»The world belongs to those who read.« –Rick Holland

Ohne Empfehlung ist es schwer, sich für das richtige Bestimmungs- oder Sachbuch zu entscheiden. Wir haben unterwegs in den Bibliotheken der ExpertInnen gestöbert und die wichtigsten Bücher mitgebracht.

THE WILDLIFE OF COSTA RICA | FIONA REID, TWAN LEENDERS, JIM ZOOK, ROBERT DEAN
This full-color field guide is an indispensable companion to the most popular neotropical ecotourism destination: Costa Rica. Featuring all the mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and arthropods that one is likely to see on a trip to the rainforest (as well as those secretive creatures such as the jaguar that are difficult to glimpse), The Wildlife of Costa Rica is the guide to have when encountering trogons, tapirs, and tarantulas. In addition to providing details for identifying animals along with interesting facts about their natural history, this guide offers tips for seeing them in the wild.

BIRDS OF COSTA RICA | RICHARD GARRIGUES, ROBERT DEAN
Graced with bounteous natural beauty Costa Rica has become a popular destination for travellers from all over the world. Birds play a prominent role in attracting visitors, too. The shimmering quetzals, gaudy macaws, and comical toucans that populate tourism posters only begin to hint at the impressive avian diversity to be found throughout this small country.
The principal objective of this book is to help you correctly identify birds in Costa Rica. Each family of birds is introduced by a brief description that should help the novice birder determine to which group a bird belongs. Nearly every species is illustrated by one or more images, as needed.
Corresponding to each species‘ illustration is a written account on the facing page. The account begins with the unique field marks to look for that will distinguish each species from similar ones. Following the description is information about status, distribution and vocalisation. Most species accounts include a a map showing the distribution within Costa Rica.

A FIELD GUIDE TO COASTAL FISHES: FROM ASLASKA TO CALIFORNIA | VALERIE KELLS, LUIZ ROCHA, LARRY ALLEN
From the Arctic waters of Alaska to the southern tip of California, this fully illustrated guide captures the stunning diversity of fishes along the western coastlines of the United States and Canada. The combined work of renowned marine science illustrator Val Kells and distinguished ichthyologists Luiz A. Rocha and Larry G. Allen, A Field Guide to Coastal Fishes: From Alaska to California is this region’s most current and thorough fish identification guide.
Whether you are an angler, scuba diver, naturalist, student, or teacher, you will find every fish you’re trying to identify, each shown in lifelike detail. The book’s coverage extends from shallow, brackish waters to depths of about 200 meters.

A FIELD GUIDE TO COASTAL FISHES OF BERMUDA, BAHAMAS AND THE CARIBBEAN SEA | VALERIE KELLS, LUIZ ROCHA, CAROLE BALDWIN
The most comprehensive and beautifully illustrated guide to the coastal fishes of Bermuda, Bahamas, and the Caribbean Sea.
Capturing the remarkable diversity of fishes from estuaries, mangrove nurseries, coralline and rocky reefs to well offshore, this fully illustrated guide to the subtropical coast of Bermuda, the tropical waters of the Bahamas, and the entire Caribbean Sea is the most comprehensive guide of its kind. The combined work of award-winning marine science illustrator Val Kells and distinguished ichthyologists Luiz A. Rocha and Carole C. Baldwin, A Field Guide to Coastal Fishes of Bermuda, Bahamas, and the Caribbean Sea is the region’s newest and most thorough fish identification guide available. Whether you are an angler, scuba diver, snorkeler, traveler, naturalist, student, teacher, or researcher, you’ll find both common and rare fishes to identify – each illustrated in lifelike detail. The book’s coverage extends from inshore brackish waters to depths of about 200 meters.

WHALES, DOLPHINS AND SEALS | HADORAM SHIRIHAI, BRETT JARRETT
This new field guide is a complete and convenient reference to every species of cetacean, pinniped and sirenian in the world, along with the Marine and Sea Otters and the Polar Bear.
Every species is illustrated with magnificent colour paintings and a stunning collection of photographs, chosen to illustrate the key field marks which can be used to separate each species in the field.
The author’s unique depth of experience and knowledge, coupled with the artist’s unrivalled skill, have come together to produce a neat, practical field guide that will enable any observer to quickly identify any mammals they may encounter at sea.

THE BRILLIANCE OF BIRDS | SKYE WISHART, EDIN WHITEHEAD
New classy paperback edition of the earlier successful hardcover book, showing New Zealand birds as you’ve never seen them before. Who knew that the morepork, our forest-dwelling owl, can turn its head 270 degrees? Or that the eastern bar-tailed godwit doubles its body weight before undertaking an epic and continuous migration of 11,000 kilometres? Or that the tui has a specially placed voicebox, enabling it to duet with itself, sometimes producing sounds too high-frequency for humans to hear? Zany, off-kilter, wondrous and wild, The Brilliance of Birds gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lives of some of New Zealand’s feathered friends.

