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The Ecotravellers’ Wildlife Guide Brazil, Amazon and Pantanal by David
Pearson and Les Beletsky, Natural World/Academic Press, £24.95, ISBN
0125480520

ECOTRAVELLER guides do what the Lonely Planet series doesn’t even aspire to:
provide a comprehensive introduction to a country’s natural history. Brazil is
the seventh country to get the Ecotraveller treatment, and within this guide’s
500 pages there are colour illustrations of 31 species of insects and other
arthropods, 95 amphibians and reptiles, 288 birds, 70 mammals, 35 fish and 37
common plants. There’s also an informed and interesting text to accompany the
pictures.

The quality of the artwork is good, and the plates are attractive and
uncrowded—perhaps a bit too uncrowded. Brazil boasts more than 1600 bird
species, so with just 288 covered a book like this might will be more
frustrating than fulfilling for dedicated birders.

However, this book is aimed at ecotravellers—an entirely different
type. For anyone with a general interest, it offers a terrific introduction to
Brazil’s diversity. I would have appreciated more details on the national parks,
and perhaps eco-friendly lodges and places to stay, but such information is
outside the scope of the book. All the same, it’s the ideal book to pack with
the binoculars as an all-round wildlife guide.