The Dodo and the Solitaire

The Dodo and the Solitaire PDF Author: Jolyon C. Parish
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253000998
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
The most comprehensive book to date about these two famously extinct birds.

The Dodo and the Solitaire

The Dodo and the Solitaire PDF Author: Jolyon C. Parish
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 0253000998
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 449

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Book Description
The most comprehensive book to date about these two famously extinct birds.

Lost Land of the Dodo

Lost Land of the Dodo PDF Author: Anthony Cheke
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 1408108828
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 824

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Book Description
The Mascarene islands in the southern Indian Ocean - Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues - were once home to an extraordinary range of birds and reptiles. Evolving on these isolated volcanic islands in the absence of mammalian predators or competitors, the land was dominated by giant tortoises, parrots, skinks and geckos, burrowing boas, flightless rails & herons, and of course (in Mauritius) the Dodo. Uninhabited and only discovered in the 1500s, colonisation by European settlers in the 1600s led to dramatic changes in the ecology of the islands; the birds and tortoises were slaughtered indiscriminately while introduced rats, cats, pigs and monkeys destroyed their eggs, the once-extensive forests logged, and invasive introduced plants from all over the tropics devastated the ecosystem. The now-familiar icon of extinction, the Dodo, was gone from Mauritius within 50 years of human settlement, and over the next 150 years many of the Mascarenes' other native vertebrates followed suit. The product of over 30 years research by Anthony Cheke, Lost Land of the Dodo provides a comprehensive yet hugely enjoyable account of the story of the islands' changing ecology, interspersed with human stories, the islands' biogeographical anomalies, and much else. Many French publications, old and new, especially for Réunion, are discussed and referenced in English for the first time. The book is richly illustrated with maps and contemporary illustrations of the animals and their environment, many of which have rarely been reprinted before. Illustrated box texts look in detail at each extinct vertebrate species, while Julian Hume's superb colour plates bring many of the extinct birds to life. Lost Land of the Dodo provides the definitive account of this tragic yet remarkable fauna, and is a must-read for anyone interested in islands, their ecology and the history of our relationship with the world around us.

Reunion Solitaire

Reunion Solitaire PDF Author: Robert Loy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781076755711
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
(This is the large print edition of Reunion Solitaire.) Sixteen-year-old Robb Shedd thought he had all he could handle just trying to get through his last year of high school and work up enough nerve to ask Janie McLain to the dance. Then a dodo waddled into his life. Yep, one of those awkward, ugly birds extinct for 300 years. This is not a responsibility Robb wants or is ready for. By the time he realizes just what a miracle he has, sinister forces - a top-secret government organization and a greedy older sister - are conspiring to take the bird away from Robb. Has the dodo come back from extinction only to die out once more?

Dodo

Dodo PDF Author: Alan Grihault
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dodo
Languages : en
Pages : 206

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Book Description
It took less than a hundred years of human influence in Mauritius to wipe out the Dodo. The delicate balance of nature was suddenly tipped and became a threat to the survival of the Dodo, which had reigned supreme on this island for thousands of years. For nearly two hundred years after its extinction, the Dodo was forgotten, and there were some doubts as to whether it actually lived at all. It seemed that these strange birds had only been part of the imagination and exaggeration of sailors. Today, the once remote island of Mauritius is home top over a million people of European, African, Indian and Chinese origin. It can boast of being one of the most stable democratic countries in the world and it is host to thousands of tourists who find shops full of Dodos in many forms, shapes and sizes. Yet, there is an unfortunate lack of information about this island's unique national icon. This book allows the reader to examine various eyewitness writings, drawings, paintings and skeletal remains, which depict the Dodo as it actually was, and helps us to understand how it was driven to extinction. It also traces what happened after the final demise of the bird, and how worldwide evidence was pieced together to provide a reasonable idea of how the Dodo lived and died.--Back cover.

Extinct Birds

Extinct Birds PDF Author: Julian P. Hume
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1472937457
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 581

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Book Description
A comprehensive review of the hundreds of bird species that have become extinct over the last 1,000 years of habitat degradation, over-hunting and rat introduction. Extinct Birds has become the standard text on this subject, covering both familiar icons of extinction as well as more obscure birds, some known from just one specimen or from travellers' tales. This second edition is expanded to include dozens of new species, as more are constantly added to the list, either through extinction or through new subfossil discoveries. The book is the result of decades of research into literature and museum drawers, as well as caves and subfossil deposits, which often reveal birds long-gone that disappeared without ever being recorded by scientists while they lived. From Great Auks, Carolina Parakeets and Dodos to the amazing yet almost completely vanished bird radiations of Hawaii and New Zealand via rafts of extinction in the Pacific and elsewhere, this book is both a sumptuous reference and astounding testament to humanity's devastating impact on wildlife.

