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Books : Science & Nature : Biological Sciences : Animal Sciences : Extinction & Endangered Species
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There are those who have accused Stephen Fry of spreading his many talents too thinly. Rescuing the Spectacled Bear reminds us that it's possible to argue that he's at his best as a writer. It's a funny and moving diary of his bid to rescue Peru's endangered Spectacled Bears and altogether a delight. Earlier in 2002, BBC 1 broadcast a programme about Fry's visit to Peru to track Paddington Bear's roots and (more seriously) to rescue a Spectacled Bear, one of the world's endangered species. Later, Fry and his team went back and helped rescue a mate for the bear they had found on their first trip. Fry is clearly keen to draw the world's attention to these bears and this engaging diary of his time in Peru is both funny and committed. Will Fry become the Diane Fossey of the bear world?The full colour, full-page illustrations are a particular delight and perfectly complement the author's whimsical word pictures of the Spectacled Bears. And there's even a bonus in the shape of some very funny jacket notes, comparing (item by item) the Spectacled Bear and Stephen Fry in terms of size, appearance and habitat, not to mention sexual habits. Of the bears: "Mating occurs in April, May and June and couples stay together for a week or two, with copulation occurring numerous times." Of Stephen Fry: "Subject of much speculation among scholars and gossip mongers. The mating ritual, which is remarkably noisy, lasts fourteen and a half years and makes a great deal of mess." --Barry Forshaw
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Ornithologists estimate that there have been some 150,000 avian species since birds first appeared millions of years ago. Errol Fuller points out in Extinct Birds that if that figure, based on incomplete evidence, is correct, then nearly 94 percent of those species have gone extinct over time.Most have done so through more or less natural causes--through disease, say, or widespread climatic change. In historic times, though, many species have been hastened to extinction through human actions, inadvertent or deliberate. In the case of the Hawaiian rail, Fuller writes in this catalogue of birds that have disappeared since 1600, the introduction of alien species such as the mongoose, domestic cat and rat is likely to blame. Rats, too, killed off the Lord Howe Island white-eye when a ship accidentally grounded there in 1918. The Carolina parakeet disappeared a few years later, owing, perhaps, to the destruction of its forest habitat and its beautiful plumage, highly prized by hunters. Mosquitoes carried on other ships felled many other island species. And so on. Curiously, Fuller writes, the usual-suspect agents of extinction-hunting or egg collecting for example--have had a smaller effect on vulnerable bird species than have changes in the environment wrought by humans and their "accompanying menagerie".
Fuller's book makes for a sobering obituary, and one of particular interest to environmentalists engaged in habitat preservation and restoration. --Gregory McNamee
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One of the greatest "detective" stories in the history of the Earth is the dinosaur "whodunnit". For a long time it has been known that dinosaurs, pterosaurs (flying reptiles) and several groups of marine reptiles all died out at the end of Cretaceous times 65 million years ago. There are many questions about this extinction event. For instance, what caused their demise?Over the last decade the most fingered culprit has been an extra-terrestrial--an asteroid that whammed into Mexico's Yucatan peninsula at just the right time. A simple and spectacular resolution, you would think the outcome of the trial would be a forgone conclusion. But when the expert witnesses are called it all begins to become less clear cut.
Whilst there is no doubt an asteroid did hit the Earth at the time, the effects of its impact do not seem to amount to as much as was originally thought. However, there were plenty of other possible perpetrators around at the time which were powerful enough to cause global mayhem.
Evolutionary Catastrophes is a translation and update of an excellent presentation of the case for the most likely accomplice or perhaps main perpetrator--cataclysmic volcanism. Outpourings of "greenhouse" gases and volcanic dust cause climate change which has a knock-on effect through the plants, plant eaters to the meat eaters, through the whole food chain. As a professor of geophysics in the University of Paris, Vincent Courtillot is an expert witness and well placed to guide us through the more arcane aspects of the "palaeoforensics" of the case. He manages to make his statement in language suitable for the general reader and there is an excellent glossary and index to help with more technical matters.
Courtillot extends his analysis to the other major extinction events in Earth's history and shows how massive outpourings of lavas coincide with them all, especially the biggest of all the Permian/Triassic extinction around 250 million years ago. Arguments over the interpretation of the palaeoforensic details will go on. As Vincent Courtillot says "no doubt the party will go on" and "many secrets remain to be brought to light". To get the argument in favour of extra-terrestrial impacts as the cause for most extinction events see Charles Frankel's The End of the Dinosaurs. --Douglas Palmer
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