Audiobook8 hours
The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction
Written by Gisli Palsson
Narrated by Paul Woodson
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this audiobook
The great auk is one of the most tragic and documented examples of extinction. A flightless bird that bred primarily on the remote islands of the North Atlantic, the last of its kind were killed in Iceland in 1844. Gísli Pálsson draws on firsthand accounts from the Icelanders who hunted the last great auks to bring to life a bygone age of Victorian scientific exploration while offering vital insights into the extinction of species.
Pálsson vividly recounts how British ornithologists John Wolley and Alfred Newton set out for Iceland to collect specimens only to discover that the great auks were already gone. At the time, the Victorian world viewed extinction as an impossibility or trivialized it as a natural phenomenon. Pálsson chronicles how Wolley and Newton documented the fate of the last birds through interviews with the men who killed them, and how the naturalists' Icelandic journey opened their eyes to the disappearance of species as a subject of scientific concern—and as something that could be caused by humans.
Blending a richly evocative narrative with rare, unpublished material as well as insights from ornithology, anthropology, and Pálsson's own North Atlantic travels, The Last of Its Kind reveals how the saga of the great auk opens a window onto the human causes of mass extinction.
Pálsson vividly recounts how British ornithologists John Wolley and Alfred Newton set out for Iceland to collect specimens only to discover that the great auks were already gone. At the time, the Victorian world viewed extinction as an impossibility or trivialized it as a natural phenomenon. Pálsson chronicles how Wolley and Newton documented the fate of the last birds through interviews with the men who killed them, and how the naturalists' Icelandic journey opened their eyes to the disappearance of species as a subject of scientific concern—and as something that could be caused by humans.
Blending a richly evocative narrative with rare, unpublished material as well as insights from ornithology, anthropology, and Pálsson's own North Atlantic travels, The Last of Its Kind reveals how the saga of the great auk opens a window onto the human causes of mass extinction.
Related to The Last of Its Kind
Related audiobooks
Wild History: Journeys into Lost Scotland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLocked in Time: Animal Behavior Unearthed in 50 Extraordinary Fossils Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWinter World: The Ingenuity of Animal Survival Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When There Were Birds: The Forgotten History of our Connections Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKraken Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Seabird's Cry: The Lives and Loves of the Planet's Great Ocean Voyagers Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Curious Species: How Animals Made Natural History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Lost World: Ice Ages, Human Origins, and the Invention of the Pleistocene Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of the Barn Owl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sixth Extinction Tenth Anniversary Edition Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Slippery Beast: A True Crime Natural History, with Eels Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOur National Parks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBluebird Seasons: Witnessing Climate Change in My Piece of the Wild Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Two-Headed Whale: Life, Loss, and the Tangled Legacy of Whaling in the Antarctic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn the Backs of Tortoises: Darwin, the Galapagos, and the Fate of an Evolutionary Eden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Halcyon Journey: In Search of the Belted Kingfisher Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Search of the Old Ones: An Odyssey among Ancient Trees Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Walleye: A Beautiful Fish of the Dark Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIce Walker: A Polar Bear's Journey through the Fragile Arctic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMy First Summer in the Sierra Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Wise Hours: A Journey into the Wild and Secret World of Owls Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Waiting for Aphrodite: Journeys into the Time before Bones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hawk's Way: Encounters with Fierce Beauty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Sound of Whales Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Quarry Fox: And Other Critters of the Wild Catskills Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Living on Earth: Forests, Corals, Consciousness, and the Making of the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The United States of English: The American Language from Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Do Bees Think About? Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Nature For You
Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Escaping from Eden: Does Genesis teach that the human race was created by God or engineered by ETs? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shelter: A Love Letter to Trees Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Uncertain Sea: Fear is everywhere. Embrace it. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elephant Whisperer: My Life With the Herd in the African Wild Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Life on Earth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cactus Jack: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion -- Surprising Observations of a Hidden World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Never Cry Wolf Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Deer: Trouble and Kinship with our Wild Neighbors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mind of Plants: Narratives of Vegetal Intelligence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Other End of the Leash: Why We Do What We Do Around Dogs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lion Tracker's Guide To Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Last of Its Kind
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews