Gone: A Search for What Remains of the World’s Extinct Creatures

by Michael Blencowe

Dynamic naturalist Michael Blencowe has travelled the globe to uncover the fascinating backstories of eleven extinct animals, which he shares with charm and insight in Gone.

Inspired by his childhood obsession with extinct species, Blencowe takes us around the globe - from the forests of New Zealand to the ferries of Finland, from the urban sprawl of San Francisco to an inflatable crocodile on Brighton's Widewater Lagoon. Spanning five centuries, from the last sighting of New Zealand's Upland Moa to the 2012 death of the Pinta Island Giant Tortoise, Lonesome George, his memoir is peppered with the accounts of the hunters and naturalists of the past as well as revealing conversations with the custodians of these totemic animals today.

Featuring striking artworks that resurrect these forgotten creatures, each chapter focuses on a different animal, revealing insights into their unique characteristics and habitats; the history of their discovery and just how and when they came to be lost to us.

Blencowe inspects the only known remains of a Huia egg at Te Papa, New Zealand; views hundreds of specimens of deceased Galapagos tortoises and Xerces Blue butterflies in the California Academy of Sciences; and pays his respects to the only soft tissue remains of the Dodo in the world. Warm, wry and thought-provoking, Gone shows that while each extinction story is different, all can inform how we live in the future. Discover and learn from the stories of

- Great Auk. A majestic flightless seabird of the North Atlantic and the 'original penguin'.
- Spectacled Cormorant. The 'ludicrous bird' from the remote islands of the Bering Sea.
- Steller's Sea Cow. An incredible ten tonne dugong with skin as furrowed as oak bark.
- Upland Moa. The improbable birds and the one-time rulers of New Zealand.
- Huia. The unique bird with two beaks and twelve precious tail feathers.
- South Island Kōkako. The 'orange-wattled crow', New Zealand's elusive Grey Ghost.
- Xerces Blue. The gossamer-winged butterfly of the San Francisco sand dunes.
- Pinta Island Tortoise. The slow-moving, long-lived giant of the Gal�pagos Islands.
- Dodo. The superstar of extinction.
- Schomburgk's Deer. A mysterious deer from the wide floodplains of central Thailand.
- Ivell's Sea Anemone. A see-through sea creature known only from southern England.

A modern must-read for anyone interested in protecting our earth and its incredible wildlife, Gone is an evocative call to conserve what we have before it is lost forever.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, Nature, Animals, History, Natural History, Environment

209 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 27, 2021

Reviews

[Jaidee · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 "gorgeous, impactful, whimsical" stars !!

2021 Honorable Mention with High Distinction Read

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.

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.

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.

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.

Here is a photograph of Schomburgk's Deer, an extinct mammal of Thailand that is one of the species described in the book.

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

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.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

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.


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.

Blog Review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2021...

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[Crazytourists_books · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.
Mankind has committed many crimes and attrocities, and not even the tiniest of creatures were able to escape...
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...

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

[Nostalgia Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy to review!

(Cross posted on my blog.)

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly depressing which probably hasn't helped my low mood but there is a hint of playfulness to Blencowe's writing that makes me feel a little less hopeless

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really beautiful book. It even has pictures.

[Dora Yu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The existential anguish of losing defenceless creatures to the relentless march of human progress is tempered only by the respect the writer has for his subjects and a sensitively deployed humour. Think he’d be great to get a beer with if you got made redundant or dumped

[Tove R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

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.

[Alicia Hofstra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, sad book, brutal stories of species taken from this world, new hope for the future but overall it’s just so very sad to read about all these beautiful animals that so happen to be discovered by greedy hungry people or scientists or collectors that just don’t care if an animal or species suffers as long as they can eat it and stuff and display it ):

The only thing I’m really missing is a paragraph about animals that are endangered right now and what we can change to help them (although the charities at the end did contribute already a bit to that)

[Nicole Miles · Rating 4 out of 5]

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..

[Dionysius · Rating 3 out of 5]

The narrator is endearing and the subject matter is interesting, but after the third chapter I was sick of the same format - also, I get it, humans are the worst.

[Lara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muito deprimente, mas esperançoso ao mesmo tempo. Gostei dos relatos do autor e dos animais apresentados, que fora o famosíssimo divo Dodo, eu não conhecia nenhum.

Achei bem interessante também a distinção que ele fez entre a conservação de tempos atrás para como acontece hoje em dia. Que no passado, a conservação era mais em prol da ciência, então mesmo identificando a extinção iminente de uma espécie eles se preocupavam mais em ter um espécime a ser estudado, vivo ou morto. Enquanto que hoje em dia o foco é na preservação com a esperança de proliferar a espécie ameaçada.

[Isa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The last great auk stands all alone, crying tears of pure oil. 'And soon I shall be gone, my little dear', she says, 'and nobody will miss me.'
She was wrong."

Incredibly charming and funny, especially for a book about dead animals

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

In conclusion: humans suck and are the reason we can’t have nice things.

