Threatened and Recently-extinct Vertebrates of the World: A Biogeographic Approach
by Matthew Richardson
Threatened and Recently-extinct Vertebrates of the World is an ambitious new book by Canadian author Matthew Richardson. It is to be published globally by Cambridge University Press in 2020.
While Matthew will no doubt continue to be involved with the project for many years to come, the upcoming publication of his new book seemed like a good time to look back on how it all came about, his reasons for writing the book in the first place, and what he hopes to accomplish by doing so.
Saving Nature recently asked the author to discuss the project and share insights into his motivation for writing the book.
Saving Nature: “Tell us a bit about yourself.”
Richardson: “I was raised in a small town in southern Ontario. Back then the surrounding countryside was still extensive, and my friends and I had plenty of space to explore. I also lived very near the Toronto Zoo, one of the world’s best, and spent a lot of time there. From a very young age I had always been fascinated by nature. I also developed a deep love for the writings of Gerald Durrell in particular. He was my childhood hero and the one who mainly inspired me to become a natural history author.
Many years later, my apprentice piece was to be one of the very first biographies about Durrell which, though never published, did at least receive sufficient interest to help me land a literary agent. From there, I soon had some success in writing popular history, before finally specializing for many years in primatology, including various projects for Conservation International and other organizations, most notably “Lemurs of Madagascar.”
Saving Nature: “How did the idea for this particular book come about?”
Richardson: “The original idea has been around since my childhood. I had always been interested in animals, and was an avid reader of natural history books by writers such as Gerald Durrell and James Herriott. But it was one particular book that, in many ways, led directly to the present volume. Let Them Live was published in 1972 by the Swedish author Kai Curry-Lindahl, one of the early pioneers of modern conservation. A fat, unassuming volume with a lurid green and yellow cover and no illustrations, it nevertheless fascinated me with the stories that it contained and the exotic places it evoked. A sort of “world tour” of endangered and extinct species, it also featured a biogeographic arrangement that was to become a major influence on my thinking. Oddly enough, Lindahl is almost completely forgotten now, and his book long out of date. But I still treasure my copy to this day.
Around ten years ago, however, both my parents had become quite ill, and I elected to become a full-time caregiver. It was during this sad time that I first came up with the idea of doing a global survey in book form about all the world’s endangered and extinct vertebrates, along the lines of Lindahl’s. I came about slowly, however, through trial and error (mostly error).”
Richardson: “It discusses all threatened mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes as defined by the IUCN, as well as all those that have become extinct during modern times. It is also the first book to arrange the animals biogeographically; that is to say, by where they live. The book is arranged into various terrestrial realms and regions, such as “The Australian Realm,” for instance. Within each of these are various smaller sections relating to mountain ranges, islands, lakes and rivers, and the like. The world’s oceans are considered to be separate interconnected realm, once again divided into a dozen smaller regions.”
Richardson: “I suppose the main thing that I’ve learned is that we don’t know what we don’t know. I had known a fair amount about endangered and extinct species going into it, but I wasn’t really prepared for the vast number of species currently in peril. I was also frankly astonished at how little-known most of them were. Many – mainly freshwater fishes and amphibians – don’t even have a common name, and a shocking number are going extinct at a shocking rate without anyone even bothering to photograph them, or marking their passing.”
Richardson: “There’s no question that it can be very depressing and frustrating. But people around the world have fortunately been waking up to the problems facing the earth in recent decades, and there are a great many individuals and organizations, such as Saving Nature, that are doing excellent work.”
Richardson: “In the short term, I plan to hopefully create a permanent biodiversity conservation research unit at some university or other. I’ve also been in talks recently with producers to perhaps develop a television documentary series based on the book, to be called “Let Them Live.” And, of course, there will be new editions to think about in the coming years, in order to keep up with events. There’s so much to be done.”
Richardson: “It’s been a pleasure.”