The Guenons edited by Mary E. Glenn and Marina Cords, Kluwer Academic/Plenum, £89/€140/$137.50, ISBN 0306473461
Tarsiers: Past, present and future edited by Patricia C. Wright, Elywn L. Simons and Sharon Gursky, Rutgers University Press, $75, ISBN 0813532361 Reviewed by Adrian Barnett
BRIGHT, colourful and gregarious fruit-eaters, guenons are almost the dictionary definition of a tropical monkey. To the distraction of many a taxonomist, the guenons are riding the wave of rapid speciation. The Guenons grapples with the problem of sorting this out. There are more than 35 different types of guenon in Africa, many busy jinking across the taxonomic no-man’s-land between variety, subspecies and species.
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The handful of living tarsier species represent a much more ancient primate lineage than the guenons, one that was far more diverse in the past than it is now. Entirely carnivorous, solitary, nocturnal and largely silent, tarsiers are the polar opposite of the showy and boisterous guenons. But, as Tarsiers shows, they are extraordinary and fascinating creatures. Their eyes are larger (in proportion) than those of any other mammal and their babies are one-third of their mother’s weight at birth.
Inclusive and lucid, The Guenons and Tarsiers provide splendid introductions to their respective groups. Both books gather together the knowledge of academics and conservationists. They tease apart the current ecology and evolutionary histories, delve into taxonomic questions and puzzle out the lives of fossil species. Both pay considerable attention to conservation strategies. They are unashamedly academic, with no linguistic quarter given to the non-specialist. Perhaps the fascinating natures of tarsiers and guenons may persuade a publisher to produce popular books about them.