extinction
There is little sadder than the death of a language
The last Yana-speaker in the world died in 1916. When Ishi was born, the Yana were still a small but…
Butchered for feather beds: the brutal end of the great auk
The large, flightless birds that once inhabited the North Atlantic cliffs in their millions were extinct by the 1840s, as the demand for down-filled mattresses increased
After half a billion years, are sharks heading for extinction?
Studies suggest that a third of coral reef sharks and more than half of pelagic sharks may be wiped out as a result of overfishing, habitat loss and pollution
The sad history of the Hawaiian crow
Sophie Osborn describes how this sociable, inquisitive, loud-cackling bird became extinct in the wild – and her own efforts to save the California Condor from the same fate
In deep water
Ned Beauman’s novels are like strange attractors for words with the letter ‘Z’. They zip, zing, fizz, dazzle and sizzle.…
Fluttering to extinction: the tragedy of Britain’s butterflies
In 1979, despite the best efforts of scientists for more than a century, a butterfly called the British Large Blue…
How long before Baby Sussex slips down the line of succession?
Endangered species The UN claimed a million species of plants and animals could become extinct. If they all died out,…
At the deathbed of Sudan, the last male northern white rhino
Laikipia, Kenya Before vets put him down in Kenya this week, I attended the deathbed of Sudan, the…
Wild life
Laikipia I sip my Tusker beer on the veranda, staring at the elephant. He’s not the elephant in the…
Pink horns and poison
Can anything protect the rhino from rapacious human stupidity?
Raiders of the lost Ark
Years ago, in an ill-conceived attempt to break into natural history radio, I borrowed a nearly dead car from a…
Wild life
Laikipia We are privileged to live with lions on the farm. We hear them most nights. We encounter them frequently.…
