Review by Choice Review
Anthropologist Pálsson (emer., Univ. of Iceland) chronicles the unsuccessful Wooley-Newton 1858 expedition to find surviving great auks. The book's first half is set in Iceland, where unfavorable weather prevented the team's trip to Eldey, but afforded them the opportunity to interview many of the Icelanders who hunted great auks and reconstruct the final hunt, which yielded the last two known specimens. Great auks formerly nested on the North Temperate Atlantic coast. Historically, these birds were hunted for food. The book focuses on the final years of the species in its last known nesting place off Iceland. As they became rare, collectors paid high prices for specimens and eggs. Thus incentivized, expeditions brought back specimens until there were no more. Much of the book examines ornithologist Alfred Newton, who postulated the central role of human exploitation in bringing the great auk to extinction. This is now a familiar theme, which Pálsson labels "Newtonian extinction." The book's latter half deals with Newton's conservation efforts to slow the birds' march to extinction. Pálsson includes thoughtful discussions of evolutionary theory and speciation, along with a few illustrations. Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels. --Joanna Burger, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This bland history by Pálsson (Down to Earth), an anthropology professor emeritus at the University of Iceland, traces how British naturalists John Wolley and Alfred Newton's 1858 expedition to Iceland to study the great auk, a flightless aquatic bird that once thrived in the North Atlantic, revolutionized the scientific understanding of extinction. Drawing on Wolley's notebooks, Pálsson recounts the ornithologists' journey in excessive detail, covering their ride on a 20-passenger steamer from Scotland to Reykjavík, their lodging at a "two-story timber-framed" hotel called the Club, and the life story of the boat foreman whose crew rowed tumultuous waters searching for the bird on the naturalists' behalf. After Wolley and Newton's conversations with locals revealed that no great auks had been seen or caught in years, the scientists concluded the last of the great auks had likely been killed by hunters in 1844. This revelation led Newton to conclude that humans had caused the bird's extinction, a possibility previously thought impossible, and he became an outspoken environmentalist. Pálsson makes a persuasive case that Newton made a "vital contribution to the framing of our modern concept of extinction," but unfortunately, the dry, protracted telling of the largely uneventful 1858 expedition is more tedious than enlightening. This feels like a missed opportunity. Photos. (Feb.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An examination of the extinction of an iconic bird during the 19th century. Pálsson, emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Iceland and author of The Man Who Stole Himself, examines the human-caused extinction of the great auk. The author focuses largely on the 1858 expedition of ornithologists John Wolley and Alfred Newton, who traveled from Britain to Iceland with the goal of gathering specimens of the great auk, which was "reported to be in serious decline." As Pálsson notes, during the Victorian age, egg collecting was a popular hobby, and "obsessed collectors and scientists abroad" sought to fill their "cabinets of curiosities." At the time, no name existed for the loss of a species, as most people believed that "existing organisms could not vanish, and that new species could not appear." During the course of their expedition, Wolley kept detailed notebooks, known as the Gare-Fowl Books, which include interviews with locals and provide a real-time account of the extinction of the great auk. According to interviews and records, the "last successful trip" related to the great auk had been the infamous 1844 hunt. When Newton returned from the 1858 expedition, he concluded, "As to the extinction of the Great Auk, if it is extinct, I think it has been mainly accomplished by human means." Pálsson demonstrates that Newton's greatest achievement was establishing a clear distinction between unavoidable natural extinction, as theorized by Darwin, and "avertible extinction due to human agency," which paved the way for animal protection measures. For his contributions, Pálsson contends that Newton deserves a place alongside other pioneering environmentalists. Despite its disturbing revelations, this well-written and researched narrative will appeal to scholars and armchair naturalists alike. Both haunting and disheartening, this is an accessible look at a signal species in the history of human-caused extinctions. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