SEA TURTLES: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO THEIR BIOLOGY, BEHAVIOR, AND CONSERVATION | JAMES R. SPOTILA
For more than a hundred million years, sea turtles have been swimming in the world’s oceans. These magnificent, long-lived creatures spend their lives in the water, coming ashore to lay their eggs. Upon hatching, the baby turtles leave the nest and enter a dangerous world of storms and predators. The females will return to the same beach to lay their own eggs when they reach maturity a decade later.
Having escaped the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs, these ancient reptiles today face new dangers that threaten their survival: pollution, hunting, and the destruction of their nesting grounds. Will this century be the last to witness their majesty? Will succeeding generations live in a world devoid of their graceful presence?
Marine biologist James R. Spotila has spent much of his life unraveling the mysteries of these graceful creatures and working to ensure their survival. In Sea Turtles, he offers a comprehensive and compelling account of their history and life cycle based on the most recent scientific data – and suggests what we can do now to save them. From the Kemp’s ridley, which nests on a single beach on Mexico’s Gulf Coast, to the nomadic leatherback, which can weigh up to a ton and is in the most imminent danger of extinction, Spotila offers a vivid description of their diets and mating habits, and the conservation efforts being made on their behalf. Illustrated with stunning color photographs by the world’s leading nature photographers, Sea Turtles will inform and inspire readers of all ages everywhere.

SAFARI COMPANION: A GUIDE TO WATCHING AFRICAN MAMMALS | RICHARD D. ESTES
Since its original publication in 1993, The Safari Companion has been the best field guide to observing and understanding the behavior of African mammals. An indispensable tool for naturalists traveling to Africa, this new edition has been revised to acknowledge the enthusiasm to those watching these magnificent animals at zoos and wildlife parks, and on film.
The Safari Companion enables readers to recognize and interpret visible behavioral activities, such as courtship rituals, territorial marking, aggression, and care of young. Each account of over 80 species includes a behavioral table in which the unique actions of the hoofed mammals, carnivores, and primates are described for easy reference. In addition, useful maps show the major national boundaries, vegetation zones, and game parks relevant to the guide. The book includes an extensive glossary, as well as tips on wildlife photography, a list of organizations working to protect African wildlife, and advice on where and when to see the animals.

STUARTS‘ FIELD GUIDE TO THE LARGER MAMMALS OF AFRICA | CHRIS & MATHILDE STUART
Classic and widely acclaimed work, concentrates on the more visible and easily distinguished larger species, as well as some of the more frequently seen smaller mammals. This new edition has been extensively revised, expanded and redesigned and includes: the most recent research and taxonomy; revised distribution maps and many new images; colour-coded grouping of orders; size icons; detailed descriptions of each species, offering insight into key identification characters, typical behaviour, preferred habitat, food choice, reproduction and longevity; whales and dolphins now featured too.

TRACKER MANUAL: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO ANIMAL TRACKING IN SOUTH AFRICA | ALEX VAN DEN HEEVER, RENIAS MHLONGO, KAREL BENADIE
This practical guide to animal tracking is a one-of-its-kind manual, based oninformation developed with the help of southern Africa’s few remaining traditional trackers and their centuries-old wisdom in the field. It presents the more concrete and obvious wildlife signs for some 160 animals and teams them with a host of seemingly unrelated details to give a comprehensive picture of recent – and not-so-recent – traffic through the bush. Simple, bulleted text guides readers through the key points and teaches the broad-based observational skills required to detect and interpret messages; multiple photographs, some annotated, along with accurate track drawings for all the animals, offer a clear visual guide too. Rich in detail, accurate, and with an instructive introduction, this guide to the region’s animal tracks and signs is every tracker’s go-to manual.

FIELD GUIDE TO TREES OF SOUTHERN AFRICA | BRAAM & PIET VAN WYK
This authoritative southern African tree guide is written and photographed by leading tree experts. Newly updated and expanded, it covers some 900 species, as well as subspecies and variations. Arranged in groups based on easy-to-observe leaf and stem characters, species are concisely described and illustrated with full-color photographs, and distribution maps showing their range. Supplementary features include useful notes on tree identification and an illustrated glossary. It is designed with the non-specialist in mind: trees are arranged in color-coded groups based on easy-to-observe leaf and stem characters. Each species account is illustrated with at least one full-color photograph of the plant’s most readily identifiable part or parts, as well as an image of the full tree, and a distribution map shows its range. The concise text also touches on the practical uses of plants; supplementary features include useful notes on tree identification and an extensive illustrated glossary. Authoritative, classic guide written by leading experts includes comprehensive photography for all species, showing both close-up details and full trees and carefully designed keys to enable accurate identification.

