African Wildlife & Environment Issue 85

GOOD READS

Fabulous Fynbos Dorse, Cliff & Suretha (2023). Field Guide to Fynbos Fauna Soft cover, 15 x 21 cm, 292 pp, illustrated in colour throughout with photographs and maps. ISBN 978-1-77584-739 -7. Struik Nature, an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa (Pty) Ltd, Cape Town. RRP R350. The authors are professional conservationists who work for the City of Cape Town’s Environmental Management Department. They have a passion for the Fynbos Biome and its

and cover several topics like vegetation complexes, functional ecology, fynbos and fire, threats, conservation and ‘how to use this book’. Understandably, the authors have excluded invertebrates from their account of the fynbos fauna – the insects of the biome would require their own field guide and more! They stick to four groups of vertebrates, namely frogs, reptiles, birds and mammals. For each of these groups there are short descriptions and a species distribution map on the left hand page of the open book, with numbered, high-quality photographs of the various species on the right hand page. Frogs The Fynbos Biome has 54 frog species, over half of them found nowhere else; a level of endemism comparable to the flora of the biome. Of all the faunal groups discussed, the frogs are the most sensitive to threats like habitat loss and invasive alien vegetation because of their small distribution ranges and specific habitat requirements. Sixteen species are of ‘conservation concern’. Reptiles There are 34 species of snakes, 73 lizards, five tortoises and one terrapin, making up a total of 113 species. One snake and 23 lizards are endemic, most of them confined to mountainous areas. The lowlands have been highly transformed by agriculture, and here are found the highly threatened Geometric Tortoise and Southern Adder. Birds Some 162 species are truly associated with fynbos habitats and eight of these are endemic. Several species that were once widespread in the biome are now locally extinct, and 16 species, most of them raptors, are of ‘conservation concern’. The Cape Vulture and the Black Harrier are vulnerable to the new curse of the Fynbos Biome, the wind turbine.

conservation, and have compiled a wonderful book to educate and inspire more people to appreciate and conserve this unique part of the planet. They are both highly competent photographers and maintain a website devoted to biodiversity images at https:// biodiversityfocused.co.za. This book is a concise, all-in-one guide to the mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs of the Fynbos Biome, featuring over 400 species. ‘Fynbos’ is an evergreen, hard-leaved, fire prone shrubland, generally characterised by the presence of restios, ericoid and proteoid shrubs. The term is derived from the Dutch ‘fijn-bosch’ which means fine or narrow leaved bush. The biome, which spans South Africa’s Western and Eastern Cape Provinces, forms part of one of the richest floras in the world. The Fynbos falls into the Cape Floristic Kingdom, a ‘Global Biodiversity Hotspot’ that contains more than 11,000 plant species, close to 78% of which are endemic. It is also notable for high levels of endemism among reptiles, amphibians, insects and freshwater fish. This book is another outstanding Field Guide from the Struik Nature publishing house. The authors pay tribute to the fact that “ South and southern Africa have the most amazing assortment of field guides - perhaps the best available for any region of the world…The professional team… (at Struik Nature) …have mastered the production of the field guide…” Indeed they have! The first 21 pages are a comprehensive Introduction to the book,

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