Page 87 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #05

REVIEWS BOOKS

Young
readers and expert knowledge. Garrod MEET THE AUTTHOR
uses stories from his life
alongside interviews with a
number of palaeontologists Richard
that can’t help but leave you
feeling inspired. Included are Cuthber
practical guides to fossil
hunting and quizzes to test The biologist shares his
So you think you know your knowledge, together three years in the field with
Hutton’s shearwater.
about Tyrannosaurus Rex/ with the latest dinosaur
Triceratops/Diplodocus? research ensuring that
By Ben Garrod everyone discovers something What’s the book about? and weather. Getting caught
Zephyr £6.99
new. These books will leave The conservation and in a storm on the ridgetops
How much do you think you you thirsting to know even natural history of Hutton’s is still a vivid memory.
know about dinosaurs? more about the incredible shearwater, a threatened
Prepare to have your history of life on Earth and seabird endemic to New What sort of daily tasks
dino-world turned upside are a perfect primer for kids Zealand, and my experiences did you carry out?
down as you’re taken on an to learn more about the of three years (1996–1999) Checking shearwater
incredible illustrated journey amazing ‘terrible lizards’. studying the species in burrows, radio-tracking
through time. Garrod writes Jonathan Tennant Palaeontologist the remote valleys of the stoats and dissecting
flawlessly with his own Kaikoura Mountains where their scats. We also had
unique blend of well-honed it breeds. The book also many long nights ringing
skill as a scientist as well as introduces the characters shearwaters as well as
the contagious curiosity and involved in the bird’s weighing chicks.
endless exploratory mindset discovery and protection.
usually reserved for
children. It feels like he’s What drew you to study GETTING
sitting right there with you, Hutton’s shearwater? ` CAUGHT
helping you to ask I’ve always loved natural
and answer all the right history, climbing and wild IN A STORM ON
questions, with a perfect places, and I wanted to THE RIDGETOPS
combination of humour study a species with real
conservation outcomes. IS STILL A VIVID
Hutton’s shearwater, being MEMORY.”
endangered and nesting in
the mountains, was perfect.
No one had studied the What did you discover?
bird to find out if it was It was thought that
still declining, or why it introduced stoats were
only bred in two remote the major threat to the
valleys when it used to be shearwaters, but I discovered
far more widespread. that the birds could
Orchid Summer Sloths: Life in the Slow Lane withstand their impact. It
By Jon Dunn By Rebecca Clife and What were the most was feral pigs that were
Bloomsbury £20 Suzi Eszterhas
Sloth Conservation Foundation £20 challenging aspects? the problem. Pigs are now
In this intoxicating blend of The weather was tough – hunted on the boundaries of
nature quest, cultural history Sloth expert Cliffe shatters the bitterly cold in early spring shearwater territory.
and science, author Jon Dunn misconceptions about sloths in when snow covered the
takes us through the landscape this charming eulogy to the ground, and baking hot How are the birds now?
of the orchid. We hear the whirr world’s slowest-moving in the summer when the The population was fairly
of meadow pipits and the mammals. Dispelling the sunlight reflected off the stable when I was there,
buzzing of solitary bees as we laziness myth that encumbers dark rocks and turned the but took a hit after the 2016
join his search to find these sloths, Cliffe celebrates the valley into an oven. Getting earthquake, with 10,000
exquisite, often elusive floral remarkable adaptations that into some of the nesting birds killed. Establishing
beauties. We travel with him to have granted these animals 63 areas and to the extinct more breeding colonies (in
discover the orchidaceous million years of evolutionary colonies also required addition to that created on
secrets we might one day be success. Her clear, jargon-free mountaineering skills and the Kaikoura Peninsula in
lucky enough to encounter, text heaves with ‘wow facts’. an ability to read the terrain 2005) will be vital.
if only we knew what to look When combined with
for. And with this wonderful Eszterhas’s gloriously intimate
manual we now have a much photography, the result is both O SEABIRDS BEYOND THE MOUNTAIN CREST reveals the
better chance. compelling and enchanting. history and natural history of Hutton’s shearwater.
Miriam Darlington Author James Lowen Nature writer (Otago University Press, NZD45): www.otago.ac.nz
Spring 2018 BBC Wildlife 87