for multiple nights. It has a typical battery life of 6-10 nights (based on the level of activity at the site), and space for 30,000 calls (when using a 32GB SDHC card). A special Wind Turbine Extension Kit allows continuous deployments in excess of 30 days to minimise the need to access the in situ Batcorder.

5. Designed by bat workers

The entire Batcorder System has been designed by bat workers for bat workers. It’s user-friendly with an intuitive powerful call management system, allowing you to download, analyse, catalogue and search for calls easily. You don’t need to go on a training course to get started with the Batcorder.

The Batcorder is distributed in the UK & Ireland by NHBS. If you’d like to find out more, please contact Dr Adrian Gude, NHBS Wildlife Equipment Specialist.

Book of the Week: The Rise of Fishes

Continuing our new weekly selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

The Rise of Fishes: 500 Million Years of Evolution

Edited by John A Long

What?

A tour of the past 500 million years, seeing the evolution of fishes from “Glorified Swimming Worms” to the diverse and complex groups we see today.

Why?

Fishes are the ancestors of all amphibians, leading to reptiles, birds and mammals – including ourselves – and they continue to dominate the world’s waters. This is a superbly illustrated guide to the process of their evolution and diversification. The images range from clearly photographed fossils and skeletal portions, through detailed anatomical diagrams, to colourful reconstructions of life in the ancient oceans and photographs of living species. The science is brought to life through stories from the author’s own experiences in the field. A brilliant exposition of a key drama in the evolution of life as we know it.

Who?

John A. Long is the vice president of Research and Collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. His numerous books include Prehistoric Mammals of Australia and New Guinea: One Hundred Million Years of Evolution and Palaeozoic Vertebrate Biostratigraphy and Biogeography, also published by Johns Hopkins.

Status of Waterbirds in Asia, Reviewed in IBIS

“I strongly recommend that anyone with an interest in bird conservation in the region obtain a copy of this book for reference.”

Status of Waterbirds in Asia: Results of the Asian Waterbird Census: 1987 – 2007

“In recent years, studies at tidal sites in Korea, Japan and Australia have revealed a significant decline in the numbers of shorebird species such as the Great Knot (Calidris tenuirostris) and the Far Eastern Curlew (Numenius madagascariensis), and these species were listed as globally threatened in 2010.

We have good reason to believe that populations of many other species have suffered a similar decline in Asia, where the decline of migratory species is far more severe than in Europe and the Americas. Not only is Asia the most populated continent, it is also one that has been undergoing decades of rampant economic development. Many important sites for wildlife conservation are gone or under serious threat from human disturbance, reclamation or pollution. There have been few inventories to show policy makers and the general public the location of priority sites for conservation, and even fewer studies to assess the population trend of birds.

The only important regional monitoring effort is the Asian Waterbird Census. It was started in 1987 and more than 6700 sites have been counted at least once. Not only has much valuable information been collected, but networks of conservationists have been established throughout the region. I strongly recommend that anyone with an interest in bird conservation in the region (which is, strictly speaking, not conventional ‘Asia’ but East and South Asia plus Australasia) obtain a copy of this book for reference. NGOs and government agencies should also be encouraged to conduct more detailed studies at sites where high numbers of waterbirds have been recorded and to ensure that these important sites are well protected and managed.

Nevertheless, we are still gaining experience in this region, there is still room for improvement in census methodology, and the results should also be interpreted with care. The distribution of the sites counted during the 20-year period is uneven: many sites have been visited and counted in countries with more ornithologists and birdwatchers, such as India, Australia, Japan and South Korea, but some countries that are important to waterbirds, such as China, Indonesia and Vietnam, are still rather poorly covered. An added disadvantage is that the Asian Waterbird Census depends on voluntary submission of data and very little has been done to achieve a consistent approach, so that the monitoring is far from ideal. Not all the important sites are counted every year, and the methodology is not necessarily the same between sites, or even for multiple visits to a single site, which makes it difficult to compare the results obtained in different years.

There is an indication in Table 3 of which sites surveyed met the Ramsar criteria as internationally important. However, it would be more useful if those visited more regularly were highlighted so we know monitoring data exist and trends can be interpreted. The inventory at times also confuses the same sites under different names or spellings: for example, Yamdrok Co and Yangcaoyong Co of Xizang (Tibet) are in fact the same site with different spellings.

A strong point of the book is that it presents a wealth of data on important sites. However, because of the rather poor coverage in East Asia and the inconsistent methodology, population trends of many species cannot be analysed precisely. Table 4 gives the maximum numbers of individuals of species counted in four 5-year periods (1987–92, 1993–97, 1998–2002 and 2003–2007). As the number of sites counted differed between years, this again has made any attempt to analyse trends difficult, except for a few highly gregarious species whose wintering sites are easily covered: for example, Black-faced Spoonbill (Platalea minor), Siberian Crane (Grus leucogeranus) and Hooded Crane (Grus monacha), of which over half of the wintering individuals are to be found at single sites and those sites are regularly counted.

To understand the trend of more widespread species, we must have a carefully planned monitoring programme. As the East Asian Australasian Flyway Partnership has been established in this region since 2006, I hope we can develop good monitoring programmes based on what has been done so far. In the face of the rapid decrease in numbers of many species in the region, this should be a challenge to be taken up without delay.”

Simba Chan,

IBIS The International Journal of Avian Science

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Book of the Week: Spider Behaviour

Continuing our new weekly selection of the very best titles available through NHBS:

Spider Behaviour: Flexibility and Versatility

Edited by Marie Elisabeth Herberstein

What?

10 chapters from 15 contributors showcasing the variety of spider behaviour and making a strong case for their value as behavioural models.

Why?

The unique and charismatic behaviours of spiders, such as web-building and cannibalism, have long fascinated biologists and the general public alike. Yet so far, spiders have been underestimated as useful subjects of study in behavioural ecology. This volume rectifies this omission through a series of complementary chapters covering the range of spider behaviours, bringing the field up to date with all the very latest research from around the world.

Who?

Marie Elisabeth Herberstein is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Macquarie University, Sydney. Her research investigates a range of behaviours in spiders, such as web building, learning, mating (including sexual cannibalism) and the use of deceptive signals.