Gone: A search for what remains of the world's extinct creatures

5 "gorgeous, impactful, whimsical" stars !!<br><br><b>2021 Honorable Mention with High Distinction Read</b><br><br> I want to thank Netgalley, the author and Leaping Hare Press for an e-copy. The book is to be released in April 2021. I have provided my honest review.<br> <br> I wish I could go for a walk and talk with Mr. Blencowe. He is not some foreign speaking scientist or rabid environmentalist. He is a reflective, humorous and intelligent amateur naturalist that cares deeply for our earth and is also highly aware of our destructive human nature.<br><br> Mr. Blencowe has written a delightful and thought provoking book of his own explorations of eleven extinct species that includes birds, mammals, butterflies and sea life. He visits museums, talks with curators and scientists and visits the creature's last know natural habitats. He tells us of the creature's discovery, what we know of their precious lives and how humankind (often through greed) has obliterated the species forever. Mr. Blencowe does not rant and rave, however, he tries to understand what happens through a historical lens and the mores and thinking of the day.<br><br> Throughout the chapters what becomes more and more clear is his utter humility, love and wonder for all of the earth and our current animal, bird, plant, bird and plant brethren through climate change and human destruction are also endangered by the overtaking of earth by homo sapiens. Despite the harsh facts, Mr. Blencowe offers the reader hope and practical steps that one can take to make a difference to our most beautiful earth and all of her lovely and varied creatures.<br><br>Here is a photograph of Schomburgk's Deer, an extinct mammal of Thailand that is one of the species described in the book.<br><br> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1616157207i/31038181.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy">

<a href="https://readasaurus.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow noopener"> <img src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1459070464i/18565492.jpg" class="gr-hostedUserImg" loading="lazy"> </a><br><a href="https://www.instagram.com/alwaysbeebooked/" rel="nofollow noopener">Instagram</a> || <a href="https://twitter.com/NeniaCampbell" rel="nofollow noopener">Twitter</a> || <a href="https://www.facebook.com/aficionenias/" rel="nofollow noopener">Facebook</a> || <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nenia-Campbell/e/B00AWVRKMS" rel="nofollow noopener">Amazon</a> || <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/mightbeamisprin/" rel="nofollow noopener">Pinterest</a><br><br><br>I enjoy reading trash as much as the next person but I do have a degree in the (social) sciences and I actually <i>love </i>biology, so whenever I can get my hands on books about botany, biology, psychology, or the natural world, I start to get grabby. Looking at the other reviews for GONE, I wasn't really prepared for what it was going to be about. I thought it was going to be about animals that were <i>thought </i>to have been extinct but weren't (such as the frilled shark or the coelacanth), or about weird animals that have been extinct for years that are really cool looking (like eohippus or the smilodon). Instead, the focus of this book was mostly about recent extinctions and features some pretty graphic descriptions of animal cruelty. What happened to the great auk and the huia were particularly upsetting.<br><br><br><br>GONE focuses on several creatures recently lost to history-- great auk, spectacled cormorant, Steller's sea cow, upland moa, huia, South Island kokako, Xerces blue, Pinta Island tortoise, dodo, Schomburgk's deer, and Ivell's sea anemone. Each chapter features beautiful full color illustrations of what the animals would have or were thought to have looked like in life, a description of their behavior and habitat, and, when known, the means of their destruction (usually human beings). Every animal gets its own chapter.<br><br><br><br>The tone of this book is, as others have pointed out, strange. Blencowe definitely adopts an elegiac air for these stories that shrouds them in gravitas, but there are odd notes of humor (that aren't disrespectful, just sort of read as the author trying to keep things from getting too dark). At times it reads like a travelogue because he is physically going to all of these animals' stomping grounds or to the museums that house their remains, and there are even moments where the narrative can feel almost whimsical. There's an incredibly darkly funny passage in here about a scientist who was so consumed with hatred over one of his rivals that he kept a <i>piece of his spine on display </i>after his death. I mean, that's just purely ridiculous. But then there are the really sad passages about animal deaths that are hard to read, and I think would be very upsetting for the animal lovers who might be tempted to pick this up.<br><br><br><br>I think if you really enjoy natural history and are okay with the darker side that sometimes accompanies scientific curiosity left unchecked (if presented as a cautionary tale), you may find this book interesting. I learned a lot and found parts of it fascinating and I loved the illustrations, but I would not read it again.<br><br><br><br><i>Thanks to the publisher for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review!</i><br><br><br><br>4 stars

