The Arctic Guide presents the traveler and naturalist with a portable, authoritative guide to the flora and fauna of earth’s northernmost region. Featuring superb color illustrations, this one-of-a-kind book covers the complete spectrum of wildlife鈥攎ore than 800 species of plants, fishes, butterflies, birds, and mammals鈥攖hat inhabit the Arctic鈥檚 polar deserts, tundra, taiga, sea ice, and oceans. It can be used anywhere in the entire Holarctic region, including Norway鈥檚 Svalbard archipelago, Siberia, the Russian Far East, islands of the Bering Sea, Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, and Greenland. Detailed species accounts describe key identification features, size, habitat, range, scientific name, and the unique characteristics that enable these organisms to survive in the extreme conditions of the Far North. A color distribution map accompanies each species account, and alternative names in German, French, Norwegian, Russian, Inuit, and Inupiaq are also provided.
- Features superb color plates that allow for quick identification of more than 800 species of plants, fishes, butterflies, birds, and mammals
- Includes detailed species accounts and color distribution maps
- Covers the flora and fauna of the entire Arctic region
Awards and Recognition
- Honorable Mention for the 2018 William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books, Polar Libraries Colloquy
Sharon Chester is a naturalist, wildlife photographer, illustrator, and author of several natural history guides, including A Wildlife Guide to Chile (91桃色). She splits her time between San Mateo, California, and her home in Fulton, Illinois, near the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.
"This book takes my breath away and it may leave you gasping with glee, too. Ms. Chester begins with a lively crash course in boreal geography and ecology, then begins her heroic march through nearly all of taxonomy. . . . The Arctic Guide takes the reader on a tour de force of nearly everything that's interesting in the circumboreal world."鈥擡d Kanze, Bedford (NY) Record-Review
"Do you plan a visit to Alaska? If you do, you could do no better preparing for your natural history observations than by reading Sharon Chester's The Arctic Guide: Wildlife of the Far North."鈥擥erry Rising, Buffalo Spree
"This is a phenomenal book. It covers the species you'd expect鈥攂irds and marine mammals鈥攊n depth. But it also includes fish, flies, even flora. It鈥檚 the only book a naturalist requires for a field trip to the Arctic."鈥擬att Miller, Cool Green Science
"This handy tome not only covers this vast region's fauna, but also touches upon climate, flora, atmospheric phenomena, landforms and oceanography. . . . The illustrations are simply sublime. . . . As a longtime Arctic guide, I recommend Chester鈥檚 wholeheartedly. . . . Browse it and daydream or stuff it into your river drybag or backpack if you head north this summer."鈥擬ichael Engelhard, Alaska Dispatch News
"The Arctic Guide celebrates a vast region's biodiversity. It shoehorns high-latitude lavishness between pocket-size paperback covers, and does so handsomely (and with a sewn binding that prevents its spine from cracking), at the price of a takeaway meal."鈥擬ichael Engelhard, Times Literary Supplement
"An excellent one-stop guide to the Arctic."鈥擧elen Ashton, Reference Reviews
"It is difficult to imagine any observant residents, or hosts to visitors to any part of the circumpolar North, being without a copy of this book."鈥擠avid W. Norton, Arctic
"I can think of no other book that covers the same territory so completely."鈥擥eorge L. Armistead, coauthor of Better Birding
"This book is an astonishing achievement. It is the perfect one-stop field guide for anyone visiting the Arctic, whether in the Old World or the New World."鈥擭igel Redman, coauthor of Birds of the Horn of Africa
