A Most Remarkable CreatureA Most Remarkable Creature
the Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey
Title rated 4.3 out of 5 stars, based on 49 ratings(49 ratings)
Book, 2022
Current format, Book, 2022, First Vintage Books edition, All copies in use.Book, 2022
Current format, Book, 2022, First Vintage Books edition, All copies in use. Offered in 0 more formats"A voyage of discovery to meet a rare and mysterious bird of prey that puzzled Darwin, fascinates modern-day falconers, and carries secrets of our planet's deep past in its family history. In 1833, Charles Darwin was astonished by an animal he met in the Falkland Islands: handsome, social, and oddly crow-like falcons that were "tame and inquisitive ... quarrelsome and passionate," and so insatiably curious that they stole hats, compasses, and other valuables from the crew of the Beagle. Darwin wondered why these birds were confined to remote islands at the tip of South America, sensing a larger story, but he set this mystery aside and never returned to it. Almost two hundred years later, Jonathan Meiburg takes up this chase. He takes us through South America, from the fog-bound coasts of Tierra del Fuego to the tropical forests of Guyana, in search of these birds: striated caracaras, which still exist, though they're very rare. He reveals the wild, fascinating story of their history, origins, and possible futures. And along the way, he draws us into the life and work of William Henry Hudson, the Victorian writer and naturalist who championed caracaras as an unsung wonder of the natural world, and to falconry parks in the English countryside, where captive caracaras perform incredible feats of memory and problem-solving. A Most Remarkable Creature is a hybrid of science writing, travelogue, and biography."--
Title availability
Find this title on
Search BC libraries through IllumeAbout
Subject and genre
Details
Publication
- New York : Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House, 2022., ©2021
Opinion
More from the community
Community lists featuring this title
There are no community lists featuring this title
Community contributions
Community quotations are the opinions of contributing users. These quotations do not represent the opinions of Bowen Island Public Library.
There are no quotations from this title
From the community