Gone: A Search For What Remains of the World's Extinct Creatures is a fascinating, beautifully written and profoundly moving love letter to those species who have sadly given up the ghost in the past few centuries by passionate nature enthusiast Michael Blencowe who lives in Sussex where he works and volunteers for several local wildlife conservation charities. For the past ten years, he has been inspiring people to take action for nature through his writing and by leading wildlife events, delivering talks and putting hawk-moths on children's noses. This book is a thought-provoking and damning indictment on the harsh and devastating impact we as humans and massive polluters are having on the natural beings inhabiting earth alongside us. Not only is it incredibly informative and interesting as Blencowe discusses 11 creatures that have died out but each entry is lovingly adorned with complementary illustrations by Jade They, which bring each individual creature vividly alive, if, sadly, only for a few fleeting moments on the page. <br /><br />On our poignant armchair travels, Blencowe charts the discovery of each creature, gives intriguing background on its habits and lifespan before mapping its unfortunate road to extinction. At a mere 192 pages, this is a fairly compact and concise book yet it holds the power of a tome many times its size within its pages. The conversational, accessible and expertly informed prose makes this a joy to read despite of the dour subject matter, but I feel there needs to be more awareness in terms of the damage we as humans are doing to ecosystems and habitats all around the world else we are doomed to repeat history, and our costly mistakes, once again. A charming and thoroughly entertaining read with a hopeful message at its core and an eye-opening sadness when forced to look at and read about species that we will never see the likes of again. I cannot recommend this enough for those interested in nature, ecology and conservation and/or the future of our many awe-inspiring creatures. Highly recommended.

Wow! This was one hell of a book, absolutely fascinating. Blencowe shares his life long obsession of extinct animals with us and takes us with him around the world as he checks out the last places these animals were seen….and has a go at trying to spot one of the animals pretending to be extinct and claim the prize money for discovering it. The big names are here, Pinta Island Tortoise, The Great Auk and of course the mighty Dodo, also included are lesser known species, The Spectacled Cormorant, the beautiful Xerces Blue butterfly and my favourite the Huia. I first heard about the Huia in the movie Hunt for the Wilderpeople and it sent me on a google trip researching the bird, it was great to see the movie get a mention here.<br /><br />One thing that this book shows is the human’s appetite for killing and the lack of care of other species, I knew that the Victorians would eat anything and wiped out whole groups of animals, what I didn’t know was just how brutal they were, the treatment of the Steller’s Sea Cow was horrible, so unnecessarily cruel and wasteful. Blencowe describes how other species have been wiped due to habitat lose, some just don’t stand a chance and whilst there is some hope as people become aware of what we are losing I don’t think it is enough as the decision makers don’t seem to care, the HS2 line in the UK is a good example of so much destruction so that people can get somewhere a little bit quicker. The subject matter is very dark, it could make the reader rather depressed, I certainly felt low at some points, luckily Blencowe brings his wonderful sense of humour and childlike wonder to his writing, who hasn’t as a grownup got distracted and had an ice cream melt all down their hand, Blencowe shares this with us and you can’t help sitting there with a massive grin on your face. One last interesting bit from the book is in the conclusion, in the making of this book Blencowe has travelled the world and he comes to terms with his impact on the environment, a nice little touch.<br /><br /><br />The book is full of wonderful little illustrations by Jade They which really do bring the animals to life, these illustrations mixed with Blencowe’s writing make this a stunning little book that I have thoroughly enjoyed.<br /><br />Blog Review: <a target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" href="https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2021/02/26/gone-a-search-for-what-remains-of-the-worlds-extinct-creatures-by-michael-blencowe/">https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2021...</a>

