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A Gap in Nature: Discovering the world鈥檚 extinct animals by Tim Flannery,

illustrated by Peter Schouten, Text Publishing, Australia, A$50.00, ISBN

1876485779

EVERYONE has heard the tale of how humans wiped out the dodo, passenger

pigeon and Tasmanian tiger, but most of us don鈥檛 realise quite how many more

species we鈥檝e exterminated. Who has heard of the fate of the charmingly named

fluffy-coated bushy-tailed cloudrunner, a rodent from the Philippines? Who

recalls that we wiped out Steller鈥檚 sea cow, which once tipped the scales at 10

tonnes?

In this poignant and visually stunning book, Tim Flannery teams up with

wildlife illustrator Peter Schouten to tell the tales of 103 of the countless

species that fell victim to European expansion after Columbus. He records what

is known of these creatures in profiles that reveal birds, reptiles and mammals

unable to resist the human invaders with their attendant rats, cats and

disease.

It鈥檚 a shaming story. Where humans go, it seems, extinction is sure to

follow. True, Mother Nature takes her toll, pruning and transforming lineages.

But, as Flannery shows in A Gap in Nature, she is not guilty of the

carnage of this, the sixth great age of extinction. We are the culprits.

Flannery鈥檚 prose is elegant and compelling, as always, but it is Schouten鈥檚

paintings 鈥� life-size in the original 鈥� that drive home the ache and

loss that follow extinction. Over four years, he travelled with Flannery to

museums worldwide to study, sketch, photograph and imagine the living animals.

His portraits are luminous reminders of how much we have lost on our planet-wide

rampage, and how much science needs to learn to help put the brakes on

human-induced extinctions.

鈥淢y ideal is not to have to do a second edition,鈥� says Schouten from his

canvas-packed inner Sydney studio. Unfortunately for Schouten the IUCN has added

12 more species to the tally . . . since the book went to press.