A Gap in Nature - Discovering the World's Extinct Animals

by Tim Flannery, Peter Schouten

"Since humanity first wandered from its African birthplace over fifty millennia ago, it has radically altered the environment everywhere it has settled, often at the cost of the creatures that ruled the wild before its arrival. As our prehistoric ancestors spread throughout the globe, they began the most deadly epoch the planet's fauna have experienced since the demise of the dinosaurs. And following the dawn of the age of exploration five hundred years ago, the rate of extinction has accelerated ever more rapidly." In A Gap in Nature, scientist and historian Tim Flannery, in collaboration with internationally acclaimed wildlife artist Peter Schouten, catalogues 103 creatures that have vanished from the face of the earth since Columbus first set foot in the New World. From the colorful Carolina parakeet to the gigantic Steller's sea cow, Flannery evocatively tells the story of each animal and its habitat, how it lived and how it succumbed to its terrible destiny. Accompanying every entry is a beautifully rendered color representation by Schouten, who has devoted years of his life to this project. His portraits - life size in their original form - are exquisitely reproduced in this extraordinary book and include animals from every American passenger pigeons, Tasmanian thylacines, Mauritian dodos, African bluebucks, and dozens more.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Animals, Nature, History, Natural History, Biology

208 pages, Hardcover

First published October 7, 2001

About the author

Tim Flannery is one of Australia's leading thinkers and writers.

An internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer and conservationist, he has published more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers and many books. His books include the landmark works The Future Eaters and The Weather Makers, which has been translated into more than 20 languages and in 2006 won the NSW Premiers Literary Prizes for Best Critical Writing and Book of the Year.

He received a Centenary of Federation Medal for his services to Australian science and in 2002 delivered the Australia Day address. In 2005 he was named Australian Humanist of the Year, and in 2007 honoured as Australian of the Year.

He spent a year teaching at Harvard, and is a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, a director of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, and the National Geographic Society's representative in Australasia. He serves on the board of WWF International (London and Gland) and on the sustainability advisory councils of Siemens (Munich) and Tata Power (Mumbai).

In 2007 he co-founded and was appointed Chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a coalition of community, business, and political leaders who came together to confront climate change.

Tim Flannery is currently Professor of Science at Maquarie University, Sydney.

Reviews

[Manybooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, I do very well and also totally understand and accept why (and also that) Tim Flannery's 2001 book A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals is not only interesting and enlightening (and with Peter Schouten's lushly colourful accompanying artwork providing a nicely appealing visual mirror to and for Flannery's easy to read and delightfully scientific jargon free featured text) but is also first and foremost quite massively depressing, since the subject matter of human caused animal extinctions is of course, is naturally hugely depressing, and indeed, if Tim Flannery were not to make his presented text for A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals upsetting and distressing, A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals would in my humble opinion be at best rather lacking in oh so many many ways (and would also of course be just wrong, wrong, wrong).

However and in my opinion, said negativity and criticism sadly tends to become a bit overbearingly all encompassing in A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals and the aura of textual sadness and pain so extreme that while reading Flannery's words, I actually almost end up feeling as though the earth itself as well as any and all conservation efforts are basically a lost cause anyhow and that we humans are so utterly vile, greedy and depraved that the only way to in fact help and safeguard life on earth, the only way to actually sufficiently protect our planet would be to get rid of us, to have all or at least most of humanity disappear (in other words to go extinct), as Tim Flannery certainly (at least in my humble opinion) seems to all too often with A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals insinuate rather strongly that anything humans do is potentially destructive and that there is nothing really to be done about and regarding this either. And while I do of course realise that the above is not likely Flannery's main intention with A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals, the all-round negative and depressing tone, the one-sided lack of hope regarding anything human based and that in my opinion, Tim Flannery seems pretty majorly into blaming and condemning Polynesians, Native Americans/Canadians and Australian Aborigines for primary animal extinctions and much more so than European settlers and explorers for secondary extinctions, yes, this does textually hugely bother me and to therefore only consider a three star rating for A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals (and to also think that my rating is actually considering my personal reading reaction to Tim Flannery's printed words pretty generous).

[Kerfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully illustrated survey of 103 mammals, birds, and reptiles that have gone extinct since the year 1500. Flannery and Schouten provide geographical and historical background, giving a better understanding of the earth's continuing and irrevocable losses.

Of course humans bear a large responsibility, and isolated ecosystems encountering humans and the other invasive species they bring with them are most vulnerable. There are many many species here that resided on islands.

People change and destroy environments to suit their needs. This can result in direct loss of habitat, or breaks in the food chain that lead to an indirect species decline. Ecosystems have many threads needed to keep them whole.

Animals are hunted for food, or fur and feathers, or by collectors, or those seeking trophies. Collectors, ironically, seem to have had a huge impact in some cases. But one of the biggest surprises to me was the role that rats escaping from docked ships have played in both the loss of other rodent species and even more often in the extinction of bird species. Of course other introduced species--foxes, cats, rabbits, weasels, snakes, owls, even cockroaches, have played a part in displacing native animals. But rats seem to have been the original and primary cause for many species' decline.

The loss to the world's diversity is stunning. By pairing the words with detailed illustrations based on known descriptions and collected samples of these creatures, the authors make this point strongly. And we can't bring these animals back. As both witness and teaching tool, this book will hopefully reach enough hands and eyes to help save what remains.

[John Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The introductory essay provides an overview of the phenomenon of human-caused extinction among wild animals. The author makes clear the point that this phenomenon has existed at least since Paleolithic times. As humans slowly expanded out of their original East African homelands, they brought extinction and death to species unable to adapt to this exotic new predator. In continental areas, losses were concentrated among large vertebrates, the so-called "charismatic megafauna" which excites people's imaginations. On islands, victims included smaller species such as flightless birds which had no defenses against humans or the pigs and rats they brought with them. Ironically, the part of the world least effected was Africa, probably because its wildlife had co-existed with humanity since the "naked apes" first had appeared, and therefore had time to adapt to the gradually increasing powers of humans.

By the time modern sailors and market hunters appeared, there often was nothing more than a remnant population to be extinguished. For example, Stellar's Sea Cow - the world's largest sirenian, essentially a manatee the size of a small whale - originally was common throughout the North Pacific on both the Siberian and Alaskan coasts. By the time modern hunters appeared, it was confined to a small group of islands off the coast of Alaska. The last Stellar's Sea Cow was killed in 1768, just 27 years after Georg Stellar identified the species.

Perhaps the most appalling extinctions were those of several species which met their final extermination at the hands of museum collectors eager to acquire a specimen before the species disappeared. If anyone in the nineteenth century should have known better, it was the patriarchs of the natural history museums.

(Although the book does not mention it, a still-extant species, the Northern Elephant Seal, almost met the same fate when a hunter seeking to fill orders from museums around the world arrived at Guadalupe Island, Mexico and shot seven of the eight members of what was believed to be the species' last surviving population. Fortunately, several other individuals survived elsewhere on the island, and with stringent protection the species rebounded to a population of over 50,000. Today, the species as a whole is safe, and individual seals are threatened only by the population of Great White Sharks which has taken up residence in the area.)

The reader then proceeds to the main portion of the book, which consists of natural history paintings of nearly 90 now-extinct species from around the world, together with a brief description of each species and how it became extinct. The selection necessarily is tilted toward species which became extinct during the past 125 years or so, and for which sufficient museum specimens and descriptions exist for the artist to determine what they looked like. Although not great art, these paintings are affecting for obvious reasons. Absent a Jurassic Park-style resurrection, no one will see any of them ever again.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will take you on an emotional roller coaster ride, from the delights of the pygmy silky anteater who is "fond of resting by day in canopy of the silk-cotton tree, and the seedpods of the tree, which consist of a ball of soft, silvery fibers, are scarcely distinguishable from a tightly curled silky anteater" (awww) to the HORRORS of the heck of nasty Indus river dolphin (NO EYES, big teeth-- yes, that's right, NO EYES, none at all on the entire head) and the super heck of nasty
Asian giant softshell turtle, "Those living in the Ganges feed on the human corpses that are thrown in the river-- and they thrive in grossly polluted rivers." Also, this turtle has a gross looking snout to look at.

