DK Guide to Mammals

Roll up, roll up, ladies an gen’men for the Carnival of the Animals! Everything from Aardvark to Zebra in glorious colour – each one a miracle of evolution and the editor’s art! Starting off with what is a mammal (warm-blooded, viviparous, lactating etc.) we then comb through the mammalian kingdom, family by family from the primates to the platypus with its electric bill. Here’s a happy jumble of picture and verbal image which makes a brilliant ‘Did you know?’ book for browsing and reference alike. As an introduction to the diversity of mammalia it’s excellent – a follow-up bibliography would have been a helpful addition but the appended websiteography will probably score more hits with the intended readership – who could resist www.lioncrusher.com? And tarsiers’ eyes are bigger than their brains… and walruses blush to cool down… and pangolins use termites to eat their parasites – and then eat the termites… and so ad infinitum. A great book for Christmas!