The Making of a Field Guide
The Mammals of North America was accomplished through the collaboration of artists and scientists. The two co-authors, curators of mammals at the New York State Museum and Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History respectively, identified the critical features of each species. At the same time they searched out the range of colors and characters within a single species.
The information was gathered from the existing work of mammalogists long stored in museums and libraries across the country. Each artist focused on a group and used the scientist’s technical notes, his or her own observations, museum specimens and photographs to produce detailed, accurate and, often beautiful records of all 442 species of mammals in North America.