The illustrations are magnificent, by the way.

Read it!

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I learned from this book is how little humans know about extinct animals. The book is decently well-written, and the author obviously worked to carefully research each animal, but often even the cause of extinction is unknown, much less anything about the animal's behavior or place in the ecosystem. Flannery often points out how naturists themselves often caused the final demise of a species, by killing so many animals for their collections, and how the exponential effects of the careless introduction of ship-hopping rats was particularly destructive to island birds. The real draw of this book, though, are the gorgeous illustrations by Peter Schouten, which resonate with much more life than something that was apparently painted from a museum specimen.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not really a book to read straight through, but this is a beautifully illustrated book of 103 different animals that have gone extinct sine 1492. Interesting, but most worth it for the illustrations.

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeously illustrated, well-balanced, document of natural life and human history. Made me a bit wobbly and salty-eyed.

[Tomislav D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Made me so sad. But the illustrations are wonderful!

[Steven Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very early favorite that represents the dawn of a period in my life when I could never find enough information of extinct animals. It wasn't the fact that they are all gone that had me enraptured, it was the stories, the lives, the worlds they lived in. To remember them is just one tiny step toward preserving species that are no more.

A Gap In Nature I've recommended to perhaps 100 people over the years. The illustrator is truly gifted, having made every painting of each species on par with the skill of Audubon & Gould. This book is one of the best for introducing yourself to the lives of extinct animals. Ultimately, it is not the goal of the book to focus the attention toward extinction itself, the book is far from depressing. That they are no more is only one element to their stories. It is that they lived & that is what should always be remembered.

A beautiful book.

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Astonishing paintings resurrect animals who no longer roam this Earth. (Where else can you learn about a creature called the "Terror Skink?") True, much of the content is depressing, especially when one considers how many species have died out thanks to utter human stupidity---the passenger pigeon comes to mind. It was a bit bothersome when the author projects fault for species extinction upon other animals, without clear evidence that this was indeed the case.

[Pauline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The art work in "A Gap in Nature" is stunning. As you look at the pictures of the extinct animals and as you read the stories of how they became extinct it is hard not to get tears welling up in your eyes.

A wonderful informative book that gives you a look at what our earth is sorely missing mostly through the ignorance of mankind.

[Laura Madsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful but depressing. Text by Tim Flannery and gorgeous paintings by Peter Schouten, describing extinct species, the vast majority of which extinctions were directly or indirectly caused by humans. The most depressing part is that the species featured are only:
1. mammal, reptile, or bird;
2. extinct between the years 1500-1999;
3. have sufficient museum study specimens to allow a detailed illustration.
That ignores hundreds-thousands-millions? of other species lost due to humans.

Peter Schouten also illustrated End of the Megafauna: The Fate of the World's Hugest, Fiercest, and Strangest Animals, which features earlier-but-probably-also-human-related extinctions like ground sloths and mammoths.

[Donovan Colegrove · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous pictures. The paintings were my favorite part of this book. Other than that, I found this book to be incredibly depressing. Basically, this book is an elegy to a bunch of species that no longer exist. I found that part of this book to be rather depressing. There's no happy ending to this book. But it is well written and interesting with great pictures, which is why I am giving it 5 stars.

[Bill Bennett · Rating 3 out of 5]

The illustrations were magnificent, the commentary not so much.

[Willow · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Extinction must be regarded over the vastness of evolutionary time as the fate of all species--as unavoidable as death and taxes."

This book was both beautiful and heartbreaking.

[Mike Parkes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This evocative and wonderfully illustrated book is a bestiary of recently extinct species.

