Unsurpassed in the breadth and depth of its text and scope of its illustrations, the Encyclopedia of Mammals treats every living species, from aardvark to antechinus, and from zorros to zebras.
David Whyte Macdonald CBE FRSE is a Scottish zoologist and conservationist. He has done much to popularize biology with the general public. He is known for his documentary films and his popular books, for which he has twice won the Natural World Author of the Year award.
A gigantic book with lots of information on the appearance, behavior, and ecology of the wild mammals of the world. I think it is a model of how specialists can give an informative overview of their subject to a wider public without being "light" or unreadably technical. Unfortunately, the the bats and some other small mammals get ridiculously little coverage compared to the large ones.