Friday, September 28, 2012

A Field Guide to the Tracks & Traces of Australian Animals by R. G. B. Morrison.

A Field Guide to the Tracks & Traces of Australian Animals by R. G. B. Morrison.  Hardcover book published by Rigby 1981,192 pages with black and white photographs.


“THIS UNIQUE BOOK is the product of many years of research in many parts of Australia.”

Earlier this year I wrote about pigeon poo here in this blog. What if the poo you’ve found isn’t pigeon poo?  How can we tell what it is?  Well this is just another one of those tricky situations that Huc & Gabet seeks out the books that will give you all the answers.  Yes, this book contains photographs of poo.  It also contains photographs of animal skulls, tracks, trails, scratchings and diggings and there’s even photographs of Aboriginal tracking, but of course I go for the lowest denominator and just mention the poo.

Here’s a couple of photographs of poo (politely listed as “droppings” in the book).

 Western Grey Kangaroo

Lesser Brown Bandicoot

Maybe it’s just me but I think I would have preferred some colour photographs to get the full experience.  A grainy small black and white photograph just doesn’t really cut the mustard.   Seriously though, this is a great book.  There are plenty of books/field guides that have photographs and/or illustrations of animals, this one is when the animal isn’t actually there, which if you think about it, is more often than it is there… a bit like this book (… a little bit of philosophy???).  

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