Hello, tweeters.

A colleague of mine, nature writer and photographer Whit Bronaugh,
recently sent me a copy of his book and asked that I let others know
about it. This is a book for those who might prefer to keep a life
list as hard copy rather than on a computer. It's called Wildlife of
North America, A Naturalist's Lifelist, published by the University
Press of Florida. The price on the cover is $29.95. I've seen them at
several book stores in Seattle but hadn't looked closely at a copy
before now.

The book is unusual in listing all of the mammals, birds, reptiles,
amphibians, freshwater fishes, butterflies, and dragonflies of North
America north of Mexico. It's a big book, plenty of room to write
something for every species. Be the first on your block to have a
land and freshwater VERTEBRATE life list, not to mention the two
insect groups. Whit is a perfectionist, so he was e-mailing me right
up to publication date to ask if there had been any changes in
dragonfly taxonomy or common names, and I'm sure he has done the same
for all the other groups. I know many birders are also broadly
interested naturalists, and this seems just the book for us.

Besides the list, the book has a lengthy introduction, including an
interesting section on biodiversity and zoogeography of North
America, with very informative maps of the number of species of each
group in each state and province; contrasting the maps for
butterflies and dragonflies was really instructive to me. There is
also an appendix with recent taxonomic and nomenclatural changes. In
this appendix, he updates the names and the taxonomy in standard
field guides (National Geographic 4th edition for birds), with
discussions of the reasons for the changes; you'd be surprised how
many additional species have been recognized in recent years.

He also has a section on extinction and - really neat, I thought - a
list and description of all the animals in these groups known or
thought to have gone extinct at the end of the Pleistocene (e.g.,
Columbia Mammoth, Northern Sabertooth, La Brea Condor, Titan
Terrorbird, and NA Giant Tortoise), a moment ago in the history of
our continent. As he writes, "When you see a Turkey Vulture wheeling
about in the sky, remember that not long ago it had to share the
spoils of a carcass with American Lions, Dire Wolves, Giant Teratorns
and other now extinct avian scavengers." The lists include these
species, so - sorry - you'll never be able to fill in every check
box. Also, alien (non-native) species are listed in separate lists at
the end of each taxonomic group; I like the emphasis on native species.

Anyway, this book seems like a bargain to me at $30. Even if you're
not into listing, the introduction and appendix are unique
contributions to an understanding of our wildlife.

-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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