From Lake Baikal with love

“Mammals of the Soviet Union” is a mega-encyclopedia originally published in three volumes in Moscow under the editorship of V G Heptner, the grand old man of Soviet zoology (the Russian form of his name, Geptner, is used in some library systems). This is the English translation of the sections dealing with pinnipeds and toothed whales, dubbed “Vol II, Part 3”. The volume is dated “Moscow 1976, Washington 1996”, which sounds pretty fascinating in itself! The text is sometimes difficult and technical, sometimes more like a regular encyclopedia. Overall, “Mammals of the Soviet Union” is therefore easier to read than most scientific reference works, which are technical only. The photos and drawings are in black and white, with only a few color plates thrown in. As can be expected for a work of this huge size, the amount of detail included is almost crazy. Of the species covered in "Vol II, Part 3", the most interesting might be the Baikal seal, the only “true” freshwater seal in the world, sealed off (pun intended) in Lake Baikal, hundreds of kilometers from any ocean. While this is a work better suited for an old fashioned public library than your coffee table, it nevertheless deserves five stars for the effort.