Product Description
The Travellers' Wildlife Guides are aimed at environmentally conscious travellers for whom some of the best parts of any trip are glimpses of wildlife in natural settings.

The purpose of this series is to enhance enjoyment of a trip and enrich wildlife sightings by providing identifying information on the most frequently encountered animals in each of the represented countries.

With stunning color illustrations and photographs of amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds, this series is unique in that it aims to aid the visitor in identifying all types of vertebrate land animals while providing current information on the conservation statuses of the animals.

Not only for travellers, the Travellers' Wildlife Guides are for all those fascinated by wildlife and concerned about our environment.

Most travellers to Costa Rica want to experience its lush tropical forests and catch glimpses of exotic wildlife; toucans and parrots, hummingbirds and hawks, monkeys and big cats, frogs and toads, crocodiles, and (yes) snakes. Here is all the information you will need to find, identify and learn about Costa Rica's magnificent wildlife.

--Identification, distribution, and conservation information on Costa Rica's frequently spotted animals.

--Full-color illustrations of nearly 350 of Costa Rica's most common amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

--Up-to-date information on the ecology, behavior, and conservation of the families of animals to which the pictured species belong.

--Information on habitats and on the most common plants you will encounter.

--Brief descriptions of Costa Rica's most frequently visited parks and reserves.

--Information on ecotourism in general and on conservation in Costa Rica.

Easy-to-carry, entertainingly written, beautifully illustrated-you will want to have this book as constant companion on your journey.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 8 reviews)

Too Limiting for a field guide

I found this book only really useful for mammals. I had to supplement this book for amphibians, reptiles, and especially for birds. I found it is really only good for 'popular species' of the non-mammals. If you are a casual naturalist and only want to bring one book, it is ok, but if you trying to really id a lot of organisms and add to your life-list, this isn't a great book.
June 03, 2008

Overall a good book

Overall, I think this is a good book. It provides good descriptions and illustrations for identification. I also liked that it included the parks and habitats where each of the species could be found. I was a little disappointed by the organization of the book (how the information is separate from the pictures). It is helpful when trying to quickly trying to ID an animal to have all the pictures in one spot, but it is a pain to have to flip back and forth to find out any facts. I was also wish that some butterfly species were included in this book.
May 14, 2008

Best Costa Rica bird guide written

We are going to Costa Rica this SPring and this book has been the most helpful guide in preparing for this trip.
March 11, 2008

Good news and bad news

I just returned from 10 days in CR and bought this guide (under seal so I could not examine it before purchasing) when I arrived there. This guide is great in that is provides wonderful data on amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals and lots of information on CR geography, conservation, ecology and related. The guides I met really like the book for the "friendliness" of the presentation. Unfortunately I found the book to be cumbersome because it separated the animal data from the plates and the book lacked cross-referencing, so there was a lot of back and forth trying to read about something then find its illustration. Also, the book is very limited in the varieties of each type of animal. Since my main interest is birding, I was very frustrated not to find many of the birds I was seeing. Lastly, I paid $48 for this book when I arrived in CR and later I saw it for $38; state-side the book sells for $20 or so. I think it is a wonderful overview book on animals of CR but I do not recommend it as a field guide.
February 20, 2008

Costa Rica Guide Book

Les Beletsky's "Costa Rica (Traveller's Wildlife Guide)" was a delightful and much-used companion on our recent tour in Costa Rica; and we are still reading it, now that we are home. Since we are especially interested in wildlife, we really enjoyed the beautiful, clear bird and animal illustrations and descriptions. We carried it with us on every bus and boat excursion, and it enabled us to identify many of the birds we saw. We found the comments about the parks and ecosystems in which the animals can be found to be very helpful.
The only shortcoming is that the plant descriptions are so brief and the plant illustrations are not in color.
The habitat photos are outstanding. Looking at them reminds us of the amazing variety of scenery we saw in Costa Rica.
January 28, 2008

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