[Theediscerning · Rating 5 out of 5]

Conveying quality with great ease, this short book follows our author as he looks into the last locations of several extinct species – Lundy for where the great auk potentially breathed its last, New Zealand for other critters, and everywhere in between. It's also a visit to the museums that house the last vestiges of these birds, insects and suchlike – allowing the author to evoke the childhood self that first formed his fascination in the hope that said remains just about manage to portray. It's also, in showing us both the imperial hunter and well-armed scientist of old, and the saddened specialist of today, telling about the species known as mankind, although this takes a light touch in doling out blame (at least until the Galapagos chapter, after which the gloves are definitely coming off). Nature book, travelogue and to some extent a memoir, this hits a lot of marks very well indeed. Readers here for any of those interests will love it.

[Stanley (Stan) Enya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Leaping Hare Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

3.5/5 stars rounded up to 4.

Gone is an extremely readable account of a selection of extinct animals that particularly tickled the author’s fancy. Each chapter focuses on a species and provides info on it and how it came to be extinct (not exactly a spoiler: humans) along with a first-person account of the author’s relationship to or thoughts about it, usually linked to a trip to its original habitat or remains of that animal in a museum. The author’s voice kinda got in the way of things a few times, in my opinion, but it was overall a rather pleasant read despite the heavy subject. I think it’s a big success in telling a very sad, heavy story in an accessible style without diminishing its gravity. The illustrations are beautiful, and the engraving style ties in well with the ‘archaic’ status of the animals they depict.

In terms of the negatives, it just paints a really, really skewed picture. To be fair, I don’t necessarily think this is on the author alone, and I certainly don’t blame him for predominantly being a bird guy because, well, same. First off, the ‘creatures’ in the title is such a bizarre word to use in a scientific context. Literally what does it mean? It should have just said ‘animals’, because that’s what they mean. So, out of 11 ‘creatures’ (animals), we get 6 birds (3 of which are endemic to New Zealand!), 2 mammals, 1 insect, 1 reptile and 1 sea anemone (a nice surprise). It makes perfect sense to focus on NZ birds due to the very special natural history of that area, but certainly not at the expense of other animals that just don’t feature at all here.

It’s shocking to me that amphibians weren’t covered at all beyond a passing mention, and same for plants, despite huge numbers of species being under massive threat of extinction, often for different causes than the ones mentioned in the book. I get that plants might not be as interesting to a wide audience, and you could even say that the ‘creatures’ in the title rules them out (does it? not sure; literally no idea what ‘creatures’ means). But not even froggies, really? Those are surely ‘creatures’ (and animals), so that’s definitely a pretty glaring omission. To be fair, there is a degree of self-awareness about the way the author’s interests limit his knowledge of extinction in the chapter on insects, but unfortunately he doesn’t really do anything with it beyond acknowledging it. It would have been nice to have a fuller account of the actual phenomenon of extinction, even just in animals, and the book definitely fails at that. Or perhaps they should have just picked a less generic and more accurate title!

But still, what’s there is very good, and even though I have issues with the general approach, I did enjoy the content and style a lot. I’d definitely recommend it as an accessible and readable book about a serious topic, but be aware that its focus is extremely limited to the point of presenting a very incomplete account of the phenomenon it allegedly sets out to explore.

[Juli Rahel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I requested this book on NetGalley ages ago and dove into the beginning. Then life interrupted, but I finally got back to it this month. (With my apologies to the publisher, Leaping Hare Press.)

In 'Gone', Blencowe follows his childhood interest in extinct species across the world, from the cold North to the hot South, from the present to the early modern period. Each chapter focuses on a different animal and its history, from discovery to destruction and everything inbetween. Throughout the book I really appreciated how Blencowe "spoke" to his audience. It truly was like having someone sit you down and share their passion with you through stories, rather than receiving a lecture. While of course a focus of the book is on how we as humans have a negative effect on the world around us, Blencowe's passion also shows us how we can do better in the future. So rather than walking away from the book utterly defeated, it filled me with a strange kind of hope. However, as a small content warning, some of the descriptions of animal cruelty can be difficult to read. another thing I loved about 'Gone' were the illustrations by Jade They, which showed these extinct creatures.

Overall, this is absolutely a book I would recommend to those with an interest in the natural world and conservation. While the book is a mix between information and entertainment, it also has an important message to share and is beautifully written.

[Sophie Els · Rating 5 out of 5]

The hardcover is so stunningly beautiful I couldn't help myself when I saw it in Powell's a few month ago. Finally got around to reading it and yeowch! Ouch! My heart breaks for these lost species. The moa, Steller's sea cow, don't even get me started on the freaking huia... Sometimes it seems as if the cruelty of man (deliberate word choice) knows no bounds. I am grateful that authors like Blencowe are determined to preserve their stories, in the only way we can. As long as some of us remember these beautiful creatures maybe they are still, in this small way, living.

"The time on the clock's ornate dial is the same as that on the broken clock at the Booth Museum, three minutes to twelve. For the extinct species represented in this room the hands of time have been stopped by the hands of man. For other species on display here, the clock is still ticking, but their time is running out. Glancing around the gallery at the gorillas, vultures, tigers, albatrosses, orangutans and a hundred others, it's uncomfortably easy to foresee a future where a weary museum curator replaces each 'endangered' label with one which reads 'etiente': extinct.

