Features
- Cover Type: Hard Cover with 238 pages
- Published by: Chelsea Green Pub Co October 1992
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 093003158X
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0930031589
-
Book Dimensions:
9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
- Weighs: 1.1 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
As early as 1955, biologists voiced concern about the future of the dusky seaside sparrow, a native of the swamplands of Brevard County, Fla. Walters ( The Dance of Life: Courtship in the Animal Kingdom ) here presents a well-documented account of the dusky's decline and its final days. He accuses NASA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of flouting the law that prohibits the destruction of crucial habitats, and faults county officials for invading that habitat with a major expressway and two large housing developments. Twenty years of "studies" proved futile while bureaucrats dragged their feet. In 1971, the government created a Wildlife Refuge for the dusky, but in successive years wildfires raced through it, decimating the dusky population. Five male duskies were captured in 1979 and made wards of the state, eventually winding up at Disney World, where they all died under mysterious circumstances. The dusky was officially declared extinct on Dec. 12, 1990--the final chapter in a saga of human folly that would be ludicrous if it weren't tragic.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Twenty years ago this reviewer saw dozens of dusky seaside sparrows in the tidal marshes near Cape Canaveral, Florida. Now they are extinct. Using extensive documentation, including interviews, library research, and site visits, Walters sensitively tells how extinction occurred. His is a poignant, gorgeously written book that reads like a good mystery, although we know the conclusion at the start. Manipulation of water levels by NASA, developers, mosquito controllers, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services (for the benefit of ducks) did in the sparrow. Arrayed against these bureaucratic villains are the book's heroes, a handful of mostly young professional biologists who documented the sparrows' ecological requirements and predicted what was going to happen to them every step of the way. Even the final pathetic attempts to breed them in captivity were flawed by bureaucratic inertia and carelessness climaxing in the suspicious disappearance of some of the birds and their related files from their Disney World breeding enclosure. A most engaging drama, told with balance, insight, and care. Highly recommended.
- Henry T. Armistead, Thomas Jefferson Univ. Lib., PhiladelphiaCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Search for books at
