Field Guide for New Guinea?

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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Field Guide for New Guinea?

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Hi all,

is anyone aware of a field guide to the herps of New Guinea? Seeing as the only mammal guide costs 300 dollars, I don't have my hopes up for anything affordable (or even existing!), but maybe someone knows of some obscure paper or something that will help us ID stuff? We're going to Papua (Irian Jaya) next March for a spot of birding and herping and have no idea what we'll encounter there, herp-wise.

Thanks very much in advance!

Hans
PS: Stay tuned for my upcoming Sri Lanka report. Shield Tails, Sloth Bears, and Sea Eagles, oh my!
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frogshot
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Re: Field Guide for New Guinea?

Post by frogshot »

sonora
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Re: Field Guide for New Guinea?

Post by sonora »

Hans,
This book is pretty good, but limited in scope:
https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Snakes-Pap ... 9980916966

Steve
FrogO_Oeyes
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Re: Field Guide for New Guinea?

Post by FrogO_Oeyes »

New Guinea is so diverse and poorly explored, it will be difficult to get anything useful. I have The Common Frogs of New Guinea, but if you add all the less common species and all the species described since, it would still fall far short of what's there. And that's just the frogs :S
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Field Guide for New Guinea?

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Hi guys,

thank you very much for all the tips! This here pretty much sums up the dilemma across the board:
FrogO_Oeyes wrote:New Guinea is so diverse and poorly explored, it will be difficult to get anything useful.
World's second-highest biodiversity, but so hard to explore - it's not only the formidable terrain, but the paranoia of the inland tribes doesn't help either. I have a friend who's been chomping at the bit to spend a few weeks exploring alone in Lorenz National Park, but whomever he talks to offers nothing but severe warnings.

I've been leeching on my herpetologist friends to part with PDF scans of the above-mentioned books, but I guess at the end of the day (or night) it will come down to taking photographs of stuff, putting them online for ID, and crossing all available fingers.

But for what it's worth, at least there's a new book on the birds, http://www.lynxeds.com/product/birds-new-guinea-2. Publication date: May 25th. 10% discount and Free Shipping Worldwide until May 15th.

Cheers, and thanks a lot again!

Hans
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intermedius
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Re: Field Guide for New Guinea?

Post by intermedius »

Hans,

The two books suggested are your best shot in terms of pocket guides, but new species are being described all the time and most of the information regarding herps is spread out in the scientific literature. I can send you papers for particular species groups if interested, which will likely be your best shot at identifying everything. Some of the stuff there, the frogs, in particular, may not be identifiable unless you have specific morphological counts taken down.

Mark O'Shea's Papua New Guinea reports may be of help too. Just click around on the expedition pages for PNG.

http://www.markoshea.info/home.php

Also a good thing to read before herping there...

http://www.markoshea.info/research_fiel ... apua00.php

Best of luck to you. Knowing your previous results in Borneo, you're bound to find something interesting.

– Justin
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Curtis Hart
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Re: Field Guide for New Guinea?

Post by Curtis Hart »

I have not seen the bird book you referenced, however I loved birding in Raja Ampat and Sorong with this one. Second only to the recent Borneo guide in style as far as I am concerned.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/06910956 ... ref=plSrch
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Hans Breuer (twoton)
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Re: Field Guide for New Guinea?

Post by Hans Breuer (twoton) »

Thanks very much for the tips and the encouragement, Curtis and intermedius! I had actually also ordered Beehler's book...you can't have too many field guides! As for O'Shea's material, I had a look at the website, and while it is very interesting indeed, I still have to find a way to operate it so that it yields the desired information for me :-)

Cheers!

Hans
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