The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions by David Quammen

Author:David Quammen
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Tags: Science
ISBN: 9781439124963
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1996-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

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THESE CASES from Tasmania, Guam, Mauritius, and Hawaii are only a sample. Dozens more species, subspecies, and genetically discrete populations could be mentioned, all native to islands, all lost within recent centuries.

On New Zealand, the laughing owl is extinct. So are the New Zealand quail, the North Island bush wren, and the New Zealand grayling. On Jamaica, two species of macaw as well as the Jamaican iguana are extinct. On Cuba, three species of rodent and two species of nesophont (primitive shrewlike insectivores unique to the Caribbean) have disappeared. So has the Cuban yellow bat. Christmas Island, southwest of Java, no longer harbors the bulldog rat or Captain Maclear’s rat or the Christmas Island musk shrew, all three of which were endemic. The Falkland Islands once supported a species of canid called the warrah, otherwise known as the Antarctic wolf; Charles Darwin, stopping there with the Beagle in 1833, took a few specimens for his collection. The warrah, with a nudge from Darwin, is now extinct.

The Japanese wolf is extinct. The Tasmanian emu is extinct. Two species of Puerto Rican agouti are extinct.

The Mascarene Islands have lost at least fourteen bird species within the past three centuries—as many as the combined losses throughout the Asian, African, and North American mainlands in the same span of time. The West Indies have lost thirty-five mammals—more than the combined losses throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe. Hawaii alone has lost more bird species than were lost from all the continents on Earth. Compared to the roster of historically recent extinctions from the world’s islands, the roster from the mainlands has been strikingly small.

On Samoa, the Samoan wood rail is extinct. On Macquarie Island, the Macquarie Island parakeet. On Tristan da Cunha, the Tristan gallinule. On the Cape Verde Islands, the Cape Verde giant skink. On Wake Island, the Wake Island rail. On Guadalupe Island, the Guadalupe flicker. On Sao Thomé, the Sâo Thomé grosbeak. On Auckland Island, the Auckland Island merganser. On Iwo Jima, the Iwo Jima rail. On the Ryukyu Islands, the Ryukyu kingfisher. On Lord Howe, a small Pacific island with a big share of endemism, the Lord Howe Island pigeon is extinct, as are the Lord Howe Island white-eye, the Lord Howe Island fantail, and the Lord Howe Island flycatcher. On Réunion, not far from Mauritius, a whole passel of endemic birds are extinct. On Hispaniola, a whole passel of mammals. On the Society Islands, the so-called mysterious starling, no less mysterious now that it’s gone. On the islands of the northern Atlantic, between Norway and Newfoundland, the great auk. On Stephens Island, the Stephens Island wren.

Stephens Island is a dot of land between the North Island and the South Island of New Zealand, and the extinction of this endemic wren, Xenicus lyalli, is just one more instance among many, tiny in its own scope but emblematic. The bird was a small thing with short wings and almost no tail, either totally flightless or nearly so. It made its living by skulking among rocks and feeding on insects.

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