And No Birds Sing: The Story of an Ecological Disaster in a Tropical Paradise

by Mark Jaffe

A fascinating investigation into the reasons behind the extinction of birds on Guam becomes a cautionary environmental detective story as scientists discover that an imported snake with no natural enemies has decimated the island's birds. 15,000 first printing.

Genres: Nonfiction, Nature

283 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1994

Reviews

[Jennifer Wilcox]

The style of this book received some criticism so I was expecting a little friction when it was handed to me before I took off to catch a plane back home to North America. To my delight, Jaffe actually did an excellent job of presenting some very important issues and fascinating information to a broad audience.
I especially appreciated the story having just finished working with endangered crows on the island of Rota and being very familiar with the snake problem on Guam. However, I think the average person would find this book to be a tantalizing portal into a world of issues that not many people try to learn about, and least of all, understand.
Do yourself a favor and turn the pages of this marvelous work. I guarantee you've never heard a story like it. When you've finished you might be surprised at how much you suddenly care about the hell environmentalists have to go through to get anything done, or saved.

[Scott]

I wasn't able to finish this book. I tackled a subject, nature stuff, that I often don't read. It was a well-written account of scientists who worked to determine why bird populations on Guam were dimishing. Amazingly, the results of the tests were mentioned on the exterior of the book. Anyway, I stuck with it as long as I could.

[just lori]

This was one of the most interesting books I have read in a while. The author follows the scientists who investigate what is causing the rapid decline of birds on Guam and the scientific process used by investigators to examine possible causes to reach an answer. The testing and proof of the developed hypothesis and the fieldwork was maybe 75% of the book, and then the attempts made to save species of birds from extinction filled out the rest. That probably sounds dry and boring, but it was FASCINATING to me. I actually came away with a new appreciation for zoos and their work on saving endangered species. I never realized the amount of details that go into breeding to ensure the genetic variance needed for long-term stability of a species. This book has so many elements of a good story - a mystery to solve, lone individuals battling the system, a race against time to save individuals (birds in this case), and an unknown future.

[Patrick Stirling]

Excellent book about the demise of *all* of Guam's native birds due to the brown tree snake, which hitched in on military planes during WW2. Reads like a detective story, nobody believed that one snake could wipe out multiple bird species in just a few decades, so they had to eliminate all other possibilities. My only niggle is that he keeps referring to the snake as poisonous - snakes are venomous! Ok, I'm anal about words, I admit it.

[Mark]

I really enjoyed this gentleman's wiring style. I thoroughly enjoyed the book!

[Chris]

Great book!