... I look again to the animals whose lives I had followed and with whom I had felt an unexpected affinity. But all I see now are bones, feathers and fur, the sad remains of the world's extinct creatures, taxidermy testaments to the havoc we have wreaked upon the world."

[Rinda Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was not expecting this to be in the style of a memoir. I was expecting this to be a lot less about the author and his travels, and much more about extinct animals and the history of extinction. Instead each chapter had an abbreviated history of one species species extinction and personal anecdotes from the author about their childhood or time spent researching these animals. There was not enough information about each of these species and how their extinction impacted the world. Each chapter pretty much ended right after the species went extinct. I hardly consider this book a "search" for what remains since there was not much new information presented, and the author didn't really search too hard for these species. While the information provided was decent, this book was just not what I wanted it to be. Mostly a 3 star rating because of how much time and effort that went into making this book.

[Beth Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve never read a book about extinction, frankly the last time I read anything biology related was 10 years ago. I don’t know how I got the book & I never expected it to make me cry, but I’ve never felt more of an urgency to get others to give it a read.
I am stressed, this book tells the stories of 11 species that are now extinct - there are thousands ALL OF THEM HAVE ONE COMMON denominator - humans hunted them into extinction and then blamed it on some random natural phenomena until we couldn’t hide from the truth anymore.
Anyway you should read it and then have the subsequent existential crisis.
Also what’s with Charles Darwin throwing iguana into the sea just to find out what would happen?

[April Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a delightful read, despite the heartbreaking subject matter. Blencowe has a wonderfully conversational tone to his writing that sucks you in, and makes learning about the eleven species covered here fun. Well, fun except for the part where they go extinct, for varying reasons that all come back to one thing: humans. We kinda suck a lot when it comes to feeling like our wants and needs (mostly wants- we're greedy bastards) are above everything else. Blencowe makes us aware of humanity's role in these extinctions, but not in an accusatory way. He's straightforward in his explanations so we can hopefully learn from past mistakes, and not repeat them. Let's hope we can do just that.
I highly recommend this book, it's an entertaining, educational read that I found hard to put down.

#Gone #NetGalley

[Bettina | gothicreads · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess, when we think of species that are extinct, we think of Dodos first. They are the emblematic animal, the ambassador of those, who are no longer found on this planet - and they look harmless enough to not scare us with their story of death. But have you ever asked yourself, why the Dodo is extinct? The answer is (as in so many cases): We humans are to blame. “Gone: A search for what remains of the world's extinct creatures” tells the stories of some extinct species. While reading it, I laughed and I cried at the same time, because author Michael Blencowe told me about tortoises, butterflies and birds in a way that made their loss a good story - though tragic ones. After finishing the last page that feeling of shame and anger about humanity’s ignorance for nature and greed for wealth and goods stayed with me. Insofar this book really hit home. But moreover I learned a lot about some extinct animals I had never before heard of and I am grateful for the passion with which the author researched the material. It’s a great book to read in little parts, really immersing oneself in the singular essays. And it does remind us that the clock is still ticking for a lot of species - well-known as well as ordinary and overlooked daily.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the e-book in exchange for an honest review.

[Jos vdG · Rating 5 out of 5]

Een boeiend verslag van een persoonlijke zoektocht naar de resten van recent uitgestorven dieren in natuurhistorische musea. De ontdekking, de leefwijze en het gruwelijke lot van indrukwekkende dieren zoals de Grote Alk, Stellers zeekoe, de Moa, Xerces blauwtje, de Kōkako etc. wordt op vlotte, interessante en ook wel humoristische wijze verteld. Persoonlijke reiservaringen worden afgewisseld met anekdotes, historische en biologische beschrijvingen en enkele mooie illustraties in twaalf redelijk korte, goed leesbare hoofdstukken.

Ik vond het ondanks alle beschreven ellende en historisch dierenleed geen boek om wanhopig van te worden. Ja, het laat zien hoeveel moois en bijzonders de aarde verloren heeft door ons gedrag, onze gigantische hebzucht en ook wel onze vroegere onwetendheid. Maar het doet ook beseffen hoeveel moois maar vooral essentieels voor ons eigen voortbestaan er nog verloren zal gaan als we onze kop in het zand blijven steken. Het is drie voor twaalf op de biodiversiteitsklok en deze klok tikt helaas door. Hoogste tijd dus om in actie te komen!

[J. Carlo Cuevas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me encantó. El autor hizo un fenomenal trabajo en narrar las historias de algunas especies de animales que a el le fascinaban desde pequeño. Para quienes amamos la naturaleza y vida silvestre , este libro es una luz para la conciencia sobre la extinción.

[taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

incredibly sad and hopeful at the same time

[Wyatt Sherod · Rating 4 out of 5]

man we FUCKED up the sea cows :(

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book and so well written. I laughed out loud in places and felt deep sadness in others. Michael's writing has such a magnificent voice and I cannot wait to read more of his work.