Lost Wonders: 10 Tales of Extinction from the 21st Century

Journalist Lathan debuts with a devastating survey of how human negligence pushed species to extinction over the past 25 years. Several stories highlight how invasive species introduced by humans exterminated native inhabitants, as when Lathan recounts how in 1967, a French border guard homesick for snail soup while posted in Polynesia imported a batch of voracious giant African land snails that devoured the islands’ last indigenous Partula faba tree snail by 2016. Describing conservationists’ anguished attempts to save each species, Lathan notes how ecologist Rich Switzer barely slept as he monitored the last living po‘ouli bird, which spent its final days with an IV drip attached to its leg before succumbing to malaria that first arrived in Maui with mosquito stowaways on a 19th-century ship. There’s no shortage of tear-jerking moments, as when Lathan notes the eerie scene as researchers attempting to catch the last known pipistrelle (a moth-size bat that fell prey to habitat destruction) listened as it fell silent for the last time. Tales of how the Catarina pupfish, Pinta Island tortoise, and Christmas Island forest skink went extinct decry human callousness while demanding better protection for extant endangered species. This moving elegy will stick with readers long after the final page. Illus. Agent: Jessica Woollard, David Higham Assoc. (June)