Last Chance to See, Revisited

July 7, 2005

Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine wrote a book together called Last Chance to See which was an account of their traveling around the world in the mid-80s searching for greatly endangered species.
I’m a big Douglas Adams fan, I loved the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. Soon after finishing that I fell into the Dirk Gently books (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency and Long Dark Teatime of the Soul). When Adams died in 2001 I was more saddened by his death more than one would expect in reference to someone I didn’t know personally… I then tore through The Salmon of Doubt when it was released post-humously, finding myself in tears as the book ends suddenly about halfway through his final story. Anyway, Salmon turned me on to other works by Adams, Last Chance and the Liff books.

Adams’ humorous and engaging account drew me into thoughts of extinction and conservation leaving me more concerned about the state of our world’s wildlife than I ever intended. So, with this in mind I decided to research each of the near instinct animals they touch on in their adventures. Clearly a combined update was needed on the status of the animals they visited.

Aye-aye Lemur (Daubentonia Madagascariensis)
Aye-Aye
Status: Endangered - est 1000 to 10,000 (up from 12 in 1962)
Natural Habitat: Madagascar, island of Nosy Mangabe
Additional Resources:
ARKive
Wikipedia - Aye-aye
Animalinfo.org

Komodo Dragon (Varanus komodensis)
Komodo
Status: Vulnerable - est. 6,000
Natural Habitat: Lesser Sunda Islands in Indonesia, including the islands of Komodo, Rinca, Gili Motang and Flores
Additional Resources:
American Museum of Natural History
Wikipedia - Komodo Dragon
San Diego Zoo

Mountain Gorilla (Gorilla beringei beringei)
Mountain Gorilla
Status: Critically Endangered - 380
Natural Habitat: Virunga volcanic mountains of Central Africa
Additional Resources:
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International
Informatics International - Dian Fossey Fund info
Classroom of the Future
Wikipedia - Mountain Gorilla

Northern White Rhino (Ceratotherium simum cottoni)
Northern White Rhino
Status: Critically Endangered - 15 (down from 32 in 2003)
Natural Habitat: Garamba National Park, Democratic Republic of Congo
Additional Resources:
International Rhino Foundation
UNESCO Word Heritage Centre
San Diego Zoo
Wikipedia - White Rhinoceros
BBC News - White rhino numbers are ‘halved’

Kakapo (Strigops habroptilus)
Kakapo
Status: Critically Endangered - 86 (up from 51 in 1995)
Natural Habitat: New Zealand
Additional Resources:
Kakapo Recovery Programme
The Fabulous Kakapo
New Zealand Department of Conservation
Wikipedia - Kakapo

Chinese River Dolphin or Baiji Dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer)
Baiji Dolphin
Status: 7 in 1998 (down from 300 in 1986)
Natural Habitat: Yangtze River, China
Additional Resources:
China Internet Information Center - Recovery Effort
Whale Web
CETACEA
Wikipedia - Chinese River Dolphin

Rodrigues fruit-bats (Pteropus rodricensis)
Rodriguesfruitbat
Status: Endangered - est 1500-2000
Natural Habitat: island of Rodrigues (part of Mauritius) off the coast of Madagascar
Additional Resources:
Mauritian Wildlife Foundation
Philadelphia Zoo
Wild Ones Animal Index
Mauritius Island Online

There is more to talk about in reference to Mauritius(dodos, kestrels, pink pigeons, echo parakeets, etc) but I’ll these details until I can devote more space.

For a final note on Last Chance to See, there is a site devoted to the BBC Radio 4 broadcast of the account which is also worth checking out.

adams, adventures, africa, animal, animals, aye-aye, baiji dolphin, bats, book, books, china, conservation, dian fossey, dirk gently, dolphin, douglas adams, endangered, endangered species, exotic, extinction, fruit-bats, garamba national park, gorilla, habitat, indonesia, kakapo, komodo dragon, last chance to see, lemur, madagascar, mark carwardine, mauritius, mountain gorilla, nature, new zealand, republic of congo, rhino, rhinoceros, rodrigues, species, travel book, wildlife, zoo

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Posted by zbtirrell | Filed Under Fun Whatnot, My Stuff 


Comments

2 Responses to “Last Chance to See, Revisited”

  1. Gareth on July 29th, 2005 12:00 pm

    Nice post! I will be linking to it very soon from my blog Another Chance To See where I bring the stories of the Last Chance To See animals up-to-date with current news articles.

    Worth mentioning that the Kakapo is up to 87 after a successful breeding season, last I heard the Mountain Gorilla was up around the 800 area, and according to Mark Carwardine, the Baiji Dolpin is “probably already extinct”. The Northern White Rhino is in desperate trouble too, and will probably be extinct in the wild by the end of 2005.

  2. zbtirrell on July 29th, 2005 4:24 pm

    Thanks Gareth. The Baiji Dolphin was in pretty rough shape even when the book was written. I think the Northern White Rhino is the saddest story. It seemed like everything was going OK just 2 years ago. Populations were on an upswing, but that all changed so quickly…

    I looked around your site, great stuff, can’t wait to read more.

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