From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2009:

The Atlas of Endangered Species
Revised and Updated
by Richard Mackay
University of California Press
(2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, CA 94704-1012), 2009. 128 pages,
paperback, illustrated. $19.95.

If the entire content of The Atlas of
Endangered Species were to be redrawn into a
single huge map, the central portion would be a
succinct summary of current knowledge about
endangered species issues.
In the foreground, however, and in
several other prominent regions, unwary readers
might be warned “Here be flying bulls,” never
seen but known from bull feathers.
The back cover, for instance, warns
that “20% of the Earth’s species” are “facing
extinction by 2030,” a scant 21 years from now.
Atlas of Endangered Species author Richard Mackay
is far from the first to make that claim, but
Mackay provides an unwitting demonstration of how
it might happen, strictly through exercises in
modeling.

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 2009:

Arctic Fox: Life At The Top Of The World
by Garry Hamilton, with photographs by Norbert Rosing
Firefly Books (P.O. Box 1338, Ellicot Station, Buffalo, NY
14205), 2006. 239 pages, hardcover, illustrated. $39.95.

To be familiar with foxes and then meet an Arctic fox is to
be profoundly surprised. Most foxes, even raised in captivity for
generations, are shy and nervous, reluctant to be seen except when
a red fox is attempting to decoy a perceived threat away from a vixen
and kits. Then, brazen though the red fox will act for a moment,
he will vanish just as soon as his family is safe.
An Arctic fox will walk right up with two questions in her
eyes. First, do you have something to eat? If not, can you play?
Arctic foxes love to play peek-a-boo, hide-and-seek, chase games,
and even tug-of-war–but they will be off in a flash if they capture
anything they think might be edible.
Most closely related to the swift foxes of the U.S. west,
Arctic foxes are among the fastest of mammals, and among the
widest-ranging, sometimes meandering thousands of miles from
wherever scientists managed to tag them.
Able to withstand the coldest temperatures of any mammal,
Arctic foxes have been seen just 37 miles from the North Pole, where
even polar bears are not known to venture. Arctic foxes do not
amicably share food with siblings, even as kits, but otherwise seem
cheerful and sociable, if only to find a chance to steal edibles.
In November 2006 I noted in reviewing The World of the Polar
Bear by photographer Norbert Rosing that, “As well as capturing
almost every aspect of wild polar bear life, Norbert Rosing provides
many memorable shots of the creatures who share their habitat,
especially Arctic foxes, who along with ravens are polar bears’
frequent sidekicks. Rosing even caught one Arctic fox in the act of
nipping at a polar bear’s heels– perhaps, Rosing speculated, to
urge the bear to go hunt a seal for both of them. The bear shows no
sign of inclination to harm the fox.”

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

Witness to Extinction
How We Failed to Save the Yangtse River Dolphin
by Samuel Turvey
Oxford University Press (198 Madison Ave., New York,
NY 10016), 2008.
224 pages, paperback. $29.95.

Samuel Turvey, born in Lohja, Finland, as a child enjoyed
a rare sighting of the Lake Saimaa seal. Landlocked by receding
glaciers about 9,500 years ago, the Saimaa seal has adapted to
living in fresh water. At the time, researchers believed there were
barely 100 left. The population rose to 280 in 2005, but has since
dropped to 260.
“Getting entangled in fishing nets is the biggest single
cause of death. If we get rid of that, the Saimaa seal could
probably survive global warming,” World Wildlife Fund representative
Jari Luukkonen recently told Terhi Kinnunen of Agence France-Press.
Turvey grew up to earn a Ph.D. in Chinese paleontology, but
inspired by his Saimaa seal encounter, felt impelled to try to
discover the fate of the baiji, the Yangtse river dolphin, last
known to exist when the last captive baiji died in 2002.

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