Status Updates From A Gap in Nature: Discoverin...

"In [1970] an experienced bushman deposited some equipment in a cave west of the Canning Stock Route in the Western Australian outback. He covered it with a tarpaulin, and when he returned several weeks later he found a large, attractive rodent living under it. "(139) hello, Lesser Stick-nest Rat

"... while these tiny creatures battled for life on land and in the vastness of the sea. What lessons we might have learned from its text we shall never know, for we tore up the missive almost at the moment we became aware of it." (117) oh ffs this is some real Garraty nonsense

"'Here's a letter for you, here's a letter for you, for you,' was how a visitor to [Guadalupe] described the cries of the parent [Guadalupe Storm-petrels]. The writing in that letter (if we allow the bird's DNA and behaviours to be viewed as such) have been shaped by one million or more years of evolutionary struggle ..." (117)

"The lonely lighthouse-keeper, David Lyaall, decided that he must have a cat, and over a year or so that solitary feline exterminated the entire species bracket [of the Stephens Island Wren]." (83) major takeaway from this book so far is do not ever have an outdoor cat. Also, don't land your boat on an island if you might have rats onboard.