Vietnam is a special country with favourable geographical conditions that have led to the evolution of a large number of endemic species. The country is also unique in having suffered from several decades of wars that have strongly affected its biodiversity and prevented an accurate assessment of the biological situation.
This book describes the history of 150 terrestrial mammal species and highlights their discovery, rediscovery, and in some cases, extinction. For species that were discovered or newly identified in the last 30 years, the history of their discovery is described briefly, including a short biography of the persons who were associated with it. The author has tried to track down people who are still alive though has not been successful on all occasions. For new discoveries of long-known species, original first descriptions from old scientific papers are usually included, while for newly discovered and redescribed species in the last 30 years, these are usually not included as such descriptions are often very extensive and easily accessed on the internet. For the orders Rodentia, Eulipotyphla, and Chiroptera maps are included that show the locations of records, though these do not represent distribution maps.