5.0 out of 5 based on 2 reviews. – Customer review on 29/10/2007

This lovely book is one of the best I’ve had the privilege of reviewing in the last couple of years. The hardback, large format volume details 103 extinct animals, with text by renowned Australian naturalist Tim Flannery and exquisite drawings by wildlife artist Peter Schouten.
Everything about A Gap in Nature is well crafted; not just the words and illustrations but the design, reproduction and paper quality – it’s the sort of book that anyone interested in natural history will treasure.
The subject – extinction - is of course, highly depressing but the book manages to be celebratory in tone. In the introduction, Flannery writes ‘Every continent has suffered extinctions at the hands of European expansion, leaving them all impoverished in comparison with their recent past.’ ‘It may seem a soul destroying task to set about documenting…these creatures…but it has allowed me to glimpse, in my imagination, at least a tiny flicker of the wonder of this lost world.’
And what amazing creatures have been lost. Take the Choiseul Crested-pigeon, an improbable-looking bird with yellow plumage that changes to blue near the breast and head, and capped by an unruly Mohawk of light-blue feathers. Extinct by 1904, it once called the Solomon Islands home.
Shouten’s paintings were all made life-size. The artist has paid meticulous attention to detail, using any sources of information about the creature available to depict as accurate a representation as possible. For some creatures, there is a large amount of information – stuffed specimens, photographs, long descriptions from early naturalists, while for others information is much more scarce. In the latter category is the Kawekaweau – a reptile known only from one skin found in a French Museum, but believed to be the largest gecko ever known. It’s home? New Zealand.
In fact, of the 103 creatures profiled, some ten are from New Zealand – including the huia, slender bush wren, Stephens Island wren, upland moa, Chatham Island rail, Chatham Island fernbird, Laughing owl, piopio and Auckland Island Merganser.
Most of the extinctions have been caused – either directly or indirectly – by humans. In the introduction Flannery relates some astonishing archaeological facts: after the arrival of humans Australia lost 95% of its land based animal genera weighing more than 45kg. North America lost a corresponding 75%, and Polynesian expansion caused the loss of some 2000 bird species – nearly one fifth of the known bird species worldwide.
Selections for A Gap in Nature are mainly mammals, birds and reptiles, and include only those sufficiently well known for detailed anatomical drawings to be made. It’s also only the tip of the extinction iceberg, and includes just some of those lost in the past 500 years. Chronologically arranged, the book begins with those species gone the longest (the upland moa, which died out around 1500AD) to the most recent (the Atitlan Grebe, which died out 1989). Officially, for a species to be proclaimed extinct it has to have not been seen for 50 years since the last confirmed sighting, but for some examples with very limited distribution, including the grebe, destruction of its entire habitat is enough to be certain.
Shouten’s drawings are undoubtedly the highlight of the book, and they are wonderful pieces of art. There’s at least one drawing for each species, generally shown in its habitat, with a brief description of them, where they lived and the reason for their extinction. My favourites include the Stellar’s sea cow, the big-eared hopping mouse, the huia and the Norfolk Island kaka. Best name? Has to go either the pig-footed bandicoot or the Ilan Island cloudrunner.
The saddest story? Possibly that of the Stephens Island Wren. Although once more widespread in New Zealand, Polynesian rats wiped it out of all but island refuges. Then in 1894, the last wrens were annihilated in their last remaining hideout – Stephens Island – by a single cat, which belonged to the keeper of the newly constructed lighthouse.
This is at once a sobering book and a striking monument to some of the world’s life forms. It would make a fine gift.

Shaun Barnett

4.0 out of 5 based on 2 reviews. – Customer review on 24/03/2009

This is a beautiful book, beautifully presented, but so very sad - to see the wonderful illustrations of the animals now lost to the world. This book would definately be a must buy for any school library so students might become aware of how precious and yet fragile our planet is.