The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain's Lost Mammals - Hardcover

Barnett, Ross

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1472957342 ISBN 13: 9781472957344

Publisher: Bloomsbury Wildlife, 2019

Britain was a very different place 15,000 years ago - home to lions, lynx, bears, wolves, bison and many more megafauna. But as its climate changed and human populations expanded, most of early Britain's largest mammals disappeared. Will advances in science and technology mean that we can one day bring these mammals back? And should we?

In The Missing Lynx, palaeontologist Ross Barnett uses case studies, new fossil discoveries and biomolecular evidence to paint a picture of these lost species and to explore the ecological significance of their disappearance. He discusses how the Britons these animals shared their lives with might have viewed them and investigates why some species survived while others vanished.

Barnett also looks in detail at the realistic potential of reintroductions, rewilding and even of resurrection in Britain and overseas, from the successful return of beavers in Argyll to the revolutionary Pleistocene Park in Siberia, which has already seen progress in the revival of 'mammoth steppe' grassland.

As widespread habitat destruction, climate change and an ever-growing human population lead us inexorably towards the sixth extinction, this timely book explores the spaces that extinction has left unfilled. And by helping us to understand why some of our most charismatic animals are gone, Ross Barnett encourages us to look to a brighter future, one that might see these missing beasts returned to the land on which they once lived and died.

Review:

As elegies go, The Missing Lynx is an awful lot of fun. (Tom Chivers The Times 2019-07-13)

Rewilding is certainly romantic but is it practical or even desirable? It all needs thinking through, and Barnett, who makes a compelling case in favour of the idea, can help. (Stuart Blackman BBC Wildlife 2019-08-01)

Barnett's writing is clear and unobtrusively witty ... And the book is full of cheery, Terry Pratchett-esque footnotes. (Tom Chivers The Times 2019-07-13)

Fresh and assured ... An often moving tribute to lost marvels. (Barbara Kiser Nature 2019-07-18)

His writing is full of admiration for the resourcefulness of Palaeolithic tribespeople - his descriptions of an Ice Age economy that ran on mammoths, and of the mammoth hunts themselves, are evocative. (Tom Chivers The Times 2019-07-13)

A wonderful and haunting book: so rich in detail that the mammals of Britain's past seem brought to life again, and yet so unflinching in its portrayal of the brute facts of extinction that readers will ache for all that has been lost. (Tom Holland, author and historian)

With his fast-paced and amusing tales of some of the most awe-inspiring species lost within geologically recent times, The Missing Lynx brings Britain's Ice Age back to life. (Professor Beth Shapiro, author of How to Clone a Mammoth)

A fascinating account of the large herbivores and predators that have disappeared from Britain since humans reached our islands. This should be essential reading for those who advocate rewilding. (Professor Richard Fortey, palaeontologist and author)

The story of Britain's Ice Age bestiary, told with bittersweet humour, and a clarion call to us all to step up and fight future extinctions. (Dr Victoria Herridge, evolutionary biologist and presenter)

Barnett's writing is clear and accessible, and often amusing. (Megan Shersby BBC Wildlife 2019-10-01)

Book Description:

The story of the magnificent megafauna we've lost in Britain, why it has disappeared, what happened as a result and how we might realistically turn the ecological tide

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Wildlife
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1472957342
• ISBN 13: 9781472957344
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352