Mammals of the Southwest Mountains and Mesas

This 1961 field guide captures the mammalian wildlife of the Southwest's high country at a pivotal moment. Before modern wildlife management, before widespread habitat fragmentation, George Olin documented what he called the 'life zones' of the mountains and mesas rising above the desert - the transition from juniper-pinion forest up through spruce-fir communities. The book offers detailed accounts of species ranging from the ubiquitous mule deer to the elusive ringtail, from tiny shrews to the impressive elk herds returning from near-extirpation. Edward Bierly's illustrations accompany each entry, rendering these animals with scientific precision and an old-world naturalist's eye. Olin wrote with an urgent awareness that the landscape was changing. His descriptions of ecological relationships and conservation challenges read now as both a valuable historical record and a cautionary document. What makes this volume endure is not merely its taxonomic information, but its portrait of an ecosystem and a moment in American conservation history. For naturalists, historians of environmental science, and anyone who hikes the Sky Islands and mesas of Arizona and New Mexico, this book provides an indispensable window into what was - and what has been lost.