Remember when you use to be obsessed with that one thing when you were a child? Dinosaurs? Egyptology? Greek gods? Now, imagine that you never stopped having the same wonder for them as an adult. That's Michael Blencowe and his awe and fervor level for extinct creatures. He idolizes extinct animals and personalities related to them like other people idolize movie stars or rock stars. <br /><br />Michael grew up and traveled the world looking for what remains of the extinct creatures he's obsessed over most in his life and only seen in books. He visits natural history museums that have bones or stuffed bodies of extinct creatures, visits the last place extinct creatures once lived, and even goes searching for the animals themselves in places they were rumored to have last been seen alive. <br /><br />The creatures featured in this book include several birds: the great auk, spectacled comorant, upland moa, huia, South Island kokako, and the dodo. Featured mammals include Steller's sea cow, and Schomburgk's deer. He also talks about the Xerces blue butterfly, Pinta Island tortoise, and Ivell's sea anemone. <br /><br />I have to admit that the only one I'd heard of before was the dodo. But it turns out that I once owned what I'm pretty sure was a Xerces blue butterfly collection I picked up in an antique store. I had no idea it was a collection of extinct butterfly wings arranged artfully behind glass on an Art Deco tray. When people were catching these beautiful bluish-brownish-purplish-rainbowish butterflies on a beach in San Francisco to add to their collections or turn into art, they had no idea that the butterflies on that beach were the only ones anywhere in the world. And when their habitat disappeared from urban development in the 1940s, so did the butterflies. I truly regret accidentally leaving my Xerces blue butterfly serving tray behind when I left my ex. It feels like I dishonored their extinction by not treasuring them forever. <br /><br />If there's any theme to the stories of the extinct animals in this book, it's one of collectors and hunters not fathoming the idea the animal they were killing could go extinct. Find a bird with nice feathers or an animal with great fur? Kill as many as possible. Find a big animal that's tasty? Let the slaughter begin. Find a new animal? Kill as many as possible so that collectors can have them. <br /><br />The late 1700s was the first time the concept of extinction was even introduced in the scientific world. Before then, the world seemed big enough that perhaps that one we haven't seen for a long time might be hiding somewhere. They all should have hidden better. Humans even kill their own species in wars that claim millions. <br /><br />One thing that really strikes me is that I didn't know about most of the extinct animals in this book. They're gone and only extinction-animal-obsessed people like this author remember them. We might see such animals in a natural history museum, but most of us then forget about them and go on with our lives. I'm not sure what I can do as an individual other than plant flowers and trees to attract and feed the animals that are still with us. But I think perhaps remembering the animals that are already gone and their stories is something important, too.

Have you ever cried reading a non-fiction book that isn't a memoir? There were tears while I was reading this one, such a devastating book. But written in such a lovely, informative way, full of dispair and british humour. <br />Mankind has committed many crimes and attrocities, and not even the tiniest of creatures were able to escape... <br />Shame on us for not caring enough, shame on us for turning a blind eye to all the sorrow and pain we've inflicted and keep on inflicting on other living beings. Shame on us. For everything we've done, everything we'll do, and everything we won't...

