#3: Survival: a book about threatened species
SURVIVAL, this zinging green book about threatened species, published in September 2018, and there's a couple of things that made this one really blog-post worthy...
TIMES CHANGED
It took two years from the initial idea to printed books hitting the shelves, and as those two years passed this book seemed to go on a journey. As the pages came together around Louise McNaught's powerful animal portraits, conservation grew in headlines and social media visibility, with Blue Planet II's poignant final episode on human impact and plastics in the ocean palpably piquing the nation's interest in a big way.
ANIMAL UPS & DOWNS
The 20 animals featured in SURVIVAL, including the Siberian tiger, the black rhino, the ring-tailed lemur and the blue whale, represent a drop in the plastic-filled ocean of all threatened species. As I researched over the course of the book it became clear how real threats really are and how quickly they are changing. This is a list of just some of the animals whose statuses moved during those two years... (Here's the Conservation Status index for context)
BAD NEWS! The giraffe was uplisted to from Least Concern to Vulnerable
BAD NEWS! The eastern gorilla was uplisted from Endangered to Critically Endangered
BAD NEWS! The duck-billed platypus was uplisted from Least Concern to Near Threatened
GOOD NEWS! A third species of orangutan was announced in November, 2017, but...
BAD NEWS! Only 800 individuals remain, making the Tanapuli orangutan the most endangered of all the great apes.
GOOD NEWS! The giant panda was reassessed as Vulnerable from Endangered
BAD NEWS! The plains zebra was uplisted from Least Concern to Near Threatened
GOOD NEWS! Two types of kiwi (northern brown and Okarito) were reassessed as Vulnerable from Endangered.
REALLY BAD NEWS! The Bramble Cay melomys (an Australian rodent) was declared Extinct, and goes down in history as the first mammal known to have been wiped out by human-induced climate change.
BAD NEWS! Bombus affinis became the first bumblebee to be listed as Endangered. (Bumblebee fact alert! Bumblebees pollinate plants other bees can't, including blueberries and tomatoes. They use 'buzz pollination', vibrating their bodies to loosen the pollen, which is tucked away and hard to reach in these flowers.)
KEEPING POSITIVE
Pretty bleak reading, right? Uh huh, but, guess what, conservation does work, and an increasing number of animal populations are on the up thanks to human care. The most challenging thing about working on this book was keeping the tone positive and inspiring for young readers, so that they may be motivated to join the cause in some way and not just think that all hope is lost, so for every story chosen the positive forward steps - no matter how small - were included.
TUSK
Every time I read a new headline I felt pretty shocked at the reality. They seemed to just keep coming, one after the other (though I think it was simply that I was noticing it more). A book like SURVIVAL needed to pack as much punch as possible, so early on, we partnered with the African animal charity, TUSK. They have projects across Africa helping to conserve more than 40 species, protecting more than 10 million acres of land, and doing incredible work supporting local communities. This humbling collaboration strengthened the message of animal conservation, not least through Charlie Mayhew's powerful and galvanising foreword.
"We all have a fantastic opportunity to do more for wildlife right now. We must not leave it too late: extinction is forever." - Charlie Mayhew MBE, Chief Executive of Tusk
* A short quote from foreword shown. A % of sales proceeds of the book go to TUSK.