Management of Wild Mammals in Captivity was written by Lee Crandall over thirty years ago. It was a valuable reference containing much of what then was known regarding the history and technique of maintaining individual mammalian species in zoos. Much knowledge has been obtained in the past three decades and a simple update of Crandall's format would fill many thousands of pages. Wild Mammals in Captivity; Principles and Techniques, does not claim to repeat Crandall's undertaking in this one volume (though there is the suggestion that this is just the first volume of a major work in which future books will be organized taxonomically). Rather, the reader will be rewarded with a thorough overview of the principles and techniques of captive management-exactly as the subtitle promises-along with a fair bit of basic mammalian biology.
The 48 chapters are organized into seven sections addressing basic husbandry, nutrition, exhibitry, population management, behavior, reproduction, and research. The five appendices address mammalian phylogeny, an annotated bibliography, United States wildlife regulations, records, and breeding loans.
Appropriately the first chapter of the book address the ethics of keeping non-domestic mammals in captivity. This includes a discussion of animal's rights, a brief history of Western zoos, and the intersection of public attitudes and animal welfare considerations in modern zoos. Other chapters in the first part provide an overview of medical and animal handling issues, including identification techniques and considerations for neonates; and discussions of introduction and training techniques. One chapter does stray from the general intent of the volume and deals with introduction and socialization techniques for Primates. Also awkwardly placed here is a zoo-specific chapter on security and animal escapes, for overall this is not a book just about mammals in zoos, but about general principles of the management of mammals.
The Nutrition chapters comprise the second part and are well integrated, perhaps because only three authors contribute to the five chapters. The first chapter, perhaps a little defensive, makes the case for more professional input in diet formulation. This is followed by a concise explanation of essential nutrients. The other chapters present the special considerations for herbivores, carnivores, and