At the moment scientists think that we are in the midst of the sixth extinction. The attrition rate of what used to be common species is just shocking and whilst we know some of the headline species that are at a critical level, such as Javan rhinoceros and Snow Leopards, there are bound to be a lot of other species that we have no idea about that are at a similar critical level.<br /><br />As morbid as it sounds, Michael Blencowe has had a fascination with extinct creatures since childhood. That fascination has fully developed into an obsession, the result of which is this book. He travels around the world in search of the remnants of some of his favourite long-gone creatures with the hope of seeing or maybe even getting to touch some of these animals that are sadly no longer with us.<br /><br />There are eleven animals in this book that he is looking for and he will head to San Francisco, Finland and New Zealand to search for the last traces of these magnificent animals. His first creature, though is more local, the Great Auk. These used to live in the UK and could be found on the various tiny islands scattered across the North Atlantic seaboard, but he was heading to Lundy to see where a vicar had been given an enormous egg by an islander. These huge birds were not able to fly, rather they were more like the penguins in the Southern Hemisphere and almost exclusively aquatic creature, By 1830 there was just one island left with these magnificent birds on and ironically their rarity made them more valuable. Soon they were all gone. And we had killed every last one.<br /><br />There are still remains though, these are tucked away in museums where he heads to see the last example of this species. Another bird that suffered at the hands of greedy collectors was the Spectacled Cormorant. This was gone by 1852, and it was only after this that it was discovered that it had a much wider range than just the Bearing Sea. Not quite as beautiful though, is the Steller’s Sea Cow which is a dugong, with skin as furrowed as oak bark and weighing ten tonnes. These huge animals were first spotted after the naturalist, Stellar has spotted them in the sea on the island they were shipwrecked on. It wouldn’t be long before they were no more too.<br /><br />Even though it is a grim subject, I thought that Blencowe has written a really nice book. He is a lyrical writer and at times his prose is quite funny. This is a well-researched book. On top of that, he is passionate about his long-gone subjects, deftly mixing in his current travels with the historical context of how these animals disappeared. It is a warning shot across the bows too, a reminder that we are responsible for a lot of these extinctions at the moment and it will only get better if we change our habits and practices and see that the entire biosphere is interlinked and that our actions will have dramatic consequences. I thought that the artworks in the book by artist, Jade They are just beautiful. Definitely worth reading too.

4.5 stars.<br /><br />A wonderful armchair trip around the world to see what remains of a select few recently extinct creatures. Blencowe’s combination of memoir, travelogue, and natural history was quite enjoyable to dip in and out of between other read.<br /><br />Blencowe takes us around the world, searching out some of the museums that house some of the last remains of eleven extinct animals, while also following guides into the wilderness’ that the last of the critters inhabited. He intersperses his nostalgia tripping with a brief but highly informative history of the critters discovery and subsequent (and typically very quick) decline, almost all at the hands of humans.<br /><br />The introduction starts off with Blencowe saying how he’s been fascinated with extinct animals since he was a little kid, and has had a strange feeling of nostalgia towards the animals, wishing he could have seen them, or just lived in a world where he knew they existed. And I completely related to his sentiments–dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures were my favorites, but there was still always something absolutely hauntingly fascinating when learning about recently extinct animals, like dodos, thylacines, and auks. Needless to say, I not only found this an interesting and informative book, but also deeply relatable, and I understood the odd haunting nostalgia for these critters that, had they survived another 100-150 years, we would have had memories of them in our families, or even been able to see them ourselves. But instead, we must search the world just as far in order to find their last habitats, and their last remains housed in museums.<br /><br />The main reason for rounding down my 4.5 stars is because I would have loved to read about more than just 11 animals, and to have a more geographically diverse mix of them (England, New Zealand, and the Bering Strait are where most of the museum and habitat hopping takes place). I did VERY MUCH appreciate Blencowe’s bibliography and museum list at the end, in which he includes the exact books from his childhood that he mentioned in the introduction. As a stickler for sources, and someone who has a fondness for old nonfiction kids books, I loved seeing him include these as resources.<br /><br />Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy to review!<br /><br />(Cross posted on <a href="https://nostalgiareader.wordpress.com/2021/04/20/review-gone/" rel="nofollow noopener">my blog</a>.)

This short and poignant book takes the reader on a strange trip around the world, to mostly remote places of times gone by. The author visits places where some iconic species used to live. Sadly, these species are now extinct. Unfortunately, the list of species is much, much longer, but understandable it would be impossible to follow up on every single extinct species. <br /><br />This is an insightful and readable book about natural history, the human impact on nature, and how we are all connected by nature. i highly recommend everyone to read this book to get a better understanding of the aforementioned things. The book brought these dead creatures alive in my mind, and I think that is one of the greatest appraises to an author of a book like this. Blencowe brought some species back from the beyond, even though it only lasted for a short time, and in my mind.

I wish this were longer so Blencowe could enthusiastically tell me the stories of even more extinct creatures. The idea that people once thought, not only that it wasn’t possible for humans to eliminate entire species, but that the very suggestion was blasphemous feels sadly similar to many people’s attitudes towards climate change..