The introduction lays down the ground rules: the species must be a bird, mammal or reptile that has gone extinct since 1500, it must be a full species (not a subspecies), widely accepted as extinct, and, crucially, the species must be sufficiently well known for an anatomically accurate drawing to be made. This book makes it clear how little we know about the wildlife lost in the last 500 years. Much of the information we have on the species presented in this book hangs on such slender threads, only a single observation and collection in some cases. Some of the lesser-known species shown in this book have not been illustrated or described for decades or even centuries. The full-page paintings of each species are fabulous.

Extinctions in the past 500 years are only the tip of the iceberg, as the big wave of extinction occurred in the previous 40 000 years, as humans (and their companions, notably rats, which have proven particularly disastrous for many species) spread across the globe, and many animals that had evolved without these predators were defenceless and could not adapt. As a measure of how much was lost, the book estimates that 1/5 of bird species (2000 out of 10 000) went extinct.

As a consequence, the 100 or so animals portrayed in this book that went extinct more recently tend to be those on remote islands, where humanity was a latecomer. Hawaii makes out particularly bad. The one exception to this rule is Australia, which, despite being a large landmass that had been settled for thousands of years, saw a large number of mammalian extinctions in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Unfortunately, as ably shown in David Quammen’s book “The Song of the Dodo”, most wildlife exists on “islands” now – islands of natural habitat, that is, in a sea of human-dominated landscapes. The small populations on such “islands” are more vulnerable to extinction risk from chance and random accidents than species with larger areas of habitat would be.

To those who may be scared away that this may be a gloomy read, Flannery’s comment about researching and writing this book applied equally well to my reading: {it} “may seem a soul-destroying task…but allowed me to glimpse, in my imagination at least, a tiny flicker of the wonder of this lost world.”

[Bill Leach · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reviews 103 animals that have been lost to extinction, providing a short description of each with what is known of their habits. The text is accompanied by some excellent paintings by Schouten, often from marginal sources, such as early illustrations and long preserved museum specimens. The book starts with early extinctions, some of very impressive animals such as the dodo and Stellars sea cow, and ends with the Atitlan Grebe of Guatemala that has last seen in 1989.

In the introduction, Flannery provides a general discussion on extinctions. It is clear that he firmly believes that all extinctions over the last 40,000 years have been caused by humans. The text shows that while humans have been directly responsible for some extinctions, such as that of the Passenger Pigeon, secondary effects due to changes to various ecosystems have resulted in extinction of animals adapted to them. The introduction of cats and rats has been equally important.

The book includes many interesting anecdotes such as the decision of David Lyall, the lighthouse keeper on Stephens Island (New Zealand), to have a cat which became responsible for the death of all Stephens Island Wrens. Lyall was the only person to have ever seen them and reported that they ran about like mice among the rocks of their island home.

Maclear's Rat of the Christmas Islands went extinct with the introduction of black rats, possibly due to the black rats carrying disease. Christmas Island is known for the abundance of red land crabs that engage in massive migrations on the island. As these were never mentioned by early settlers, it is speculated that perhaps Maclear's Rat had kept them in check.

[Kaushal Misra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got its reference from Bill Bryson's brilliant book, A Short History of Nearly Everything. The Authors have painstakingly demonstrated a tale of only a few of the species lost forever from planet earth in the last 150 years. Most were lost due to human action, or say havoc we caused either directly by eating, shooting, burning forests, clearing trees; or by introduction of cats, black rats, bacteria, viruses and because we never paid attention to bio diversity preservation despite being the lethal top predator with enough intelligence to comprehend. These have been brought back to life with scientific accuracy of the sketches that are based on museum artifacts, research, fossils and interviews.
Why should you care? A striking example is island of Guam where the extinction has caused so much damage that there is much less flora and fauna, the trees have disappeared due to lack of pollination, and life is dull where once it thrived so richly. A lesson we can learn to further aid current diversity initiatives and the fact the we owe are survival to other species as well, instead of regretting later.

[Kara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a very interesting book. Flannery explains in the introduction how he and illustrator Peter Schouten decided which animals to pick for this book. They had a list of criteria each had to meet to be included.

