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SONG OF THE DODO: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions Hardcover – April 12, 1996

by David Quammen (Author)

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Takes a close-up look at island biogeography, the science of the geographic distribution of life on islands, and its significance in terms of evolution and extinction

Print length

704 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Scribner
Publication date

April 12, 1996
Dimensions

6.75 x 1.75 x 10 inches
ISBN-10

0684800837
ISBN-13

978-0684800837
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In a wonderful weave of science, metaphor, and prose, David Quammen, author of The Flight of the Iguana, applies the lessons of island biogeography - the study of the distribution of species on islands and islandlike patches of landscape - to modern ecosystem decay, offering us insight into the origin and extinction of species, our relationship to nature, and the future of our world.

From Publishers Weekly

Quammen (Natural Acts) has successfully mixed genres in this highly impressive and thoroughly enjoyable work. The scientific journalism is first-rate, with the extremely technical field of island biogeography made fully accessible. We learn how the discipline developed and how it has changed conservation biology. And we learn just how critical this field is in the face of massive habitat destruction. The book is also a splendid example of natural history writing, for which Quammen traveled extensively. The Channel Islands off California and the Madagascan lemurs are captivatingly portrayed. Equally impressive are the character studies of the scientists who have been at the forefront of island biogeography. From his extended historical analysis of the journeys and insights of 19th-century biologist Alfred Russell Wallace to his field and laboratory interviews with many of the men and women who have followed in Wallace's intellectual wake, Quammen delightfully adds the human dimension to his discussion of science and natural history. Using a canvas as large as the world, he masterfully melds anecdotes about swimming elephants, collecting fresh feces from arboreal primates in Brazil and searching for the greater bird of paradise on the tiny island of Aru into an irreverent masterpiece. That a book on so technical a subject could be so enlightening, humorous and engaging is an extraordinary achievement. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The self-contained ecosystem is again used as a benchmark in this study of evolution and extinction by the author of Natural Acts (LJ 3/15/85).
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

Everything you might want to know about life and death on islands here, there, and everywhere on the globe can be found in Quammen's study of island biogeography. The National Magazine Awardwinning science writer (Outside magazine; The Flight of the Iguana, 1988, etc.) asks, Why does island life differ radically from mainland life? The answer, not surprisingly, is evolution. There are unique evolutionary opportunities as well as pressures on islands. On oceanic islands, which arise from deep sea eruptions (such as the Gal pagos Islands), there may be fewer varieties of species; the first arrivals often expand to fill all sorts of ecological niches in a process called adaptive radiation. So it was with the varied populations of finches that Charles Darwin observed in the Gal pagos. Islands that sit on continental shelves near enough to mainlands to have been connected by land bridges at times of major glaciation may have animal species as varied as those on the mainland, but the species are likely to differ in their behavior or appearance from mainland relatives. Some reptiles isolated on islands grew large, like the Komodo dragon of Indonesia; some mammals shrank, like the pygmy elephants found in Sicily. Some birds became flightless, like the celebrated dodo native to Mauritius. Quammen provides abundant examples of the variables that can foster or doom populations, ranging from the sheer size of an island (big is better), to bouts of bad weather, to the introduction of farming and the animal camp followers of man: pigs, rats, and cats. The book's virtues include Quammen's vivid account of his treks to the world's wild places and interviews with the experts he finds there. The downside is too much of a muchness; Quammen's zeal to spill all his notes and a breezy style that grows wearying. Taken in small bites, however, there is much to glean here about the wonders, and also the fragility, of life on earth. (10 maps) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

The Song of the Dodo is a stunning work of scientific reporting and travel writing. Quammen's intelligence is so dependable, his narrative witty, compelling, acutely aware. -- Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams

That a book on so technical a subject could be so enlightening, humorous and engaging is an extraordinary achievement. -- Publishers Weekly

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Scribner (April 12, 1996)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 704 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0684800837
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0684800837
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.75 x 1.75 x 10 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,373,593 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #375 in Endangered Species (Books)
- #2,397 in Ecology (Books)
- #3,097 in Environmental Science (Books)

Customer Reviews:
481

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David Quammen

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David Quammen is the author of a dozen fiction and nonfiction books, including Blood Line and The Song of the Dodo. Spillover, his most recent book, was shortlisted for several major awards. A three-time National Magazine Award winner, he is a contributing writer for National Geographic and has written also for Harper’s, Outside, Esquire, The Atlantic, Powder, and Rolling Stone. He travels widely on assignment, usually to jungles, mountains, remote islands, and swamps.

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4.6 out of 5

481 global ratings

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Jane K from Athens, GA

A true classic and still an extremely important read

Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2018

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This is surely one of the most important books on the environment to come out of the latter part of the 20th Century. It is highly readable for anyone who is really interested in how we have come to the environmental place we're at today, particularly in regard to species extinction. If you are familiar with Quammen's works then you know that he is a very gifted writer and explainer. In Song of the Dodo, he teaches by combining history, environmental science, personal experience and anecdotes--not to mention his wonderfully impish "gossip columnist" quality when he describes personalities and academic battles over major biological questions. That said, he is always respectul of the scientists he interviews and of their work and goes to great lengths to really understand it so that he can give his readers the most accurate version possible of the material he covers. Quammen traveled extensively to research and write this tome, visiting many islands and archipelagos that were, and I assume still are, used as models for how extinction happens on continents when we break up the natural landscape, leaving only patches of it that become like islands for the wildlife living on those patches. There is just so very much in this book! You will read both heartening and heartbreaking stories of attempts to save species on the brink of extinction. So much of this book seems deeply personal for Quammen and for the people he engages with. It is long--about 600 pages--but I swear I learned more than 600 pages worth in reading it. Toward the end of the book I could feel that little shift in my mind, that feeling of having broadened and deepened my understanding of something very important. I am excited to move next to Quammen's new book, The Tangled Tree. I would also recommend a new book to read in conjunction with Song of the Dodo, and that is The Human Planet: How We Created the Anthropocene.

