Whether one is seeking a traditional guide, a guided experience or just an encyclopedia, Peterson Field Guide to Finding Mammals in North America by Vladimir Dinets ultimately fails – it is of little use beyond a jumping-off point for prospective mammal watchers. If one desires a comprehensive and efficient guide on the subject, then it is advised to look elsewhere. This guide will leave mammal seekers in the dark with its unclear arrangement and lack of images.
A lot of work went into this beautiful, portable book – this reviewer stored it in his coat pocket on numerous occasions while preparing this review – with enjoyable text and images. Dinets has clear enthusiasm and knowledge and creatively shepherds a great deal of information into a cohesive product. The guide’s failure, however, originates in its semantics. For one thing, this is not a guide to North America but a guide to most of the United States, Canada and Greenland.
Second, this guide is far from comprehensive, instead taking its user on a journey according to the author’s perceptions. Branding a guide more directly with its author is appealing and should provide a unique, enriching experience, but this guide does not emphasize this point going in. Consequently, the guide’s opening, which paints bird watching as less interesting than mammal watching, seems out of place, and its sections of mammal categories, which shift between casual names and several levels of scientific classification, can do nothing but blur the reader’s perceptions. Dinets notes that although he organizes the animals as efficiently as he can, ultimately his organization is based on convenience. Perhaps this is a necessity, as science is never absolute, but Dinets’ arrangement only adds to the book’s uncertain experience; this reviewer felt the need to research whether all orders of mammals in the book’s geographic range are covered (they all at least have a presence, although not all individual species are included). The uncertain experience continues within each section, as the arrangement of animals within each section is unclear, directly impeding quick access. The guide also presents arguments throughout its contents without examples or citations.
The guide’s most critical flaw, however, is that once in the field, an observer would have a very difficult time watching mammals even under the most ideal conditions, because not all of the animals have corresponding images.
As a reference resource during early planning, the guide does contain interesting and valuable information about mammal watching locations and does work to facilitate independence and observation. But this information, similar to the information about the animals themselves, is not arranged in the most accessible way. How to Find Them and Before You Leave Home are not broken down into sub-sections to which users can refer at their points of need.
Thus, although a great deal of information has been shepherded within this guide, diligently in many ways, Peterson Field Guide to Finding Mammals in North America is ultimately packaged in an uncertain container. Jumping directly to the Locations and Species indexes could be helpful, but there are better experiences out there, for those in the field or at home.