Without going into all the details, it's focus is birds, mammals, and reptiles that have gone extinct in the last 500 years.

I found it extremely interesting. The stories are sad but good lessons on the many ways (directly or not) that we can impact our fellow fauna of the world.

The illustrations are gorgeous, and there is one for every species covered.

Some people complain this is a depressing book and then gripe about who the author is pointing blame at. That isn't how I read it. It matter-of-factly states what proof is found regarding when different animals went extinct as well as the surmised reasoning behind it. Most species there are multiple factors to take into account. A few are more obvious.

[Kirti Vyas · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Lushly illustrated, profoundly poignant, and endlessly fascinating" claims the book cover, "at once a lament for the animals we have lost and an ark to house them forever in human memory." All of it is true. The writing is, however, very much like a text book and depressing as it reiterates how deforestation and human thoughtlessness/progress caused these beautiful creatures to disappear. The illustrations are simply marvelous but it is filled to the brim with examples such as these: Passenger Pigeons - "...in one hunting competition, the winner had to tally 30, 000 birds before the trophy was his" or the Carolina Parakeet - "The reason that so many birds fell at one shot in their peculiar habits, for they would fly around a wounded or dead companion, squawking and screeching until they too fell to the hunter"

[Jamieson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book that showcases extinct species that have gone extinct in modern times with the oldest being the Upland Moa (going extinct c. 1500) and the newest being the Atitlan Grebe (going extinct in 1989). Each species gets a beautiful painting and a page describing the creature and how it went extinct. In the back is a list of more extinct species that were left out because of either Taxonomic Uncertainty, Appearance Insufficiently Known (though two of these had specimens that were discovered as the book was going to print), or Extinction Not Certain. Most of the species are birds, though there a fair amount of mammals (mostly rodents and bats) and a handful of reptiles. A great book for the curious without being too technical or in-depth.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this wonderful picture book left me feeling contrasting emotions: (1) amazement with regard to all the biodiversity in our world, and (2) heartache with regard to the disappearance of so much of it. The illustrations for each extinct animal are beautiful; the half page explanations helpful while not being inundating. For many of the animals listed, I found myself looking up geographical locations or searching online for more information about the particular species. I would like to imagine that one day in a New Earth humanity could once again experience the uniqueness of these creatures without once again (in most cases) being an agent of their demise. A terrific read!

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested in the concept of this book, which was to create images and descriptions of extinct animals for future generations based off of specimens, journal entries, adventure logs, etc., and the artwork was really well done and very beautiful. However, reading about how the majority of the animals went extinct because of humans (and more often than you would think they were purposely made extinct for collections and such...what was wrong with people in the 1800's?) was more depressing than I anticipated. So 5 stars for the artwork and a lot less stars for the story of humanity.

[elstaffe]

I absolutely loved the art. I wish the text had more citations for some of the info, but it was well written and engaging. I could only read a few pages at a time not just because of my nonfiction-sleep association, but because it was a little heartbreaking. My biggest takeaways:
- rats will screw up an ecosystem so fast. Stop drydocking at islands, guys.
- outdoor cats have literally wiped out species. Stop it, non-mouser cat owners.

[Charlotte R.S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phenomenal illustrations. Took off a star because the author’s discussion of the megafaunal extinctions is flawed by an outdated hypothesis. The author also casts “invading” species in a very negative light, even though species turnovers not related to human interference are part of the natural system.

[Alexis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really lovely drawings and blurbs about each animal. I would have liked more information and more consistent information, but of course that isn't always possible with these obscure animals. Overall a beautiful book.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book disturbing because of the reality of the demise and destruction by humanity. It could easily be read as a horror, with its no nonsense, emotionless factual context.

[Oliver Holm · Rating 3 out of 5]

An impetus for misanthropy.

[Barbara · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is an amazing book...yet so sad to see all the birds and animals that no longer exist in this world.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

A list of animals (with beautiful drawings) that disappeared after encounters with humans (mostly) - 1 animal disappeared due to a volcano