Rat Island

Predators in Paradise and the World's Greatest Wildlife Rescue

William Stolzenburg

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English

Bloomsbury Publishing
05 August 2011

Mathematics & Sciences; Endangered species & extinction of species

Rat Island rises from the icy gray waters of the Bering Sea, a

mass of volcanic rock covered with tundra, midway between Alaska and

Siberia. Once a remote sanctuary for enormous flocks of seabirds, the

island gained a new name when shipwrecked rats colonized, savaging the

nesting birds by the thousands. Now, on this and hundreds of other

remote islands around the world, a massive - and massively

controversial - wildlife rescue mission is under way.

Islands,

making up just 3 percent of Earth's landmass, harbor more than half of

its endangered species. These fragile ecosystems, home to unique species

that evolved in peaceful isolation, have been catastrophically

disrupted by mainland predators: rats, cats, goats, and pigs ferried by

humans to islands around the globe. To save these endangered islanders,

academic ecologists have teamed up with professional hunters and

semiretired poachers in a radical act of conservation now bent on

annihilating the invaders. Sharpshooters are sniping at goat herds from

helicopters. Biological SWAT teams are blanketing mountainous isles with

rat poison. Rat Island reveals a little-known and much-debated side of today's conservation movement, founded on a cruel-to-be-kind philosophy.

Touring

exotic locales with a ragtag group of environmental fighters, William

Stolzenburg delivers both perilous adventure and intimate portraits of

human, beast, hero, and villain. And amid manifold threats to life on

Earth, he reveals a new reason to hope.

By: William Stolzenburg
Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 135mm, Spine: 21mm
Weight: 314g
ISBN: 9781408825112
ISBN 10: 1408825112
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 05 August 2011
Audience: General/trade , Professional and scholarly , ELT Advanced , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Author Website: http://www.bloomsbury.com/Authors/details.aspx?tpid=3910

William Stolzenburg writes about the science and spirit of saving wild creatures. Having written hundreds of magazine articles, he is more recently a 2010 Alicia Patterson Journalism Fellow, the author of the book Where the Wild Things Were, and a screenwriter for the documentary Lords of Nature: Life in a Land of Great Predators. He lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.

Reviews for Rat Island: Predators in Paradise and the World's Greatest Wildlife Rescue

'[Stolzenburg's] infectious enthusiasm should spark even in bug-wary urbanites a renewed appreciation for nature's complexity' Time 'Absorbing and delightful ... Not just an enriching story, but a new, clarifying lens through which to understand the world around us' Thomas Hayden, Christian Science Monitor 'In dazzling descriptions, Stolzenburg demonstrates how the delicate balance between predator and prey is so essential, and his book, rich in dramatic accounts of life and death in the wild, is powerful and compelling' Publishers Weekly, starred review 'Science writing at its best' Edward O. Wilson