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| Last Chance to See | 
| Authors: Douglas Adams, Mark Carwardine
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $3.93
You Save: $11.02 (74%)
New (41) from $8.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  177 reviews
Sales Rank: 15941
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.5
ISBN: 0345371984
Dewey Decimal Number: 591.529
EAN: 9780345371980
ASIN: 0345371984
Publication Date: October 13, 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Goodbye, Baiji Dolphin December 14, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I just finished reading this book last night. As I went to sleep I thought, "I should really check up on these animals tomorrow and see how they are doing." Today they announce that the Baiji Dolphin is functionally extinct. I'm too sick for words.
It's a wonderful book, probably my favorite of Douglas Adams' collection.
Loveliest book I have ever read. October 30, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book brings together two of my favorite things - conservation of the natural world and Douglas Adams. It is easy to read. It is magnificent in scope and context. I read it when I was a child and then again as an adult, and it was just as beautiful both times. The bit about venomous creatures and the guy's wife is a joke I tell to other people. It has a dusty, delicious feel to it, the perspective of an outsider in the world of scientists, who nonetheless sees things with equal love and fascination (albeit with a different perspective). One of my favorites of all time. I will read this to my children if I ever have any.
Real Science from a Sci-Fi Humorist August 9, 2006
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
A book about nature could be boring, but Douglas Adams writes with a humorous, and sometimes touching, attitude.
Don't blink! July 16, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Somewhere in the depths of its vast corporate wisdom, the Guardian/Observer news organisation found a pearl of good sense. The pearl hatched a precious jewel of an idea. Send Douglas Adams, creator of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, accompanied by zoologist Mark Carwadine, to seek out some of the Earth's disappearing species. His account is classic Adams, with vivid description, poignant observations and incisive study of the people and places he encountered. The age of this book is of small account, even with the "Mark's Last Word" update segment closing the book. The book remains a pleasure to read.
Starting by his admission that he was "entirely qualified" for his role as "an extremely ignorant non-zoologist", Adams then describes their visit to Madagascar to find the aye-aye. A nocturnal lemur that "seems to be assembled from bits of other animals". He notes that the island was bypassed by the monkeys due to continental drift. It was the lemurs that occupied the aboreal environment. This was fine for the lemus until a different monkey, humans, arrived and began cutting down the trees. The lemurs, having fewer places left to hide, are increasingly constrained for habitat. This, of course, is the theme of the entire book.
The touring team moves through Southeast Asia to view the komodo, which may be the origin of the many "dragon" myths. Komodos are eating machines. Adams description of the way tourists are entertained by feasting komodos isn't something for the squeamish. Yet as he rightly points out, there is a tourist dollar factor to consider in how some disappearing species are to be saved. Government action is to be considered, but when wildlife becomes symbolic to a regime, endangered animals are just as likely to be further threatened. A "Leapordskin Pillbox Hat" resting on a President's head isn't the best example of conservation of species.
Of all the poignant accounts in this narrative, the kakapo must rate very high in our concern. Adams sets the scene with a vivid description of New Zealand's South Island - a place to "make your brain quiver". Landing a helicopter in that landscape also makes the brain quiver as Adams account of flying onto a ridge top demonstrates. His radio operator refuses to look over the edge while interviewing the pilot. But all the skilful piloting is of no avail as the team seeks the object of their quest. A strange, flightless bird, whose mating call was like "A Heartbeat in the Night", no longer offers his call from the ridge top. The kakapo, which inhabited the mountains for millennia, mate infrequently in a courtship beset with difficulties. With no natural predators, they failed to adapt to human-introduced dogs, cats and rats. Consequently, the population is down to about forty individuals when Adams visited New Zealand. In this case, a government has expended much effort in protecting this plump, lonely bird. An island suffered an extinction due to New Zealand's conservation efforts - it killed every cat on it. Free of predators, the island is now home to all the kakapos in existence. Every parrot bears a number tag, and a name. We meet finger-chewing Ralph whose sharp, powerful beak that never did duty as a defensive weapon.
Adams travelled to Africa to find rhinos and China to locate baiji dolphins in the murky Yangtze River. The rhinos almost escaped his gaze, but the baiji remained out of sight. The silty river caused the dolphins to adapt their hearing to life in the dark, but the multitude of noises created by human boats confuse them. The slaughter of dolphins by boat propellers is exterminating them. More active disturbances by our species have already extinguished the dodo on the island of Mauritius. Other species face similar fates. Adams encounters one of conservation's more exotic figures, Carl Jones [who also received attention from David Quammen in "Song of the Dodo"]. Jones' methods of preserving the Mauritius kestrel provides Adams with one of the most hilarious accounts in the book. How well Jones has succeeded remains to be determined.
The book is a delightful read, but that doesn't distract from the seriousness of the issue, nor Adams dedication to species preservation. Graced with some enchanting photographs, this highly personalised account still captures the reader's heart. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
 Looking for rare animals-The Adams Way March 24, 2006
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
With the BBC and zoologist in tow, Douglas Adams visits a number of the world's most out of the way places looking for some of the world's most endangered animals. The travels are a series of comic mishaps, dealing with corrupt officials, obnoxious fellow travelers, and some examples of transportation that would make you swear off travel. These problems do seem a bit too familiar too anyone who has read of travel in the world's harder to reach places, but Adams generally keeps things moving along with his light touch. . When he finally sees these animals in the wild, it has a transformative effect on Adams; he becomes thoughtful and starts to ruminate on the future of these animals and their rightful place in the ever-changing world.
Each chapter focuses on a different animal, from the death dealing Komodo dragons to a Chinese community's attempts to save the bannji, a fresh water dolphin lost in the world of sound that is now the Yangtze River. This sectioning, while giving each animal its own spotlight, creates a disconnect for the reader. Each trip is a separate event and this works to the book's disadvantage as the central theme of preserving these creatures gets lost amidst the travelogues. But it still has impact, and Adams's humor never makes it less than readable.
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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