The Kingdom of Rarities by Eric Dinerstein, lead scientist of the World Wildlife Fund, is his exotic nature exploration travelogue
cum wildlife preservation exhortation
cum ecological primer, free courtesy of publisher Island Press' Shearwater imprint, who've given us a couple of nice climate/ecology-oriented science freebies in the past and are giving us a few more this week.
This is really very nifty (even niftier than the other Island Press freebie I just posted, which is also really nifty, though somewhat drier), and entertaining as well as educational, with interesting travel stories and accessible explanations as to the nature of it all, presented in a very friendly and readable fashion which has garnered quite a lot of praise in the editorial reviews from both specialty science-oriented and general audience news outlets.
Reminds me a bit of Douglas Adams & Mark Carwardine's
Last Chance To See (
Wikipedia), which is one of my favourite such nature travelogue
cum why it's important to preserve these pieces of nature so we can keep traveling to see them books (which I highly recommend), albeit naturally this one seems less witty and engaging than Adams, of course. But still really neat from the skim and I look forward to reading it in full when I have the time to give it proper attention.
Currently free @
B&N (also
UK) &
Amazon (available to Canadians & in the
UK). Hopefully it'll show up at
iTunes &
Kobo (linked for your price-drop check convenience) as other Island Press freebies have done in the past.
ETA: now also free @ iTunes & Kobo &
Google Play (all available to Canadians).
And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.
Because I love getting quasi-academic titles, especially for science and cultural stuff, and I love travelogues, and I love educational stuff, so this is like a hat trick of win and awesome, all in one really nice edutainment freebie offering, which is also on a rather important topic, so hopefully lots of people will benefit and learn from this as well.
(And this one's not a Topaz, which are always annoying to try reading and never do footnotes or TOC properly, so
)
Enjoy!
Description
When you look out your window, why are you so much more likely to see a robin or a sparrow than a Kirtland's warbler or a California condor? Why are some animals naturally rare and others so abundant? The quest to find and study seldom-seen jaguars and flamboyant Andean cocks-of-the-rock is as alluring to naturalists as it is vitally important to science.
From the Himalayan slopes of Bhutan to the most isolated mountain ranges of New Guinea, The Kingdom of Rarities takes us to some of the least-traveled places on the planet to catch a glimpse of these unique animals and many others. As he shares stories of these species, Eric Dinerstein gives readers a deep appreciation of their ecological importance and the urgency of protecting all types of life — the uncommon and abundant alike.
An eye-opening tour of the rare and exotic, The Kingdom of Rarities offers us a new understanding of the natural world, one that places rarity at the center of conservation biology. Looking at real-time threats to biodiversity, from climate change to habitat fragmentation, and drawing on his long and distinguished scientific career, Dinerstein offers readers fresh insights into fascinating questions about the science of rarity and unforgettable experiences from the field.