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A review by shanaqui
The Missing Lynx: The Past and Future of Britain's Lost Mammals by Ross Barnett
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Once upon a time, megafauna were common all over the world, but after a certain point in time, they began to disappear. Mammoths. Mastodons. Cave lions. Cave bears. Aurochs. Irish elk. And what was the common factor? Well, as Ross Barnett says in The Missing Lynx, probably us. Probably humans.
The Missing Lynx digs into the lives of a few of these different creatures, trying to understand where they came from and where they went, focusing mostly on the lives of animals once found in the British Isles which are extinct now (in some cases worldwide, in others just in the UK). In some ways it's a sad story -- think of all we've lost. But Barnett is enthusiastic, fascinated, and that made the book pretty compulsive reading.
I did find it weird that beavers apparently count as megafauna: I always think way bigger, somehow! But apparently beavers count, and they are indeed pretty cool.
It's easy to get pessimistic when you read books like this, showing how humans were a major driver in extinctions. Somehow Barnett's enthusiasm wins out over that, with some optimism that if we can learn to look at ourselves, we can begin to fix this through reintroductions, rewilding, and perhaps (though he's sceptical of this and rightly so) resurrection.
The Missing Lynx digs into the lives of a few of these different creatures, trying to understand where they came from and where they went, focusing mostly on the lives of animals once found in the British Isles which are extinct now (in some cases worldwide, in others just in the UK). In some ways it's a sad story -- think of all we've lost. But Barnett is enthusiastic, fascinated, and that made the book pretty compulsive reading.
I did find it weird that beavers apparently count as megafauna: I always think way bigger, somehow! But apparently beavers count, and they are indeed pretty cool.
It's easy to get pessimistic when you read books like this, showing how humans were a major driver in extinctions. Somehow Barnett's enthusiasm wins out over that, with some optimism that if we can learn to look at ourselves, we can begin to fix this through reintroductions, rewilding, and perhaps (though he's sceptical of this and rightly so) resurrection.