Great new book on salamanders and newts of the world (Raffaëlli )

Dear friends,

I just received the new book by Jean Raffaëlli on salamanders and newts of the world. It covers all species (!), of most of them colour pictures and distribution maps are shown and besides the taxonomy and ecology there is also much information on keeping and breeding.
The book is in french, but if there was ever one good reason to start learning french it should be that you want to read this book!
Anyway, this is the cover. It is a private edition and the best way to order it is there for by the author himself: jean.raffaelliATlaposte.net (replace AT by @) or by his home adres PENCLEN 56420-PLUMELEC FRANCE
It costs 65 euros. ISBN 978-2-9528246-0-6

I need to go learn french now...

I've heard about this book from Henk, is there any information of a future english translation?

How many pages there are in this book? 304?

(Message edited by Joonas on February 26, 2007)

About 300 pages yes, a bit more. And for shipment a extra 15 euro's comes along, within France just 6.

I don't think there will be an english translation ever.

i have heard he is considering it in english -just not directly from him. ill ask.

[Ryan]

I hope it will be published in english someday, the caudata community could really use an up-to-date refrence on all the species of the world, at least I do!

I highly recommend the book. It was about time for an updated bible on caudates. It is particularly interesting the southamerican part for caudates since there weren't much info available. Also the updated info on taxonomy plus all the info on captive breeding, distribution an habitat of the species.
A must have book.
Greetings to all

Well I have been in touch with Jean, a he is indeed considering an English version, but not soon. First he will want ot recuperate his costs (it's a high quality printed book). There is not going to be an English version the first year and if his book doesn't sell there is never going to be one at all.
This books covers all the species and has over 500 images in them, with lots of participating photographers. As a little help I gave Jean some free images for this book and so did (many) others. For the rest I join in with Yago and when I see that 50% of all salamanders have a habitat of less then 10.000 square kilometers and that only 7,7% of these species are not facing problems and more then 58% do face immediate problems then I think the information disclosure on captive maintenance captured in this book is of great concern (for more then just the hobby circles). Our National Zoo even bought the book for their captive process (but yes ,... Belgian is for a aprt French speaking !).

I still have two questions to you who have seen the book with your own eyes:
1) If you compare book´s species accounts to those that can be found in his earlier book "Les salamandres de l'ancien monde", how do they compare? Shorter, longer, different some how,... ?
2) Are all species handled equally, or are some descriptions noticeably longer/different than others?

Some are longer , others are longer. The distribution maps are far better. It treats the US and Mid-American species too. Has lots of images (over 500) and talks on more recent taxonomy and captive husbandry tips.
Well let's see if Sergé has something to add . The text is written in a smaller caps too, so I think it has far more info in there then the former one (which only treated Europe & Asia). I think you actually need to see it. I will aks Jean if I can photgraph a page on some species and enter it here as a proof, ok ?

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Quoting Henk Wallays on Thursday 01 March 2007 - 18:33 (#POST123117):</font>

lots of participating photographers<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>At least 3 of whom "participated" without ever being asked.

Oeps, that's not looking to good then... I think they should take this up with Jean. I knew of one, but thought this was the sole one...

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>Quoting Henk Wallays on Thursday 01 March 2007 - 20:13 (#POST123121):</font>

I will aks Jean if I can photgraph a page on some species and enter it here as a proof, ok ?<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
It would be great to see.

Dear all
I am really happy that my new book is interesting people, it was a huge work and I hope it will be useful to anybody. But I have to apologize to some photographers not to have informed them about some photos used, very few, but too many anyway. Of course I attributed the photos and I will offer a free copy to all of them, as I already did for many. I didn't use the photos by any interest but I was so booked and rushed for printing at the end that I forgot to inform some.

The use of photos from Caudata.org is somewhat of a sensitive issue to us, as we have seen many abuses over the years. This situation was avoidable. I would have gladly helped to contact the photographers beforehand. A 4th photographer that I know is probably "uncontactable", so we will just have to hope that he and any others are happy about sharing their work.

That said, I believe that Jean is doing his best to "make things right" with all the photographers, after the fact. That is appreciated.

The book is certainly a must-have for anyone who can read some French and is interested in salamanders. The amount of research that went into it is immense. For anyone with any scientific interest, the reference list is a useful compilation. (Reference titles are in their original languages, mostly English.)

Jean, to my knowledge, you are the first member of the French Urodele Group to register and post on this forum. Welcome! It's overdue!

Thank you Jennifer
I indeed really do what I can to fix the problem with the photos. Once more, as I am my own editor, I was under pressure from the maker and the printer, and as I had very good feedback from all the photographers I have contacted, from who I chose many photos, I forgot some with 1 or 2 photos. I was so booked I didn't advise all and didn't think there would be any bad consequences. Actually, I don't know very much about photo system. But I have no excuse. The problem will be fixed, I am sure. This work took me 4 years, and here, I want very much to thank all the contributors for the photos and the text, and first of all, the Smithsonian which accepted opening to me the doors of the library, when I was living in DC. I wanted to clarify too that the maps are coming from the GAA, but they have been greatly worked on, especially at the subspecies level which didn't exist.
Thank you all, and sorry for french, but my english was not fluent enough to go to such an enterprise.

Well, the french read caudata.org frequently, I know by experience!!
Anyway, I had the time to read the book this weekend and I must say it is a stunning piece of work. It is much better than the up-dat of Thorn's 1968 "caudate bible" Jean did in 2000.

Jean did an amazing job trying to put together scientific, hobbyist and personal information on salamanders and newts of the world. Pictures of species I have never seen before and of course much information on all species with many good hints for keeping and breeding.

With this book Jean will hopefully follow Robert Thorn who also wrote a book in french which still stands as an excellent work even 40 years later.

Here are 2 pages scanned from the book. Jean said it's OK post these.





The "gray boxes", as in the second example, contain captive care information (in this example, about Amphiumas).

looks like a really useful and informative resource and reference book. I am almost done french - one more year to go! I should probably obtain a copy of his book.