Bats of the US and Canada--Book Review

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Bats of the US and Canada--Book Review

Postby Cheryl Jones » Apr 26, 2012 12:44 pm

Bill Mixon asked me to post his review

Bats of the United States and Canada.
Michael J. Harvey, J. Scott Altenbach, and Troy L. Best.
Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore; 2011.
ISBN 978-1-4214-0191-1.
5 by 8 inches, 202 pages, softbound. $24.95.

There are forty-seven species of bats living in North America north of Mexico. Four others, including the hairy-legged vampire, have been seen at least once but are considered "accidentals," with no permanent population. The first half of this nice little book is devoted to a pretty thorough, if brief, review of all aspects of bats, including their biology, importance, and conservation issues. The latter is up to date, with both white-nose syndrome and wind turbines mentioned. As usual, we are asked to accept uncritically that bats must be beneficial because they eat insects.

The second half runs through all the forty-seven species, with a page of text, a distribution map, and a large color photo. These are sorted by family, but that is hard to discover, since the family is not mentioned in the descriptions. A table in the appendix lists the species by family, with a code for their conservation status, such as endangered or threatened.
—Bill Mixon
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Cheryl Jones
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