Updated throughout, the 7th edition of Bradt Wildlife Guide: Antarctica: A Guide to Wildlife is the most practical guide to the flora and fauna available for those 'going south'. Celebrating the amazing and often unique species of this spectacular environment, the title features chapters on the region's famous whales and penguins, and also on lesser known species such as skuas and sheathbills, with full coverage of plumage and identification. Each chapter is accompanied by vibrant illustrations from Dafila Scott to help bring species to life. Tony Soper's immaculate and engaging text remains the indispensible choice for the intrepid wildlife enthusiast.
Antarctica's wildlife is under threat. The Southern Ocean is warming and the most obvious effect is on the continental ice shelves. Spectacular retreats and monster carvings from the west coast of the peninsula have been seen in recent decades. Less ice means fewer krill, which depend on the ice-edge for the algae which nourish them. In turn, this will impact on seal and whale numbers. In the case of penguins, while kings and macaronis, for instance, are doing well, the magnificently adapted and truly Antarctic species, Adélies and emperors, are in decline. In the case of emperors, maybe by as much as 50%.
Bradt Wildlife Guide: Antarctica not only helps you to identify and understand species and habitats, it also explains the issues faced by this extraordinary continent, regarded by many as one of the most precious places on the planet.
Introduction
Discovery And Exploitation
Explorers, Sealers and Whalers
Terrestrial Plants And Insects
Marine Invertebrates
Fish
Birds
Penguins
Albatrosses
Petrels and Shearwaters
Cormorants
Sheathbills
Skuas
Gulls
Terns
Mammals
Seals
Whales
Appendices
The Falkland Islands
Glossary Of Snow And Ice
Guidelines For Visitors To The Antarctic
Useful Websites
Further Reading
Index
Author, Illustrator, Acknowledgements
Tony Soper is a veteran natural-history presenter, film maker, lecturer and author. Dafila Scott is an artist and zoologist, member of the Society of Wildlife Artists and 'Scott of the Antarctic's' grand-daughter.
"Most of us visiting the deep South are doing so for the first time and thirst for some authoritative guidance. Here, at last, is the book we have been waiting for."
– Sir David Attenborough
"Sensational! The most concise and accurate account on the market."
– Peter Harrison, ornithologist
"For anyone Antarctica-bound, this is the book. Tony Soper's facts and Dafila Scott's drawings cover the essentials of all the living things you will see and introduce the drama of the stage itself."
– Keith Shackleton