Vietnam: A Natural History

by Eleanor Jane Sterling, Martha Maud Hurley, Le Duc Minh

A country uncommonly rich in plants, animals, and natural habitats, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam shelters a significant portion of the world’s biological diversity, including rare and unique organisms and an unusual mixture of tropical and temperate species. This book is the first comprehensive account of Vietnam’s natural history in English. Illustrated with maps, photographs, and thirty-five original watercolor illustrations, the book offers a complete tour of the country’s plants and animals along with a full discussion of the factors shaping their evolution and distribution.
Separate chapters focus on northern, central, and southern Vietnam, regions that encompass tropics, subtropics, mountains, lowlands, wetland and river regions, delta and coastal areas, and offshore islands. The authors provide detailed descriptions of key natural areas to visit, where a traveler might explore limestone caves or glimpse some of the country’s twenty-seven monkey and ape species and more than 850 bird species. The book also explores the long history of humans in the country, including the impact of the Vietnam-American War on plants and animals, and describes current efforts to conserve Vietnam’s complex, fragile, and widely threatened biodiversity.

Genres: Nature, History, Natural History, Nonfiction

448 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Anita Fiorillo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took this with me to Vietnam in March. All our other guidebooks said we would have a lot of trouble viewing wildlife - so much of it has been killed off or pushed back deep into the mountains. And even though we were going to the hills - we didn't get very far from people at any point. Most of the birds we say were in cages in the markets or hanging from people's balconies. And the fish were being raised in large pens in Halong Bay - but the variety was astounding! We did get to the Cuc Phuong National Park (oldest in Vietnam, established 1962) and saw a fair number of birds, loads of butterflies, and a lot of monkeys and doucs (in the Endangered Primate Rescue Center).
This book is quite academic - and is illustrated primarily with paintings and drawings. The authors state that much of the wildlife in Vietnam has never been photographed. But it explains the different climate zones, types of forest, underlaying soil characteristics, how the karst islands of Halong Bay came to exist; also the amazing river channels with caves and tunnels that we boated through, and the Marble Mountains in the Danang region.
We came back with photos of every bird we saw - in trees or cages; photos of lots of butterflies and flowers, orchids and fish - now I have to find guidebooks to identify them all! I begin to understand the ecosystem but don't know the specifics.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally had the chance to pore over this book, which was published more than a decade ago. For a rapidly changing country like Vietnam, this is a long interval when many things would have changed. Unfortunately when it comes to nature and wildlife, this is even more so, and in a negative way. However, the history component of the title is obviously fixed, and the authors did a commendable job writing about both the natural and human forces that have shaped the country into what it is, from continental drift to climate regime shifts and human settlement going back thousands of years. Indeed, Vietnam's physical and hence biological character is probably one of the most complex anywhere in the world given its span in latitude and altitude. Yet, it is surprisingly understudied and not well understood, as new species discoveries in the last few decades have shown.

The book discussed the formation of the country physically and culturally, introduced the varied plant and animal life, followed by a chapter each on the North, Central and Southern regions. Finally it ends with environmental threats and conservation actions undertaken. While the last would be outdated by now, the preceding chapters pack a great deal of information. Unfortunately, there were also quite a few factual errors in the species sections, and glaringly missing was a species checklist - if not covering everything at least for major groups like mammals, birds etc. would have been essential, I felt. Its absence meant I could not corroborate the species counts for the various taxa mentioned in the text and had to verify them elsewhere, which was frustrating.

Overall though, this did not detract from the value of this book in adding to the sparse literature on Southeast Asian natural history. And the hand drawn illustrations of selected plants and animals throughout the book were well done and definitely an added bonus.

[Hung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the part of what to see/national parks in regions of Viet Nam the most. Explanation of natural conditions (topography, weather, etc.) are consise and well explained diversity of Viet Nam.

Descriptions of wildlife species is quite academic and may be more interesting to biologists/hard-core nature lover :)

[Quỳnh Hương · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cảm thấy may mắn vì được đọc quyển sách này, thầy Le Duc Minh là giảng viên của mình ở trường đại học và thầy giảng thì quá hay, nên cũng tìm đọc quyển sách của thầy cho biết, :)) mình thật sự thích quyển sách này, từ bố cục sách và cho tới nội dung, đây là một quyển sách giá trị.