National Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife (National Audubon Society Field Guides) Flexibound – October 3, 1995

Used this on recent 3-week safari to Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia. Saw many of the animals and birds in this reference. Typically I would read about what I had seen on the morning game drive during afternoon break, and then could remember some of the info on the evening game drive where many of the same animals were seen again.The organization of the book is fine, grouping by region and family of animals. The one improvement would be to have the color photos placed with each text description instead of all grouped together in the middle of the book.Definitely recommend this reference book , even if you only go to a zoo. Maybe it will encourage you to go to the natural environment someday…

This guide provided descriptions for most of the commonly seen animals on a safari in Africa. Many of them had full color pictures. It's gets 5 stars because it does what it claims to do. If there was a down side, it does not include an image, photo or drawing, of every animal it describes. I think they could have made the descriptions a bit shorter and added more photos.

I just went on a tanzania safari trip and this book was one of the most useful things I brought with me. The safari was 6 days and we saw around 100 different species of animals (admittedly, over half were birds), and between the guide and this book we were able to identify 90+. We put post-it tabs on each animal we saw and this was a fantastic way to remember all the diverse wildlife safari had to offer. This is my second safari trip; the first time I went, I didn't take any notes and could only recount a generic "We saw lions, elephants, zebras, antelopes, ...". With the help of this book, I can name and identify a dozen different antelopes that I saw this time! Not to mention it made it all the more exciting when we come across a new animal and we get to add a new stickie tab. It made the safari trip feel like a game of "Wildlife Go" (à la Pokémon Go). :)

Good photos and descriptions!

Very good pictures and descriptions, very detailed and a lot of animals and some plants (not only mammals). only downside: all pictures are in the middle of the book as photos and descriptions on different pages in other area of book (on thinner paper), so you have to flip back and forth, but most likely this was done to keep the weight of the book down.

I purchased this book because several settings in my most recent novel take place in East Africa. A trip to the Dark Continent wasn't in the cards for me, so I had to make do with a variety of virtual tours. This Field Guide proved to be a wonderful resource.It includes an overview of the continent, color pictures of flora and fauna, and a detailed explanation of each life form. I much appreciated the discussion it provided of the various habitats--the savanna, the Great Rift Valley, Ngorongoro, the Sahara, the Kalahari, and the myriad of other habitats that cover this sprawling continent.One of the most valuable parts of this book is the extensive selection of color plates on several hundred species living in Africa. They are so detailed, I was able to bring the Gorillas, dik-diks and other birds, reptiles, and mammals that populate my novel to life as rich, full-featured individuals.I'd recommend this for anyone traveling to Africa or using the continent as a setting in their writing.

This book is what I will probably take on our upcoming Southern African safari. It has relatively short sections on the countries in Southern and Eastern Africa where most wildlife viewing is done with comments on the parks and types of animals most often viewed in each. It then has sections on the major mammals but also the birds and even reptiles and insects. I am sure it is not all inclusive, but as advertised, it is a field guide to help you identify what you are seeing and learn something about it. I love the Insight Guides, but this weighs about half as much and is easier to look things up in.

Enthusiastically facing a long-awaited trip back to East Africa, where we'd lived 1961-63, I chose this book to accompany us. Excellent photos, educational descriptions and, a bonus since it was not why I bought the book, a large section on birds. Not by nature or hobby a birder, I became one, thanks not only to this book but with the solid support of David,our safari guide, who knows he must find the "Big Five" for his clients - we were not, by the way, counting - and so was delighted also to find interest among us in a passion of his: birds. Compact, readable, it went everywhere with us.