Rat Island: Predators in Paradise and the World's Greatest Wildlife Rescue - Softcover

Stolzenburg, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408825112 ISBN 13: 9781408825112

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2011

Synopsis

Rat Island rises from the icy gray waters of the Bering Sea, a
mass of volcanic rock covered with tundra, midway between Alaska and
Siberia. Once a remote sanctuary for enormous flocks of seabirds, the
island gained a new name when shipwrecked rats colonized, savaging the
nesting birds by the thousands. Now, on this and hundreds of other
remote islands around the world, a massive - and massively
controversial - wildlife rescue mission is under way.

Islands,
making up just 3 percent of Earth's landmass, harbor more than half of
its endangered species. These fragile ecosystems, home to unique species
that evolved in peaceful isolation, have been catastrophically
disrupted by mainland predators: rats, cats, goats, and pigs ferried by
humans to islands around the globe. To save these endangered islanders,
academic ecologists have teamed up with professional hunters and
semiretired poachers in a radical act of conservation now bent on
annihilating the invaders. Sharpshooters are sniping at goat herds from
helicopters. Biological SWAT teams are blanketing mountainous isles with
rat poison. Rat Island reveals a little-known and much-debated side of today's conservation movement, founded on a cruel-to-be-kind philosophy.

Touring
exotic locales with a ragtag group of environmental fighters, William
Stolzenburg delivers both perilous adventure and intimate portraits of
human, beast, hero, and villain. And amid manifold threats to life on
Earth, he reveals a new reason to hope.

About this title

Product Description

279 pages. Book is in Very good condition throughout. This Reveals A Little-known But Highly Contentious New Tactic Of Today's Conservation Movement.

Review

'[Stolzenburg's] infectious enthusiasm should spark even in bug-wary urbanites a renewed appreciation for nature's complexity' (Time)

'Absorbing and delightful ... Not just an enriching story, but a new, clarifying lens through which to understand the world around us' (Thomas Hayden, Christian Science Monitor)

'In dazzling descriptions, Stolzenburg demonstrates how the delicate balance between predator and prey is so essential, and his book, rich in dramatic accounts of life and death in the wild, is powerful and compelling' (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

'Science writing at its best' (Edward O. Wilson)

Edition details

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 1408825112
• ISBN 13: 9781408825112
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 288