An upbeat compendium that will energize both hands-on and armchair conservationists.
A heartening collection of conservation success stories from world-renowned primatologist Goodall (Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating, 2005, etc.), with field notes from Cincinnati Zoo director Maynard (Komodo Dragons, 2006, etc.)
At 75, the author of the classic In the Shadow of Man (1971) offers good news about the environment drawn from her worldwide travels with the Jane Goodall Institute. Writing with warmth and good humor, the author presents a cornucopia of stories about people and groups who have worked tirelessly—and often against great odds—to save or help in the recovery of more than two-dozen animal species on the brink of extinction. Based on in-person conversations with biologists and others, her chatty accounts paint a vivid picture of how captive breeding and other initiatives by passionate individuals, governments and NGOs have brought back species nearly decimated by development, hunting, pollution and other human activities. A few stories are familiar, such as the establishment of a new migratory flock of whooping cranes—Goodall flew in an ultra-light aircraft that leads young cranes to winter quarters in Florida—but most have been little-noticed. These include China’s Milu deer (aka Père David’s Deer), which barely survived food deprivations in two world wars, were saved by several Europeans and reintroduced in China from a British estate in 1986; the dwindling golden lion tamarins of Brazil, which were bred at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., until they could be released in Brazil with the help of local farmers; and the millions of Asian vultures that once cleaned up cattle carcasses in India and Pakistan are returning after actions to eliminate two recently discovered threats—the drug Diclofenac, which is lethal to the birds, and the harmful powdered-glass coatings on kite strings, often used in Asia’s popular kite festivals. Notable sections of the book describe efforts to save birds on isolated island environments threatened by alien species—all but 18 of the remaining Stephen’s Island wrens off the coast of New Zealand were killed by a lighthouse keeper’s cat in the late 19th century—and the discovery of new species and ecosystems, such as an Israeli cave system sealed off for more than two million years.
An upbeat compendium that will energize both hands-on and armchair conservationists.Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-446-58177-6
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2009
A quirky wonder of a book.
A Peabody Award–winning NPR science reporter chronicles the life of a turn-of-the-century scientist and how her quest led to significant revelations about the meaning of order, chaos, and her own existence.
Miller began doing research on David Starr Jordan (1851-1931) to understand how he had managed to carry on after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake destroyed his work. A taxonomist who is credited with discovering “a full fifth of fish known to man in his day,” Jordan had amassed an unparalleled collection of ichthyological specimens. Gathering up all the fish he could save, Jordan sewed the nameplates that had been on the destroyed jars directly onto the fish. His perseverance intrigued the author, who also discusses the struggles she underwent after her affair with a woman ended a heterosexual relationship. Born into an upstate New York farm family, Jordan attended Cornell and then became an itinerant scholar and field researcher until he landed at Indiana University, where his first ichthyological collection was destroyed by lightning. In between this catastrophe and others involving family members’ deaths, he reconstructed his collection. Later, he was appointed as the founding president of Stanford, where he evolved into a Machiavellian figure who trampled on colleagues and sang the praises of eugenics. Miller concludes that Jordan displayed the characteristics of someone who relied on “positive illusions” to rebound from disaster and that his stand on eugenics came from a belief in “a divine hierarchy from bacteria to humans that point[ed]…toward better.” Considering recent research that negates biological hierarchies, the author then suggests that Jordan’s beloved taxonomic category—fish—does not exist. Part biography, part science report, and part meditation on how the chaos that caused Miller’s existential misery could also bring self-acceptance and a loving wife, this unique book is an ingenious celebration of diversity and the mysterious order that underlies all existence.
A quirky wonder of a book.Pub Date: April 14, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6027-1
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 1, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
Unsentimental nature writing that sheds as much light on humans as on eels.
An account of the mysterious life of eels that also serves as a meditation on consciousness, faith, time, light and darkness, and life and death.
In addition to an intriguing natural history, Swedish journalist Svensson includes a highly personal account of his relationship with his father. The author alternates eel-focused chapters with those about his father, a man obsessed with fishing for this elusive creature. “I can’t recall us ever talking about anything other than eels and how to best catch them, down there by the stream,” he writes. “I can’t remember us speaking at all….Because we were in…a place whose nature was best enjoyed in silence.” Throughout, Svensson, whose beat is not biology but art and culture, fills his account with people: Aristotle, who thought eels emerged live from mud, “like a slithering, enigmatic miracle”; Freud, who as a teenage biologist spent months in Trieste, Italy, peering through a microscope searching vainly for eel testes; Johannes Schmidt, who for two decades tracked thousands of eels, looking for their breeding grounds. After recounting the details of the eel life cycle, the author turns to the eel in literature—e.g., in the Bible, Rachel Carson’s Under the Sea Wind, and Günter Grass’ The Tin Drum—and history. He notes that the Puritans would likely not have survived without eels, and he explores Sweden’s “eel coast” (what it once was and how it has changed), how eel fishing became embroiled in the Northern Irish conflict, and the importance of eel fishing to the Basque separatist movement. The apparent return to life of a dead eel leads Svensson to a consideration of faith and the inherent message of miracles. He warns that if we are to save this fascinating creature from extinction, we must continue to study it. His book is a highly readable place to begin learning.
Unsentimental nature writing that sheds as much light on humans as on eels.Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-296881-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Ecco/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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