Frogs and Frogging in South Africa
– Fully revised and updated
by Vincent Carruthers and Louis du Preez
(Struik Nature, R180)
My book club buddies hate coming to my house because the frogs in the fish pond in my herb garden make so much noise we can’t sit outside and talk.
I don’t know anything about frogs, except that I was told that you can judge the condition of a place by the frogs that live in it.
Frogging is not just about frogs, it is about exploring wetlands, listening to the sounds of an African night, observing and conserving the natural world.
This is a compact book but still contains all 115 frog species recorded in Southern Africa and covered in the original A Complete Guide to the Frogs of Southern Africa.
There are three sections: Introduction, Habitats and Field Identification.
All 16 groups of frogs, such as platannas, rubber, ghost and shovel-nosed, are identified with photos, together with the details, a map and the track number for the CD that is included. The systematic list includes the scientific names, the English and Afrikaans common names, as well as the CD track number, so that you can listen to the sound a particular frog makes.
There is also a key to help you identify tadpoles and eggs.
This book offers amateur froggers an accessible intro-duction to identification and is very user friendly. It has made me realise there is so much to learn and discover. If you have any interest, you will enjoy this book, even if you only use it to identify the frogs in your garden, which is what I will do.
Basic Bird ID in Southern Africa
by Peter Ginn and Geoff Mcllleron
(Struik Nature, R75)
There are many books on South African birds but they do not teach the beginner how to identify birds. This book is to fill in the gaps and show you to identify them. It does not attempt to cover all bird species, nor illustrate all the variations found in local birds. It focuses on the more common families.
There are four essential pieces of equipment you will need – an identification book like this one; a field guide like Newsman’s Birds or Sasol Birds; binoculars; and a notebook.
This system of identification encourages you to focus on physical features and parts of the birds, for example size, shape, posture, head, bill, neck, body, wings, tail, legs, feet and colour. The most important feature is the bill. The method will require discipline at first but will become second nature.
The book is printed on glossy paper with beautiful photos in each chapter explaining what to look for. Remember GIZZ – General Size and Shape and the way it moves – see page 12.
This is a small book that will be easy to carry around with you when you are looking for birds. I hope this is going to be the book that helps me put a name to the birds which I have found difficult to identify.
Mammals of Southern Africa Pocket Guide
by Chris and Mathilde Stuart
(Struik Nature, R100)
This is an easy-to-use, compact identification guide to mammals of the region.
There are 120 species, from the very visible, like elephants, lions and marine mammals, to the more unusual like pangolin, aardvark, bats, shrews and sengis.
Each page has a glossy photo of the animal, its scien-tific name; the name in English, Afrikaans and French; an area map; footprint; a silhouette indicating size relative to human beings and everything you need to know from the animal’s habitat to the call.
I found the dung identification section and the track comparison at the back of the book fascinating.
Many of us can recog-nise the animals, but the prints and dung are a very different method of identification and one that I will be applying.