Book review: ‘The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions’ by David Quammen

David Quammen travels the world, visiting endangered species.

An entertaining science-travel book, examining the thorny issue of whether species can be conserved in small "islands". A great read, and very well researched—despite the occasional, unfair dig at Charles Darwin.

Writer and photographer Richard Carter, FCD is the founder of the Friends of Charles Darwin. He lives in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.Website • Facebook • Twitter • Newsletter • Books

Buy my book: On the Moor: Science, History and Nature on a Country Walk
“…wonderful. Science and history and geography and evolution and culture all tangled up in musings while walking about the moors around Hebden Bridge.”—PZ Myers
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Hello, Azerbaijan!
I am delighted to announce that the Friends of Charles Darwin have their first member from Azerbaijan.
A cat among the pigeons
Could Charles Darwin really have been a moggy murderer?
Maureen Brian, FCD (12 June 1942 – 31 July 2018)
I was sad to learn via Facebook that Maureen Brian died earlier today.
The problem writing a book about Charles Darwin
…there are so damn many of the things already, how do you make your book different?
Re. Joyce
How the Friends of Charles Darwin motto was pre-empted by James Joyce.

14-May-1856: Darwin starts writing his ‘big species book’
On 14 May 1856, Charles Darwin recorded in his journal that, on the advice of his friend Charles Lyell, after almost 20 years exploring the subject, he had finally begun writing a ‘sketch’ of his ideas on species.
If humans evolved from monkeys, how come there are still monkeys?
This is a question frequently posed by creationists—and quite often by perfectly rational people…
13-Jan-1833: The day HMS Beagle nearly sank
Charles Darwin's closest brush with death during the Beagle voyage came on Sunday 13th January 1833, near that most infamous of nautical perils, Cape Horn.
The great Darwin fossil hunt
In which a friend beyond measure arranges a behind-the-scenes visit to the Natural History Museum to see fossils collected by Charles Darwin during the Beagle voyage.
Spandrel sight-seeing
In which I visit the spandrels of San Marco in Venice.