Lonesome George is a 5 foot long, 200 poundtortoise, between 60 and 200 years old. In 1971 he was discovered on the remote Galapagos island of Pinta, from which tortoises had supposedly beenextinct for years. He has been at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz island ever since, on the off-chance that scientific ingenuity will conjure up a way of reproducing him and resurrecting his species. Meanwhile, countless tourists and dozens of baffled scientists have looked on as the celebrity reptile shows not a jot of interest in the female company provided. Today, Lonesome George has...
Lonesome George is a 5 foot long, 200 poundtortoise, between 60 and 200 years old. In 1971 he was discovered on the remote Galapagos island of Pinta, ...
Giant pandas have been causing a stir ever since their formal scientific discovery just over 140 years ago. Yet in spite of humankind's evident obsession with the giant panda, it is only in the last few decades that scientific research has begun to show us what this mysterious, frequently misunderstood creature is really like.
Henry Nicholls uses the rich and curious history of the giant panda to do several things: to ponder our changing attitudes toward the natural world; to offer a compelling history of the conservation movement; and to chart the rise of modern China on its journey...
Giant pandas have been causing a stir ever since their formal scientific discovery just over 140 years ago. Yet in spite of humankind's evident obs...
Charles Darwin called it "a little world within itself." Sailors referred to it as "Las Encantadas"-- the enchanted islands. Lying in the eastern Pacific Ocean, straddling the equator off the west coast of South America, the Galapagos is the most pristine archipelago to be found anywhere in the tropics. It is so remote, so untouched, that the act of wading ashore can make you feel like you are the first to do so. Yet the Galapagos is far more than a wild paradise on earth--it is one of the most important sites in the history of science. Home to over 4,000 species native to its shores,...
Charles Darwin called it "a little world within itself." Sailors referred to it as "Las Encantadas"-- the enchanted islands. Lying in the eastern Paci...