SASOL BIRDS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA | IAN SINCLAIR, PHIL HOCKEY, WARWICK TARBOTON
First published in 1993, Sasol Birds of Southern Africa is one of the best-selling field guides on the African continent. This fourth edition has been rewritten and greatly improved, ensuring it remains the region’s most comprehensively illustrated and trusted field guide. In this fourth edition: species accounts have been rewritten and now include group introductions; plates have been newly designed for ease of use and comparison; more than 380 new improved illustrations replace earlier ones; illustrations have simplified labels, pinpointing key differentiating features; distribution maps have been updated, showing the relative abundance of a species in the region, and also indicating resident or migrant status. Other features include calendar bars that show species‘ occurrence and breeding periods, a section on ‚how to use this book‘, as well as sonograms depicting the calls of difficult-to-distinguish birds that have distinctive calls.

GAME RANGER IN YOUR BACKPACK | MEGAN EMMETT, SEAN PATTRICK
All-in-one interpretative guide to the Lowveld.
This guide is packed with practical, interpretative information on the most commonly encountered animals and plants of the Lowveld – information that is usually only available if you have a game ranger or field guide by your side in the bush. It teaches people how to observe, identify and interpret what they see in the bush in a meaningful way, without having to wade through the reams of technical information found in most other field guides. The reader-friendly mind-map layout of the book, with pictures linked to brief but informative text boxes, makes pertinent information accessible at a glance.
Other features include colour-coded chapters for ease of reference, while blocked information and icons in the mammals and trees sections provide technical details in a concise form. Hundreds of stunning interpretative images, highlighted keywords and a flowchart structure to each spread direct the eye to the different topics on each featured species, allowing the reader to pick out whatever is of interest to him or her.
Game Ranger in your Backpack is an essential companion for amateur naturalists of all descriptions including first-time international visitors to South Africa’s bushveld, annual local holidaymakers or aspiring game rangers.

THE PERMACULTURE MARKET GARDEN | ZACH LOEKS
Permaculture tends to be very much in the domain of home gardeners and property owners. But what if we could take it all a step further, and merge the fields of permaculture and market gardening?
In The Permaculture Market Garden, author Zach Loeks brings together his passion for sustainable permaculture food production systems and beautiful, vibrant illustrations to provide a highly visual guide to the smooth integration of permaculture into the market garden, in ways that are scalable to specific situations. Profiling crops and ecosystem-based techniques, Loeks demonstrates a profitable, sustainable and approachable model for the future of market gardening.
Along the way, Loeks introduces his own system of PermaBeds, season extension techniques, intensive and rotational interplanting, in-depth discussions on soil health, and more, bringing activities, designs and prospects of farming to life through illustrations, so the reader can be immersed within the world of permaculture farming. Playful, informative and curious, inspiring and beautiful and packed with accessible practical information, The Permaculture Market Garden will inspire both the seasoned market gardener as well as anyone aspiring to start a business.

HANDBUCH DER PERMAKULTUR GESTALTUNG | BILL MOLLISON
Das Permakultur-Buch vom »Vater der Permakultur« Bill Mollison.
Permakultur (dauerhafte Landwirtschaft) ist die bewusste Gestaltung und Erhaltung landwirtschaftlich produktiver Ökosysteme, die die Mannigfaltigkeit, Stabilität und Widerstandsfähigkeit natürlicher Ökosysteme aufweisen. Permakultur ist die harmonische Verflechtung von Landschaft und Menschen, die Nahrung, Energie, Behausung und andere materielle und immaterielle Bedürfnisse für die Menschen bereitstellt. Ohne dauerhafte Landwirtschaft ist eine stabile soziale Ordnung nicht möglich.
Permakultur-Gestaltung ist ein System des Zusammenfügens gedanklicher, materieller und planerischer Bestandteile zu einem Muster, das zum Wohl des Lebens in allen seinen Formen funktioniert.
Die der Permakultur zu Grunde liegende Denkweise beruht auf dem Wirken mit der Natur anstatt gegen sie; auf lang andauernder, überlegter Beobachtung anstatt langwieriger, unüberlegter Arbeit; auf ganzheitlicher Betrachtung der Systemfunktionen, anstatt nur einen einzelnen Ertrag zu fordern; und darauf, zuzulassen, dass Systeme ihre eigene Entfaltung ausdrücken.

• Photographs: Vagateers