Using the Peterson Reference Guide To The Behavior Of North American Mammals In the Field
Most field guides focus on physical identification. A few go further and document what animals actually do. The Peterson Reference Guide To The Behavior Of North American Mammals sits in that second category, and it is genuinely useful if you know how to approach it. It is not a quick-reference field guide for identification at a glance. It is a behavior-focused reference that requires you to slow down and read the entries before heading out, then cross-reference while in the field. The guide covers roughly the same mammalian families you would find in a standard identification field guide, but the entry structure is organized around behavioral patterns rather than coat markings. Each species entry tends to break down into sections covering activity patterns, locomotion, communication signals, social structure, feeding behavior, reproduction, and habitat use. Some entries include detailed notes on territoriality and aggression. The layout is consistent enough that after reading a few entries you can scan for the information you need without rereading the whole thing. The practical way to use this book is to pre-read the species you expect to encounter before a trip. If you are going coyote country in late autumn, read the coyote entry ahead of time. The book will describe typical ranging patterns, vocalizations, and social grouping behavior. Then when you are in the field you are looking for specific behavioral cues rather than just trying to identify a silhouette against snow. This shifts the whole dynamic from passive observation to active tracking, which takes longer but produces better data.
One specific problem I ran into: the book describes general behavioral repertoires for species like red fox and coyote, but the photographs and illustrations sometimes capture moments that look contradictory unless you understand the sequence. I once spent twenty minutes trying to match a photo of a fox with its ears flat and tail low to the text description that emphasized bold, confident foraging behavior. The discrepancy turned out to be simple context. The photo captured an avoidance or submission display, not the primary hunting posture described in the feeding section. The book does not always make it obvious which behavioral state a given illustration represents. I learned to check the caption first, then re-read the relevant section with that state in mind, rather than assuming an image showed the species' typical behavior.
What This Guide Actually Helps You Understand
Behavioral field guides like this one fill a gap that most naturalists encounter early and deal with awkwardly. You can ID a white-tailed deer from a distance using Brodkorb or Peterson's main field guide. But knowing it is a white-tailed deer does not tell you whether it is alarmed, feeding, rutting, or preparing to bed down. The behavior guide gives you the signal vocabulary: ear orientation, tail position, head carriage, gait changes, and the context in which those signals appear. It is essentially a field manual for reading animal body language. Communication section entries are where this guide tends to shine most. The descriptions of vocal signaling, scent marking, visual displays, and auditory threat behaviors give you a checklist to run through when you encounter an animal behaving strangely. A bobcat standing on its hind legs with its mouth open is doing something specific. The entry will point you toward the possible interpretations: a threat display, a mating call context, or intraspecific confrontation. You then cross-reference with the reported context—time of year, proximity to other cats, terrain—to narrow the interpretation. The guide also covers locomotion patterns in useful detail. Different species have characteristic gaits and speed transitions that are often hard to distinguish in low light or through brush. Learning the behavioral catalog ahead of time means you are less likely to misidentify a running elk from a fleeing mule deer based solely on tail visibility. The gait descriptions and typical speed contexts are more reliable indicators than the fleeting visual snapshot most field observers get.
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Common Pitfalls and Where the Guide Falls Short
This guide is not a replacement for a species identification manual. It does not give you the ear-to-ear body measurements, pelage variation charts, or range maps with the same precision that dedicated taxonomy guides do. If you cannot identify the animal in front of you, no amount of behavior reading will help you name the species. Use it as a companion volume, not a standalone tool. Budget roughly $40 to $60 for it depending on the edition, and treat it as a supplement to your primary field guide, not a substitute. Regional variation is another limitation. The behavioral descriptions are generalized across the North American range of each species. A Florida panther does not behave identically to a Canadian lynx, even though both fall under felid behavioral categories. The book acknowledges this to some degree but does not always break down subspecies-level behavioral differences. If you are working in a highly distinctive regional population, cross-check with local peer-reviewed literature or state wildlife agency reports for more granular behavioral data. The reproduction sections can be thin on certain species. Some of the more elusive or poorly studied mammals receive entry-length coverage that glosses over courtship behavior, gestation details, or juvenile rearing patterns. For species like the American pika or the bare-tailed woolly opossum, the entries are functional but sparse. You will need supplementary sources if you are researching reproductive ecology specifically. A good alternative to pair with this guide is the Mammal Species of the World database for taxonomic context, combined with regional behavioral studies from journals like Journal of Mammalogy or Wildlife Monographs.
Practical Tips for Field Application
Take the guide into the field in a dry, protected sleeve. The pages are not necessarily waterproof, and mud or rain will damage the binding over repeated trips. I keep mine in a plastic storage sleeve inside my pack, accessible but sealed from moisture. A small notebook for recording behavioral observations alongside the guide makes the whole system more useful. Write down the time, weather, substrate, and what you saw the animal doing. The guide gives you the interpretive framework; your field notes provide the raw data. Don't expect to flip through this book quickly in the field the way you might with an identification guide. Behavior observation is slow work. You see something unusual, you pull the book, you read the relevant section carefully, then you put the book away and keep watching. The more time you spend with the guide in your hand while observing, the more you interrupt the animal and reduce your chances of seeing natural behavior. Treat the book as a planning and debriefing tool more than a real-time reference. If your primary interest is behavioral photography or videography, this guide is worth the investment. The descriptions of typical postures, display sequences, and contextual triggers will help you anticipate behavior rather than react to it. Anticipation is the single most important skill in wildlife photography. Knowing that a marmot typically stands on its hind legs and chirps when it spots a predator before it actually bolts gives you a five-second head start that makes the difference between a blurred image and a sharp behavioral shot.
Where to Find It
The Peterson Reference Guide To The Behavior Of North American Mammals is available through major booksellers, used book retailers, and university library systems. The publication is managed under the Peterson Field Guides imprint, which has distribution through Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and academic publishers. If you are looking for the most current edition, check the Smithsonian's associated publications list or university biology department catalogs, as some editions have been distributed through academic channels rather than general retail. Pricing varies from approximately $35 to $70 depending on edition condition and whether you are buying new or used. Used copies in good condition are widely available and functionally identical for field use. The guide remains a solid reference for anyone moving beyond species identification into behavioral ecology. It is not the most comprehensive behavior reference available—the Princeton Field Guide to Mammals or the more specialized volumes from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's behavior series may offer deeper coverage for specific taxa. But for North American mammals specifically, and for the practical field naturalist who wants behavioral context alongside identification, it holds its place well.
