The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction

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)

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.

Mr. Quammen's treatise is a masterwork for the layman or budding scientist in the field of biogeography, evolution, extinction and speciation...a must read and the author can only be lauded for his diligence, research and love of his topic. On the other hand, I do feel that the text bogs down at times (for pages) with too much scientific jargon and/or extraneous anecdotes (the silly mugging incident in Rio, for example) nor is it as fluid as are the books of other popular nature writes, such as Loren Eisley, Peter Mattiissen, Barry Lopez and some others. Still...a book to be read from cover to cover.

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.

This is the only book that I ever finished and promptly turned back to page 1 to re-read immediately. Quammen weaves together a seamless tale of extinction, island biogeography, and the story of Alfred Russell Wallace, who was the co-discoverer of the theory of natural selection but has largely been forgotten or ignored in favor of Darwin. I recommend it to anyone interested in any of those three topics, but also to anyone concerned or interested in the modern issue of maintaining biodiversity in the face of a growing human population. Quammen is a gifted writer, and can convey complex ideas and summarize themes better than anyone in the business of science writing. I actually know some of the people and events in the book, and he gets it right. And not only is it informative, but fun to read because woven into it all of it are his personal narratives of journeys to the places where the great discoveries of the 19th century were made. A must have book for anyone studying biology or even interested in it.

So yes, this book is pretty old now. But it's science history so it's only missing where the science of biogeography has gone since the late 90's. For me, a 70+ person trying to catch up with all that's happened in biology since I was in college, it's perfect. I love Quammen's ability to convey complex information and stories with simple language and lucid explanations. He is able to cut to the chase without losing what makes the chase worth it. He has a great sense of humor though I do find I groan now and then, but fair enough. He keeps me reading and thus much better informed that otherwise. He's a great story teller and great interpreter of science for those of us without the background.

This is a dense book that takes a lot of attention, but it's well worth the effort. Quammen writes in a surprisingly breezy style for what is, in the end, a scholarly book. He talks about Darwin and Wallace and others and examines both how species originate and die off, with particular attention to the biology of islands. I'm still working my way through it, but it is engrossing, and, by the way, although I often read books on line, it's a book like this that reinforces the value of print, as I go back and forth to re-read some previous passage that sheds light on a new idea and mark pages that I want to come back to. Again, it's a heavy (both literally and figuratively) book, but I recommend it highly.

Several months ago a friend gave me a copy of David Quammen's more recent book, Spillover, a book impressive enough that I sought out other books by the author. Spillover, about the origins of many human diseases in non-human hosts, was a fine read. This one is superb. Quammen's mixture of derring-do, scientific acumen, and ability to convey difficult ideas in accessible and amusing language is on full display here. Starting and ending with the story and work of Alfred Russel Wallace, Quammen explains island biogeography and its implications for a planet increasingly carved up into isolated islands of remnant habitat. He invokes the expertise of our best living scientists and native guides, he travels the planet to seek rare creatures and determined naturalists. He gets mugged in Rio, climbs vines up sheer cliffs in Madagascar, attends scientific conferences and takes a slow boat to Aru. If you liked The Sixth Extinction, you will love The Song of the Dodo. And, then, quite possibly, you will cry for the apparent fate of this lovely world we sapient hominids seem bent on destroying.

Quammen pursuits a story with a vast amount of reading, interviews, historical documents and its trademark, original, enjoyable style. This book is an opening to island biogeography. It seems not too much, but there is a lot of adventurous characters that made it possible to understand why species evolve and how. One was the guy who understood it just a bit before Darwin did.

Das Erstwerk von David Quammen (inzwischen mehrfachst ausgezeichnet, regelmäßig auch im National Geographic zu finden) ist sozusagen "Pflichtlektüre" für biologisch/evolutiv Interessierte. Auch Profis des Themas finden im exzellent geschriebenen Werk sicherlich neue Quellenangaben für weitere Literatur...

Intense, but sublime. It might be not everyone's cup of tea as is very detailed and soundly scientific. But as a compendium of works on the history of biogeography I cannot imagine a better written text. It will stay with me for long and will be revisited very often.

Amazing read, but very long!

Iam still astonished at the amazing items that are constantly being brought to me and begging to be followed through. I am about to approach the various libraries to borrow t some of the books referred to but they may well be out of print.. The whole experience has been wonderful and I'm only on page 358 !!! In one sense I am glad that the Dodo became extinct !!