How is a field guide used
How to select and use a Field Guide.
alright so if you're in duress and feels
herping or any kind of wildlife
identification birds flowers trees
doesn't matter you're gonna need a field
guide these are one of the most
important tools something you're always
gonna want to have on you and we target
specifically about reptiles amphibians
because you know that's mostly what this
channel is about but this will this will
apply across the board to others as well
we're gonna talk about how to select a
field guide what's the what are some of
the better field guides to get and then
we're also going to talk about some of
the the more extensive reference books
and why those are important too so when
selecting a field guide let's say you're
at the bookstore or you're on Amazon
which is more likely these days you're
gonna want to look for a few things
first off now this that like books like
this are decent general guides you get
some basic information from them but
they're not extensive this was my first
field guide actually to reptiles
amphibians I got this when I was maybe
seven years old eight years old it's
pretty old and beat up but they do still
make it and sell it and just to flip
through it real quick you know you get
you get some species on there you hit
some descriptions but it's mostly gonna
be concerned with the more common
species the stuff you're more likely to
find in your backyard or the more
charismatic species like hellbenders and
alligators and things like that it's not
gonna have some of the more obscure
species it's not gonna have a lot of
subspecies you know so let's say I find
a garter snake okay that's it on garter
snakes and we all know well some of us
know there are tons of species and
subspecies of garter snakes but this has
Western Plains ribbon in common
doesn't deal to different color
variations doesn't meal with the
different subspecies the common garter
snake alone you get like your Eastern
garter snake you have your red-sided
garter snake you have tons of subspecies
of just the one snake and this
this kind of book isn't gonna do that
now I love this book when I was growing
up I pored over this book I read every
page of it and it was good for that you
know it's a good book for kids or you
know someone with a casual interest but
this is not what you're gonna want in
the field
likewise you got a lot of books like
this so familiar reptiles amphibians of
North America Pocket Guide okay
so again lots of pretty pictures in this
one I had this one as a kid too and but
it's gonna be the more common species
the more flamboyant species you know the
stuff that's gonna grab your attention
things like the snapping turtle you know
and it's got the common snap trouble
doesn't have alligator snap trail you
can't really use this as a field guide
it's more just like a general fun book
to have you know so that's how that's
off the table then you have books like
this which look more like a proper field
guide all right and this is reptiles
ribbons in the world Simon & Schuster's
guide 200 full-color photographs of
international species so this is of the
world right why would you need any other
field guide you go you got the world
right here well it only covers 200
species and the New York State alone has
70 species of reptile amphibian so 200
species is barely scratching the surface
globally and so again it's just it's a
fun book to have to look through like oh
that's a that's a pretty lizard there
the double christen bass goes or the you
know the collared lizard and you know
some unique stuff from around the world
just showcasing them some general
information about about them but
ultimately really I mean it's kind of a
useless book I don't even have if I
didn't find it cheap at a book sale so
then we get in the proper field guides
of which the two that you're most likely
to find are the Peterson and the
National Audubon Society now the
National Audubon Society I used to like
these a lot before I
I knew much about field guides and
and you know honestly looking back I
mean they're not they're not great
either
again you get lots of pretty pictures
and that's the benefit you get actual
photographs but you only usually get one
photograph of a species despite the fact
that there's tons of individual
variation key key identifying
characteristics aren't pointed out and
even a book like this as thick as it is
isn't gonna cover every species in a
given region so I mean it's not so this
is not a bad book but again it's not
really what you're gonna want from my
personal viewpoint species descriptions
are all in the back you're almost
relying extent they entirely on the
picture to try to identify your animal
in the field if you come across a Texas
Rose belly lizard then you have to flip
to another page to even look to see what
characteristics make it a Texas Rose
belly lizard
so with that in mind let's look at the
Peterson and here's an older copy the
Peterson this is the fourth edition this
just came out and I got mine in the mail
yesterday 14 bucks on Amazon you cannot
go wrong with this this is the old this
is an older edition this is the second
edition and defeat but the Pearson guide
is the gold standard the field yes this
is the book you want with you in the
field if you have no other book on
reptiles and amphibians this is the one
you want and the same is true for others
too like you want to feel good fish get
the Petersons you want to feel good tree
get the Peterson they do the best field
guides and the layout of the book and of
most field guides in general is that the
animals are taxonomically arranged so
you're gonna have like your own phibian
z-- first in the book because em phibian
is evolved first right okay so they're a
more primitive group primitive and then
you kind of move on you get your turtles
and your lizards and snakes and things
and but and they're but they're arranged
in a way that they're related to each
other this book
it's kind of odd it arranges them by
patterns which is you know it could be
useful in its own right too
so you got like striped snakes lump
together and solid colored snakes lump
together and but again overall it is
arranged taxonomically amphibians are
always gonna be in the front of the book
with the more primitive salamanders
appearing first so you're gonna get just
like your your amp huma's mud puppies
hellbenders cave salamanders and then
you know your lung with salamanders
which are the more recently evolved
groups towards the back of salim
intersection so okay so now you got your
field guide and you're gonna want to
know how to use it
and it's a little bit daunting because
there's a lot of information here I mean
we're covering every species of reptile
phibian in the Eastern central North
America so for starters you get the
color the color coding down here which
is a nice handy feature I like that
let's open it up to snakes alright so
the way it's gonna be outlined is you're
gonna have descriptions in there scatter
thread gonna have range maps but in the
beginning of the snake section you're
gonna have your color plates and like I
said before they're going to be
