The Kingdom of Rarities

The Kingdom of Rarities by Eric Dinerstein (Author).Whenever you look out your window, why are you so more likely to see a robin or a sparrow than a Kirtland's warbler or a California condor? Why are some animals naturally rare and others so plentiful? The quest to find and study seldom-seen jaguars and flamboyant Andean cocks-of-the-rock is as alluring to naturalists as it is vitally important to science. From the Himalayan slopes of Bhutan to essentially the most isolated mountain ranges of New Guinea, The Kingdom of Rarities takes us to a few of the least-traveled locations on the planet to catch a glimpse of those unique animals and plenty of others. As he shares tales of those species, Eric Dinerstein gives readers a deep appreciation of their ecological importance and the urgency of protecting all forms of life - the unusual and ample alike. 

A watch-opening tour of the rare and unique, The Kingdom of Rarities gives us a brand new understanding of the natural world, one which places rarity at the middle of conservation biology. Looking at real-time threats to biodiversity, from local weather change to habitat fragmentation, and drawing on his long and distinguished scientific profession, Dinerstein gives readers recent insights into fascinating questions in regards to the science of rarity and unforgettable experiences from the field. 

One of the secrets and techniques of being a profitable naturalist, as Eric Dinerstein observes in his splendid new guide, is "learn how to observe what Buddist academics call the sacred art of pausing." In "The Kingdom of Rarities," Dr. Dinerstein presents the fortunate reader a number of the reflections and insights he has gained in 40 years of pausing in among the most spectacular places on earth. Seems that crisscrossing the continents with a renowned naturalist and conservation scientist as he searches for probably the most elusive and rarest species on the planet runs, early on, into an irony. 

The most plentiful and (to date) profitable species on the planet consititute solely 25% of life on earth. Rare species--the ones hanging onto life by the slenderest of threads--constitute the remaining seventy five%.Rarity, in different phrases, is commonplace; the condition of being commonplace is what's rare. And therein lies a cautionary tale that the creator gently, and with great erudition, unfolds for the reader. 

This is a book that may be read on several levels: as a tour guide to exotic species and locations; as an ecology primer that is eminently readable and accessible to the lay reader; and as a philosophical and moral musing on the connection between some of the abundant and destructive species of all--homo sapiens--and the rest of life on the planet that sustains us. Whichever stage you choose to learn it on, you will have been rewarded for having read it. 

This guide has taken me on a joyous jaunt around the world within the company of some wonderful creatures and a guide whose enthusiasm and love for his work shines by every word. A storyteller of extraordinary skill, Dinerstein might make the smallest, greyest rodent fascinating if he chose. However since he has a world stuffed with uncommon species to inform us about, instead we're handled to tales of the golden-fronted bowerbird, the scarlet minivet, the purple panda, the jaguar, Mrs Gould's sunbird.

There is a serious objective to this book: to take a look at why uncommon species are uncommon and to find out what intervention is required to preserve them and their habitats. Dinerstein exhibits us the results of Massive Ag within the rainforests of South America, of conflict in Vietnam and Cambodia, of species invasion in Hawaii, and speculates on the doable effects of worldwide warming on these threatened rarities. Typically such books are read with a sense of obligation and a heavy coronary heart - but not this one. All through Dinerstein highlights the positives as a lot because the negatives, gives options, tells us of the superb things that are already being achieved each by nature and by man; and left this reader, at the very least, with an infinite sense of hope.

The Kingdom of Rarities

Eric Dinerstein (Author)

312 pages

Island Press (January 17, 2013)

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