Californian's Guide to the Mammals Among Us

Paperback Page Count: 192 Dimensions: 0.5(h) x 5.9"(w) x 8.9"(d) At its current tally of 212 species, California's mammal list is the largest of all the United States'. This new guidebook joins its sister titles A Californian's Guide to the Birds among Us and A Californian's Guide to the Trees among Us in introducing naturalists of all levels to over forty varieties of the Golden State's fascinating warm-blooded wildlife. Full-color images and evocative descriptions make identification fun and intuitive: a bobcat, for example, has “a Civil War look, with old-fashioned sideburns framing the face in black and white,” while a blue whale is named for its coloration of not “old jeans or dull paint, but a luminous, 'how can water catch on fire?' kind of blue.” Author Charles Hood supplements essential information with strange but true facts like voles' predilection for deer antlers as a source of calcium, and Mexican free-tailed bats' ability to live in gaseous environments that would k