organized taxonomically so based on how
they're related okay so you're gonna
flip through here let's say you see a
green snake alright a solid green snake
and you want to identify what species it
is yeah there we go
green snakes okay so you see a green
snake there's two species of green
snakes okay there's the rough green and
smooth green all right easy enough you
narrowed it down to two species where do
you go from there okay well smooth green
snake has smooth scales rough green
snake has keeled scales there you go
it's that easy right for lively species
too there's also little arrows that
point out key features to tell them to
distinguish them from others so as an
example you look at the western milk
snake red rings very one with head black
snout normally light so it's pointing at
the snout to show you that the snow is
normally light that the head is black
and that's how you're going to tell it
from something
the Scarlet kingsnake we're going back
to the green snakes okay so maybe you
know you just saw it slithering through
the brush you didn't get a good look at
the scales you still don't know what
species it is you want to know more
you're going to turn to the page where
it has the actual information and the
range maps so 382
okay so now you're here you're here
there's the rough green snake and the
smooth green snake well okay so if you
live in New York or the Northeast
Vermont Maine anywhere up there you can
automatically rule out the rough green
snake easy right it doesn't live there
it lives here but if you live in one of
the places where they overlap you know
it might be a little bit more difficult
so let's see it really isn't a lot of
overlap for this species is there it
either way it's got to tell you more
specifically how to tell them apart and
it's also going to tell you what the
similar species is so for the rough
green snake the similar species is
obviously the smooth green snake again
have smooth scales also the North
American racer so that's a similar
species sometimes is green but has
smooth scales again so a rough green
snake a green snake with rough scales
you got that one in the bag you know
what it is but it'll also tell you how
long they get you know the record length
more specifically what colors and
patterns you can expect the habitats the
range very basic information all right
so this this is gonna help you identify
the EM on the field but if you want to
know more about that animal the field
guides only going to cover the basics
you're gonna want something a little bit
more specific and so as far as specific
books go the next book you're gonna want
is a state-specific book to wherever you
live or a regional book so north east or
south east or New York State this is
going to only cover the species that
live in your state or region so if
you're looking at salamanders you
automatically get to rule out all these
species that don't live in your state if
your state only has like a handful of
salamander species like say seven or
eighteen even I mean look at them all
it's a little daunting so you get your
regional guide it's only gonna cover
what is local to you so I can't stress
enough the importance of getting a
regional guide I don't know which states
you know most states will have them
they're not as easier to come by as easy
to come by as the
field guides but they're gonna be again
outlined in a similar way taxonomically
salamanders first all right it's gonna
in this book again it's gonna give you
some descriptions to identify in the
field at a glance but there's gonna be
suggestions for where to go in the book
to get more information so you know
you're in New York State you wanna know
more about the Eastern spadefoot toad
maybe you wanna know where to find the
Eastern spadefoot too well you got to go
to Long Island a few spots up on the
eastern half of the state I live all the
way out here I'm not gonna seeing these
from spadefoot toad so you're gonna want
a regional book all right next up are
these super specific books some of which
are more user friendly than others
but all of them are equally important so
you know maybe you want a book
specifically about snakes okay here's a
good one
snakes North America Eastern central
regions again it's kind of like that New
York State book it's only gonna cover a
certain part of the country and it's
only going to cover snakes and so the
information is going to be I mean it was
like a brief paragraph for the rough
green snake in the Pierson guide but
this book is gonna have a page and a
half of information you're gonna get
you're gonna get more familiar with
animal you can understand more about it
where you're gonna find it its life
history when it's active reproduction
what it eats books like this are
important some of them though like this
one are very technical and more for the
really the people really serious about
finding snakes I wouldn't even call this
a field guide more like a reference book
it's gonna have a lot more information
than either the field guides or the
general reference books but you know if
you're a serious student of snakes this
is the one who want you know things like
or I should say perps but we're going to
make specifically so you know you're
gonna have the common garter snake
check this out I mean you're gonna have
species and subspecies you're gonna have
really specific descriptions Geographic
variation it's gonna go into the
subspecies level you're gonna have
pictures of most of those subspecies
you're gonna have your range maps of
course but look at all this we're still
covering just that garter snake alone
and when I talk about getting into
specifics I mean getting specific so
they're gonna tell you the clutch size
they're gonna tell you the the the
length of the young I was gonna say eggs
but the common gars think it's like
birth but it's gonna give you you know
way more information than you'll ever
need but still know if you can get it if
you're into it do it again this is the
turtle equivalent of the snake look here
very specific very good reference this
is probably the books are the kind of
books these are the first and last books
you'll ever need like if you if you only
want to own one book about snakes
specifically in the United States
candidate like this will be the book to
own this will be the turtle book to own
you're not gonna need much else so you
could you could get by on let's say
let's say you're super in the snake so
you can get by on this this and this all
right you got your general field guide
you got your specifically your regional
field guide and then snakes are what
you're really into grab that guy so I
guess that about sums it up there's not
much else to say as far as field guides
go I hope I wasn't too confusing I was
trying to talk fast and make the video
short but let me know what you thought
let me know if it was helpful
yeah and happy hopping in the future I
might do some specific reviews on some
of these books I'm just kind of trying
to give you a an
overall understanding of what we're
dealing with how to use them and what to
look for when in doubt just by the
Petersons that's the one you need you
know that's the first and foremost book
