Book Reviews & Specials

	Deer of the World Dr Valerius Geist 432pp/ 280 x 216mm/ 16 pp colour/ 150 line drawings/ casebound Key Features: • full coverage of every deer species worldwide. • includes recent discoveries in species once thought to be extinct. • authoritative reference for stalkers, game managers, wildlife watchers, researchers and scientists. Geist tells the fascinating story of how the family Cervidae has evolved over the past thirty million years and how its adaptations have made it one of the most successful mammals in the world today.	PRICE A$155-00
The text provides an endless source of information and interest. Its compelling narrative covers deer evolution, behaviour and ecology and gives comprehensive explanations in all these areas. The author is very well qualified to write such an ambitious volume, having had over forty years experience in research and is internationally well respected for his numerous books, films and articles. He combines first-hand research with information from English, German and Russian sources—both published and unpublished. The book elucidates as to how the deer populations have adapted to their individual environments, their breeding patterns and social behaviours, thus providing an authoritative reference for stalkers, game managers, wildlife watchers, researchers and scientists.

	An Introduction to the Deer of Australia With Special Reference to Victoria Arthur Bentley. 368pp/ 250 x 165mm/ colour frontispiece, profusely illustrated in b&w/ casebound. When published in 1967, An Introduction to the Deer of Australia was the first book written about deer in this country and it immediately became a valuable work of reference for anyone interested in the history of their introduction. In the thirty or more years since, and indeed the twenty years following publication of the Koetong or second edition, much additional information has been located and incorporated in this the Bunyip or third edition. Covering in detail the introduction of deer into Victoria and the South-East of South Australia, the book includes information for all States and Territories, the offshore islands, and Papua New Guinea.	PRICE A$59.95
Specific coverage is given to each of the deer species established in the wild, but it is to the sambar that the author devotes much of his attention. In Australia ‘the dominant transplant’, as he terms the sambar, and the hog deer are significant among the world’s wildlife populations and need to be recognised as such. The point that they are here and have been established in the wild without any problems of consequence for nearly two centuries is well made by the author. This book contains a wealth of information gleaned from early acclimatisation society records, newspaper reports, and accounts of the day, together with anecdotes of their acclimatisation in the Australian environment. Much of this information, but for the timely action of the author, would otherwise have been lost, as many of the people who provided personal links with the past are no longer with us. Accounts of early deer hunts and the methods used both then and now are included as are the methods of capture and enclosing deer from which today’s modern deer farming practices have evolved. In keeping with the need for someone to study the sambar so that a greater understanding of its position in the Australian environment could be gained, the Australian Deer Association obtained government approval to establish a bush enclosure in the Bunyip State Park. Subsequently a study into the habitat use and activity patterns of sambar deer in the enclosure was carried out by Ian Moore and his Masters thesis is included as an appendix to the book.

	Pig, Dog and Knife Mark Hogenelst 160pp/ 210 x 137mm/ illus. colour and b&w/ limp The author’s experiences in hunting wild pigs in North Queensland, both for sport and for the commercial export market. Mark Hogenelst, who through his employment as a country policeman has been able to select remote areas in which to work, provides detailed information on the type of dogs best suited to hunting the varied habitats he has encountered and the techniques employed in handling his quarry. As the title suggests, he does not normally resort to the use of a rifle when hunting. The book concludes with anecdotes of several hunts in remote country.	PRICE A$30.00

	The Hog Deer Ron Mayze & Geoff Moore 408pp/ 235 x 155mm/ illustrated with 32 colour and 145 black and white plates, 35 figures (including maps of native and introduced range) and 38 tables/ casebound. Australia may seem an unlikely place for publication of a book on the hog deer given that the primary native range	PRICE A$59-95
	of the species is situated over 9000 kilometres to the north west. During the 1860s, acclimatisation societies around the world engaged in what they termed 'the distribution of the world's most useful and beautiful things.' While this activity proved to have been unwise in many instances, one consequence was the establishment in Victoria of what has become a significant wild population of hog deer.
The authors spent over ten years observing and researching the habits of the species on Sunday Island in South Gippsland and the results are presented in this attractive volume. The text is organised in five sections: Part 1 Introduction to the Hog Deer (vernacular, classification, general description, morphological data, antlers, antler growth). Part 2 The Hog Deer in Asia (Range and status; range description, climate and habitat). Part 3 The Hog Deer in Australia (History of hog deer in Victoria, range and status in Australia, range description, climate and habitat). Part 4 Behaviour and Life History (Habitat utilisation and feeding behaviour, senses, communication and general behaviour, social organisation, home range and dispersal, reproduction, mortality). Part 5 Management (Capture and handling, hog deer in captivity, management theory, management and conservation, hunting, photography). There are 4 appendices covering Age estimation by Tooth Eruption and Wear, Morphological data by tooth eruption stage from over 600 deer on Sunday Island, Plant foods used by the species in Victoria and Other deer of the Axis genus. This latter appendix provides information on the rare Bawean deer (Axis kuhlii), the vulnerable Calamian deer (Axis calamianensis) and the Chital (Axis axis) by general coverage of range, status, habitat, description, comparative measurements, reproduction/mortality, behaviour and future prospects. The extensive Bibliography contains 183 references. The following quotes sum up the work: '... It is clear that the report will become an important milestone on the path to game management in Australia. Its practical background, comprehensive survey of the literature, plus the glimpses it gives of what could be achieved by hunters in the future, virtually in the absence of a government program, makes it an outstanding work. I did not find any important principles which which I would disagree.' Max Downes, Game Biologist. '... It (this book) is a celebration of a fascinating animal, and enthusiastic work by two Australian deerhunters who have had the privilege and opportunity to spend a goodly part of their lives working for the conservation of an attractive, largely unknown deer ... This is a book with International implications as it will find its way into libraries and universities throughout the world. It is the only text ever written about hog deer and their management.'
Special Packages: No.1. Companion works Call of the Moose and Call of the Wapiti by Ray Tinsley. RRP A$16-35 each; ....................................................................... Special Price A$27-50 for the two copies.