A pictorial field guide to Lanka’s wildlife
View(s):British publisher John Beaufoy Publishing has released another title in its range of Sri Lankan natural history books. If you are looking for one field guide covering Sri Lankan wildlife, A Photographic Guide to the Wildlife of Sri Lanka is designed to be that book.
The book covers over 90 per cent of all birds, mammals and dragonflies recorded in Sri Lanka. It includes 453 birds, 122 mammals, 72 reptiles and amphibians, 90 freshwater and marine fish, 144 butterflies, 121 dragonflies and 66 other insects, 72 other invertebrates, and 42 plants. A total of 1,180 species.
It also has detailed topography diagrams of all species groups from over six illustrators and over 1,250 photographs from over 60 photographers.
Lead authored and lead photographed by Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, it has section contributions from Amila Sumanapala for other insects, Anslem de Silva and Kanishka Ukuwela for reptiles, Dharshani Singhalage and Nadeera Weerasinghe for herbaceous plants, Dinal Samarasinghe for amphibians, Dinarzarde Raheem and Vishan Pushpamal for land snails, Nishan Perera for marine fish and marine invertebrates, Nuwan Chathuranga and Anushamalee Jayawardana for moths, Ranil Nanayakkara for spiders and Sampath de Alwis Goonatilake for freshwater fish.
British birder and wildlife celebrity David Lindo says the book “is as essential for visiting Sri Lanka as carrying your passport.”
Says Gavin Thomas, author of the Rough Guide to Sri Lanka “Dedicated naturalists will find it an invaluable field guide during trips to the island, while the book also provides a comprehensive desktop resource for anyone wishing to deepen their knowledge of Sri Lanka’s remarkable wildlife and biodiversity.”
Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk which won both the Samuel Johnson prize for Non Fiction and the prestigious Costa Book of the Year, is in total agreement. She says, “This is a spectacularly useful and very beautiful book.”
Says author and award-winning conservationist Rohan Pethiyagoda. “A Photographic Guide to the Wildlife of Sri Lanka is your indispensable companion to navigating the astonishing diversity of life that will exhibit itself to you as you navigate your holiday. It will help you identify almost every animal you will see, while also showing you dozens of species which, because they are rare or nocturnal, you may not. The volume although 448 pages long is sufficiently compact to fit into a generous pocket. Better still, its photographs for the 1,180 species covered are clear enough to identify in the field just about every species you will see. ”
The book is priced at around Rs 10,800 and is available islandwide through Sarasavi Bookshops, at the Barefoot Bookshop and Rohan’s at Liberty Plaza, also Wild and the Sage at Unawatuna.
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