Peterson Field Guide To Western Reptiles & Amphibians, Fourth Edition (Peterson Field Guides)

The quality of the book seems good, it has strong pages and solid binding. Never had issues with losing pages or anything like that.This guide is small enough to carry around in a bag and you'll find a lot of information about each species. The illustrations are thorough, showing appearances of species before maturity and difference in sex if there is an obvious distinction. They also have sections where more information is provided on habitat range etc. sometimes with picture of the species. I should note that this is the only herp guide I have used for amphibians and reptiles in this region, but it has never let me down!

Love the update after 20-something years, which is immensely helpful to me in my hobby of photographing desert herptiles on Southern Arizona roadways. The old Petersons were klutzy, forcing you to flip around several different pages to get info and images on a single species. Now the info is more consolidated and much easier to access quickly. Lots of great images, including a bunch of Sonoran desert variants of several species, and good write-ups, as always. If you're a herp nerd, this is the source.

Depictions of reptiles and amphibians are excellent. Easy for a five-year-old to handle and find her favorite animals. We've had Peterson field guides in our house for 50 years. This is a wonderful additions.

Hes been running all over the place identifying critters ever since this book arrived. Or sprinting to the house to get it if he sees one and doesn't know it. Helped him identify this kingsnake. Wish the binding was a little stronger, but hes 8. Good purchase!

The new 4th editions of the Peterson Field Guides to both the western (Stebbins & McGinnis, 2018) and eastern (Powell, Conant, & Collins, 2016) reptiles and amphibians are of significance to anyone interested in North American herpetofauna. Together they are regarded by many to be the definitive field guides for the US and Canada. Only a few state and regional field guides rival these books in quality, but of course state guides do not provide the wide coverage offered by the Peterson guides. At 560 pages, the 4th edition is 27 pages longer than the 3rd. Fortunately the texts on behavior and natural history have been retained in the western volume, all such subject matter was edited out of the eastern volume and its value is diminished to some extent because of it. Although I note a few observations and criticisms below, overall this is a fine new edition of the western guide. I give it only four stars because this edition seems to have dropped the ball regarding up to date distributions and maps.ILLUSTRATIONS AND PHOTOGRAPHS: The color plates have been reduced in size to make room for color coded page margins and divided throughout the book into groups proceeding each order (or suborders). The reductions of the Stebbins images are less obvious than when the same was done with the Isabelle Conant images in the eastern volume. Color photographs have been added liberally throughout the species accounts, almost one image to every other page. However many species are still not illustrated (e. g.: four species of Legless Lizards, Anniella; two species of Night Snakes, Hypsiglena; Arizona Black Rattlesnake, Crotalus cerberus among others). The quality of the photographs are generally outstanding, but a few appear dark and murky in my copy (e. g.: Rock Rattlesnake page 460) and an occasional mediocre photo can be found here and there. The new photographs are nice but, I sometimes find it confusing that the captions exclusively use common names and never Latin names.MAPS: The maps, which were previously grouped in the back of the book, have been moved to the relevant species accounts in the 4th edition. They appear to be the same as the 3rd edition, although a few have been modified with new colors to reflect the recent taxonomic splitting of species (e. g.: Tortoises, Gopherus, Boas, Lichanura). I searched two volumes (2011-2012) of the journal “Herpetological Review” (H.R.) for new state records and range extensions published after the 3rd edition (2003) and the following are not mapped or noted in the text. New state (and western) records: Spotted Chorus Frog (Pseudacris clarki) in NM (Kissner et al. 2012. H.R. 43: 98); False Map Turtle (Graptemys pseudogeographica) in NM (Painter et al. 2012. H. R. 43: 100); Eastern Hognose Snake (Heterodon platirhinos) in CO (Warfel. 2011. H.R. 42: 572). Significant new county records include: New Mexican Whiptail (Aspidoscelis neomexicana) Roosevelt & De Baca Co. NM (Cordes, Walker & Manning. 2011. H.R. 42: 568): Valley Gartersnake (Thamnophis sirtalis) Lincoln Co. WY (Matthews et al. 2011. H.R. 42: 116). Presumably, further literature searches would reveal more species and distributional records that have not been added to the 4th edition.TAXOXMY: The taxonomy here is conservative in contrast to the new eastern guide, where nearly every new review is followed. Although there are pros and cons to both approaches and there will always be some that are unhappy with whatever arrangement is recognized, a conservative approach might be better for a mainstream book like this. The two volumes are not always constant: compare the taxonomy and maps of the Eastern Fence Lizard (Sceloporus undulatus complexe). Many new changes subsequent to the 3rd edition (2003) are recognized in the 4th edition of the western guide including Ambystoma tigrinum = Ambystoma mavortium, Bufo alvarius = Incilius alvarius, Clemmys marmorata = Actinemys marmorata, Eumeces = Plestiodon, Elaphe = Pantherophis just to mention a few. The splitting of the Western Rattlesnake Crotalus viridis complex is reflected, with the Prairie (C. viridis), the Arizona Black (C. cerberus), and the Western (C. oreganus) recognized as full species but, six subspecies of C. oreganus are still identified. I made no effort to check every species, but a few additional changes are noted below.Several reviews that split and elevated populations or former subspecies to full species are followed (e. g.: two species of Tailed Frogs (Ascaphus); two species of Tortoises (Gopherus); three species of Night Snakes (Hypsiglena); three species of Lyre Snakes (Trimorphodon). Oddly though, all of the new species in these genera are treated in a single account and only illustrated with a single species for each genus. It seems to me each species should merit an account and illustration. The split of the Arizona Treefrog, formally Hyla eximia now H. wrightorum is recognized, but the genus Dryophytes which was resurrected for these New World species is not. Other recent reviews elevating subspecies to full species are ignored (e.g. Cricket Frogs (Acris crepitans); Common Kingsnakes (Lampropeltis getula); Milk Snakes (Lampropeltis triaangulum), as well as the recent split of Black-tailed Rattlesnakes into Crotalus molossus and C. ornatus, all of which are followed in the eastern guide.Amphibian Eggs and Larva and Baja California are still covered in separate chapters in the back of the book. With the wealth of new information available on northern Mexico (largely credited to new books by Julio Lemos Espinal) it would be great to see future editions extend coverage southward to include the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua. A pet peeve of mine has always been that so many field guides are advertised as guides to North America but, somewhere in small print there is a caveat saying “north of Mexico”. Why not just say “United States and Canada” or better yet, extend the coverage to include Mexico to make these truly guides to North America.

This guide is very good. While the vast majority of pics are ink and not photos, there are still clear identifying markers and good range/behavioral information as well.

Would buy again!

Has tons of species drawn well with sharp clean images. Not as many photos as drawings, but does have some. Overall glad I bought it.

For a gift

Resultado de una gran investigación es la calidad de su información, graficos excelente

Ótimo livro Bem ilustrado explicação bem detalhada

Petit guide meilleur que le tome 2

El libro y su información es excelente, sin embargo me da mucho coraje que este y otros libros que he pedido me llegan en muy mal estado, maltratados, con rayaduras y golpes