21 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Great book

Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2023

Verified Purchase

Read this in a college evolution class and have re-bought many times to give as gifts to friends who love natural history

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Reid W. Wyatt

Science Journalism? Yeh, it rules!

Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2007

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This is the first book I've read by Quammen, an imminently talented journalist who perfectly balances the information and writing style of the book. He follows a chronological progression of island biogeography from Darwin through Jared Diamond (who became hugely famous shortly after the release of this book). Quammen's travelogues are excellent, combining a sympathetic, open perspective that is adventurous and engaged. Late in the book, Quammen describes a climb to the nest of a Mauritius kestrel: "When I'm thirty feet up, a tree branch flicks off my glasses, which drop to the ground. I could go down and retrieve them, sure, that would be sensible, but I'd fall too far behind the cheerful maniacs...
'Do you trust this vine?' I call up to Jones. Gangly but tall, he must weigh two hundred pounds, and from this angle I can appreciate the size of his feet.
'Not greatly.'
We ratchet our way upward, slowly, on the cliff face. It isn't Half Dome but it's more perilous than the average birdwatching stroll. We rise out above the valley. As we move beyond the treetops, I give myself an explicit mental reminder: Fall from here and you don't go home. Finally, Jones and I catch up with Lewis on a narrow rock shelf, like a window ledge ten stories above Lexington Avenue...
I gaze out at the panorama--the forested canyon below us, the deer ranch beyond, and the cane plantation beyond that, all spreading westward for five miles to the crescent of beach and then the great turquoise plane of the Indian Ocean." (562-3)
It's Quammen's excitement and sensitivty that inspire the reader to continue and to care, to take notice of humanity's influence: carving nature into islands, resulting in astonishing rates of extinction and ecosystem decay. But Quammen urges us to cling to hope, not despair, because "besides being fruitless it's far less exciting than hope, however slim." (636)

3 people found this helpful

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Satisfied consumer

The book has interesting information, very well researched by the author

Reviewed in the United States on January 6, 2023

Verified Purchase

Enjoyed the information, especially as I had read another book by this same author previously.
The used book I received had a musty ordor, so it ended up being disposed of afterwards, which is just what one gets sometimes when buying second hand.

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Kit M

A book covering a wide-range or related topics

Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2014

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Quammen is truly becoming one of my favorite authors. As a naturalist, the topics he writes about are interesting to me, but that's only a fraction of his charm. He also has a very anecdotal and "friendly" writing style that I find very engaging. How can I not be charmed by a man who concludes his chapter on biogeographic logarithms with, "Hello, are you still with me? Sorry about all that." He knows his audience.

It took me a long time to read this book not because it wasn't interesting, but because it covered a wide-range of related topics. It was as if several good books had been rolled into one.

The book focuses on biogeography. Quammen talks about the great people who've contributed to the field (beginning with Darwin and Wallace, of course,) and also talks about island extinctions (as they have been much more numerous than continental extinctions).

I found the stories about Darwin and Wallace fascinating. The chapters on rare, extinct, and (unfortunately) introduced species were the best part of the book for me. He also talks about recent studies and debates like SLOSS. Then Quammen ends the book with his own trip to Aru after years of carrying around a copy of Wallace's The Malay Archipelago.

My one criticism is in regards to the Kindle edition due to the page numbers and percentage. When I finished the book, it said I was only 60% done even though the chapters before the glossary end around page 600 out of 695. That's not 60% Kindle.

I recommend this book to anyone with interest in islands, habitat carrying capacity, and the history of natural sciences. It's a sober topic and an eye-opening read, but Quammen throws in some of his charm and wit as needed and expected.

9 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Excellent Read!

Reviewed in Canada on December 14, 2021

Verified Purchase

Excellent read on Conservation Biology around our planet!

One person found this helpful

Mary salas

A deep dive in biogeography

Reviewed in Mexico on May 28, 2021

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If you are interested in conservation biology and biogeography this book is a must. The writing is engaging and the knowledge you gain is invaluable.

Erminio

Stato libro: OTTIMO Tempi consegna perfetti.

Reviewed in Italy on November 16, 2023

Verified Purchase

Stato libro: OTTIMO.
Venditore serissimo e affidabile con archivio testi scientifici di grande valore. Ritengo di continuare con altri acquisti.
Tempi consegna perfetti.
Assolutamente consigliabile.

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Adrian

A Wonderful and Immersive Read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 27, 2020

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David Quamenn is a great writer and undoubtedly this is the best book written on the subject of Island Biogeography / Natural World in the last 30 years. Read it and become immersed in the history, theories and personalities of Island ecology and evolution starting with Darwin's contemporary Alfred Wallace.

One person found this helpful

Rajeev

Awesome

Reviewed in India on October 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

The song which will hurt you a lot

One person found this helpful

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