An insightful exploration of the iconic Galapagos tortoises, and how their fate is inextricably linked to our own in a rapidly changing world The Galapagos archipelago is often viewed as a last foothold of pristine nature.
In a world where evolution is thoroughly shaped by global history, Hennessy puts forward a vision for conservation based on reckoning with the past, rather than trying to erase it..
The tortoises, Elizabeth Hennessy demonstrates, are not prehistoric, but rather microcosms whose stories show how deeply human and nonhuman life are entangled.
By doing so, it brings into stark relief the paradoxical, and impossible, goal of conserving species by trying to restore a past state of prehistoric evolution.
This book tells the story of the islands' namesakes-the giant tortoises-as coveted food sources, objects of natural history, and famous icons of conservation and tourism.
For sixty years, conservationists have worked to restore this evolutionary Eden after centuries of exploitation at the hands of pirates, whalers, and island settlers.
An insightful exploration of the iconic Galapagos tortoises, and how their fate is inextricably linked to our own in a rapidly changing world The Galapagos archipelago is often viewed as a last foothold of pristine nature
