海角大神

In the remote Udzungwa Mountains of central Tanzania, a tiny, brown toad found itself聽at the center of the conservation debate. A proposed hydroelectric dam vital to power-starved Tanzania threatened to destroy the only habitat of the Kihansi spray toad.聽Efforts to save the toad would cost millions of dollars and potentially impede聽construction of the dam. At its core, the effort to protect the amphibians centered around聽the question of what is a species worth, especially when its natural environment no聽longer exists?聽

This question becomes the driving force behind journalist M.R. O鈥機onnor鈥檚 new book,聽Resurrection Science. Starting with the spray toad, O鈥機onnor tells the story of eight聽endangered or extinct species, ranging from desert pupfish to Neanderthals, using each聽to explore the issues at the heart of wildlife protection. Throughout these tales,聽O鈥機onnor often admits to challenging her own deep-rooted beliefs and her balanced聽portrayal of the issues will force even the most dogmatic of readers to reconsider their聽own ideas. 聽

As the title implies, the book examines efforts to bring back extinct animals. Just to get it聽out of the way, scientists currently lack any viable method that could bring back聽dinosaurs a la Jurassic Park. T-Rex enthusiasts still have only Michael Crichton and聽their own imagination. Researchers are, however, exploring the possibility of bringing聽back species that vanished more recently, such as passenger pigeons, woolly聽rhinoceros, and Tasmanian tigers.聽
O鈥機onnor explores the science behind such efforts, but she focuses predominately on聽the moral and philosophical challenges that face de-extinction scientists and聽conservationists. The book consistently comes back to the central question of what聽constitutes a wild animal in the first place? Its genetic coding or characteristics聽determined by external factors such as environment?聽

In one of the most compelling chapters, O鈥機onnor visits a 鈥渇rozen zoo鈥� hidden inside the聽American Museum of Natural History in New York City. The facility houses more than聽100,000 biological samples kept frozen at negative 160 degrees Celsius using liquid聽nitrogen. Rather than relying on possibility of finding ancient mosquitoes trapped in聽amber to get the DNA of extinct species (which worked only in the fictional world of聽Jurassic Park), facilities like these provide a genetic catalog that scientists can use to聽study or potentially revive endangered and even extinct species in the future.聽

Although the idea of restoring a long-lost species may excite the imagination, O鈥機onnor聽makes us question what exactly we would bring back or 鈥� once it was back 鈥� where that species would live. In聽Hawaii, a type of crow known as the 鈥榓lal膩 has gone extinct in the wild. Although small聽populations exist in captivity, living in cages has changed the birds鈥� behavior. In the聽wild, they had complex social networks and what some naturalists described as a聽鈥渃ulture.鈥� Much of this has been lost now that the birds live in controlled environments聽and it remains unclear if it can be regained if the crows are able to be released into the聽wild once again.聽

Animals de-extincted from a 鈥渇rozen zoo鈥� might be genetically identical to their聽ancestors, but behaviorally they may be all but unrecognizable. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 put culture in聽liquid nitrogen, the same way we can鈥檛 bank the forests the 鈥榓lal膩s come from. No one聽would say that freezing the DNA of humans preserves what makes us human,鈥� writes聽O鈥機onnor.聽

Aside from the animals, the humans working to protect them provide "Resurrection聽Science" with an indispensable cast of characters. Readers meet a reclusive聽outdoorsman who once hunted mountain lions in Texas to the verge of extinction but聽later used his tracking skills to help restore the Florida panther population. Other聽memorable characters include a passenger pigeon enthusiast who managed to become聽one of the leading figures in de-extinction science and an autodidactic widow who, with聽little to no support, helped scientists uncover lost secrets about the North Atlantic right聽whale.聽

O鈥機onnor avoids the temptation to veer too deeply into technical descriptions of science聽that could alienate a general audience. Still, in several sections a lay reader may find聽the book to be slow moving, but O鈥機onnor is quick to provide payoffs. Any piece of聽complicated information she puts forth later becomes a key to comprehending some of聽the most fascinating parts of the book and allows for a more meaningful understanding.As climate change and sprawling human cities remove or indelibly alter the earth鈥檚 last聽remaining wild spaces, O鈥機onnor offers a critical toolkit to help readers understand the聽challenges of wildlife preservation. "Resurrection Science" is the rare book that leaves聽readers happily without any convenient answers, but filled with important questions they聽will ponder long after they鈥檝e finished it.