Walker's Mammals of the World

To my knowledge this book is one of the best product on mammals. Is one of those items you must have if you deal with mammals, either if you are a professional or an amateur.

This is the most comprehensive mammalogy book in existance. it is thorough, interesting and up to date. it can, however be better. It should for instance include some phylogenetic trees and easy to use statistics about the different families and orders. better pictures (especially colour ones) will likewise be welcome.The main complaint I have for this otherwise excellent book is that when dealing with non "sexy" multispecies genera it is not always clear from the text which species the data actually refers to. an even bigger, more detailed and species rather than genus oriented 7th edition will make this very good book actually excellent

Whilst agreeing with other reviewers that there is substantial scope for improving photographs (see below), I think it is important to accept that these two volumes represent a great bargin in terms of the quantity of information presented and the value of the bibliography. This should continue to be a book which students can afford.As a child I used to pore over the original 3 volumes in the main reference library where I grew up. I dreamed of owning my own copies. Imagine my surprise when I picked up the 5th edition in a bookshop in London some 25 years later, long after my professional involvement with Mammal Biology had ceased.Over the years Walker's has seen steady incremental improvement particularly moving from generic to specific accounts and extending its scope to cover all Recent Mammals. As I state above there should always be a place for a good value comprehensive survey, BUT....The Handbook of the Birds of the World project demonstrates what is possible with good quality color printing. Surely the Mammals of the World deserve an equally high-quality approach. Perhaps John Hopkins Press could be persuaded to produce a 'de luxe' 7th edition eliminating the B & W 'photos (particularly of dead specimens), adding extensive colour 'photos, range maps (both 'original' and current), and so forth. There is also scope for a high quality electronic product if nature films illustrating individual species could be licensed. We can live in hope!

What's great about these books is you can learn about the full diversity of mammals. I like it as a reference so that if one reads about some obscure animal one can look it up and find out what it is, where it is, and how it is. Sadly, mostly, how they are, is endangered due to habitat loss.

1. No reference to photos/figures in text. This sometimes makes it extremely difficult to find the relevant photo/figure (providing that there is one). Considering this is the sixth edition, it is inexcusable not to have included this addition. Photos should be somehow indicated in the index too.2. Photos "still" in black and white, how much more would color cost? double? I doubt there would be any problem with sales. If the 7th edition was half b & w and half color most wouldn't complain especially if the editions were headed towards all color photos. It is amazing that after 6 editions no progress has been made. Have there been any attempts other then finding attractive cover jacket (color) photos? These photos are deceptive at best. For a colorless book, there should be b & w photos on the jacket.3. In this edition (6th) the two volumes have more than the listed 1248 pages (closer to 1800, making two massive books).4. Next edition will likely have to go back to the original 3 volume style. (It is starting to get too big for only 2 volumes.) The third volume would include: appendices, glossary, references, index, AND photo credits for use of color photos.