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Not simply a field guide but a celebration of Cusuco and the remarkably diverse herpetofauna of this cloud forest reserve. Townsend and Wilson provide a fascinating account of an ecosystem where some 18% of amphibian and reptile species are endemic, but which is also highly vulnerable.

Climate change, outbreaks of chytridiomycosis, and increasing pressure around its periphery from subsistence farming and urbanization are all beginning to have an impact in the area, at least one species having become extinct and numerous others believed to be in decline.

A major objective of the book is to draw attention to the susceptibility of Cusuco and other Honduran cloud forests -- in herpetological terms among the most endemic-rich of all habitats in Middle America -- to human-induced degradation, and in this commendable endeavor we can only hope the authors succeed.