It's not a kangaroo, it's a wallaby!

This is the fifth volume of “Handbook of the Mammals of the World” (HMW), although logically it should have been the first. It covers the monotremes and the marsupials, most of which are endemic to Australasia. The monotremes are fairly bizarre, being the only egg-laying mammals (the platypus even has a beak!). Marsupials are (perhaps) less bizarre, but at least to people outside Aussie, they look exotic and somehow “primordial”. This volume could therefore be of considerable interest to the general reader, the main barrier to procurement being the extremely high price.

Judging by the preview at the publisher's site, the family and species presentations are relatively understandable (at least compared to the super-heavy scientific text of “Handbook of the Birds of the World” from the same publisher). All photos are fairly large and in color, and the species presentations are complemented with color plates.

There is a special chapter on recently extinct marsupials and monotremes, including the Toolache Wallaby, the Desert Rat-Kangaroo and the famed Thylacine. What makes this topic of interest to the public is, of course, that some of these “extinct” animals may still be around. Since HMW is a so-called serious work, it doesn't contain any information on Yowie and the Bunyip, but I suppose you can't get everything even for $200…

There must be many books out on the market about Australian marsupials in particular, but if you want them all under one cover, I suppose this voluminous work could be an option. Five stars!