The Passenger Pigeon

The Passenger Pigeon PDF Author: Errol Fuller
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 140085220X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 182

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Book Description
A haunting, beautifully illustrated memorial to this iconic extinct bird At the start of the nineteenth century, Passenger Pigeons were perhaps the most abundant birds on the planet, numbering literally in the billions. The flocks were so large and so dense that they blackened the skies, even blotting out the sun for days at a stretch. Yet by the end of the century, the most common bird in North America had vanished from the wild. In 1914, the last known representative of her species, Martha, died in a cage at the Cincinnati Zoo. This stunningly illustrated book tells the astonishing story of North America's Passenger Pigeon, a bird species that—like the Tyrannosaur, the Mammoth, and the Dodo—has become one of the great icons of extinction. Errol Fuller describes how these fast, agile, and handsomely plumaged birds were immortalized by the ornithologist and painter John James Audubon, and captured the imagination of writers such as James Fenimore Cooper, Henry David Thoreau, and Mark Twain. He shows how widespread deforestation, the demand for cheap and plentiful pigeon meat, and the indiscriminate killing of Passenger Pigeons for sport led to their catastrophic decline. Fuller provides an evocative memorial to a bird species that was once so important to the ecology of North America, and reminds us of just how fragile the natural world can be. Published in the centennial year of Martha’s death, The Passenger Pigeon features rare archival images as well as haunting photos of live birds.

Winged Sentinels

Winged Sentinels PDF Author: Janice Wormworth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521126827
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
A fascinating insight into what climate change means for birds, and the consequences of ignoring the warning signs provided by them.

Gone

Gone PDF Author: Michael Blencowe
Publisher: Aurum Press
ISBN: 0711276927
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
Gone is a fascinating and timely illustrated narrative exploring the lively tales of eleven extraordinary extinct species from around the globe––sharing an enlightening story of extinction and conservation for today.

Vanished and Vanishing Parrots

Vanished and Vanishing Parrots PDF Author: Joseph Forshaw
Publisher: CSIRO PUBLISHING
ISBN: 0643106502
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 790

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Book Description
Joseph M. Forshaw, one of the world’s leading authorities on parrots, calls attention to the threats they face: they are one of the most endangered groups of birds, with a growing number of species nearing extinction. The main threats arise from habitat loss through deforestation and agricultural development and from the taking of birds for the international live-bird trade. Vanished and Vanishing Parrots brings together information on species that have become extinct in historical times with information on species that are in danger of becoming extinct to increase public awareness of the plight of these magnificent birds. Vivid colour plates by the wildlife artist Frank Knight draw attention to the spectacular species that we have lost or that could be lost. Forshaw’s work gives us fascinating insight into these endangered and extinct parrots. Vanished and Vanishing Parrots will be a valuable reference for scientific, ornithological and avicultural organisations, as well as individual lovers of birds and of illustrated natural history books.

Subseafloor Biosphere Linked to Hydrothermal Systems

Subseafloor Biosphere Linked to Hydrothermal Systems PDF Author: Jun-ichiro Ishibashi
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 4431548653
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 651

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Book Description
This book is the comprehensive volume of the TAIGA (“a great river ” in Japanese) project. Supported by the Japanese government, the project examined the hypothesis that the subseafloor fluid advection system (subseafloor TAIGA) can be categorized into four types, TAIGAs of sulfur, hydrogen, carbon (methane), and iron, according to the most dominant reducing substance, and the chemolithoautotrophic bacteria/archaea that are inextricably associated with respective types of TAIGAs which are strongly affected by their geological background such as surrounding host rocks and tectonic settings. Sub-seafloor ecosystems are sustained by hydrothermal circulation or TAIGA that carry chemical energy to the chemosynthetic microbes living in an extreme environment. The results of the project have been summarized comprehensively in 50 chapters, and this book provides an overall introduction and relevant topics on the mid-ocean ridge system of the Indian Ocean and on the arc-backarc systems of the Southern Mariana Trough and Okinawa Trough.