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A review by whatdotheyknowaboutfriends
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen
4.0
David Quammen is an excellent author. Having previously read Monster of God, about large predators facing extinction, I was very excited about this book. This is a long story, and Quammen takes you through a lot of territory, from narrative accounts of Darwin and other early evolutionary theorists, to discussions of contentious issues in biology and wildlife preserve design, to Indonesian tourist traps where you can see Komodo dragons, to eccentric biologists visiting remote areas to catalog species of lizard and insect no one seems to care about.
So this book is a mishmash. Little time is spent on the dodo itself, which is quickly revealed to be a poster-boy for what Quammen really wants to talk about. The topic that he weaves this entire narrative around is "island biogeography"- which essentially means "what happens to ecosystems that get split up, say by development, agriculture, etc). Basic answer: generalists like squirrels, rats, and pigeons prevail, and rarer, niche species tend to go away. Quammen chooses to unpack this answer (and there is a lot of depth and qualification here) by examining both the historical development of biogeographical theory, and by traveling to a lot of wild places where this is really happening. While this book definitely does not move in a recognizable order, I came to accept that as I realized that this broad-based exploration was necessary to really bring it home that broken-up, degraded ecosystems are everywhere in our societies, as well as a significant, albeit distant, issue in wildlife preservation. And along the way, there are some really cool animals, and fascinating information about what makes ecosystems tick. Highly recommended.
So this book is a mishmash. Little time is spent on the dodo itself, which is quickly revealed to be a poster-boy for what Quammen really wants to talk about. The topic that he weaves this entire narrative around is "island biogeography"- which essentially means "what happens to ecosystems that get split up, say by development, agriculture, etc). Basic answer: generalists like squirrels, rats, and pigeons prevail, and rarer, niche species tend to go away. Quammen chooses to unpack this answer (and there is a lot of depth and qualification here) by examining both the historical development of biogeographical theory, and by traveling to a lot of wild places where this is really happening. While this book definitely does not move in a recognizable order, I came to accept that as I realized that this broad-based exploration was necessary to really bring it home that broken-up, degraded ecosystems are everywhere in our societies, as well as a significant, albeit distant, issue in wildlife preservation. And along the way, there are some really cool animals, and fascinating information about what makes ecosystems tick. Highly recommended.