Description
Book SynopsisConservationist and photographer Fernández documents the efforts of a team of international scientists as they unravel the workings of evolution on the island of Hispaniola. He captures both the amazing variety of creatures that have erupted in isolation, and the urgency of scientists racing to give that variety a name before it vanishes.
Trade ReviewHaiti and the Dominican Republic share the second largest island in the Caribbean. Hispaniola includes the region's lowest and highest points: the hypersaline Lago Enriquillo, 40 m below sea level, and Pico Duarte, 3087 m. This wide altitudinal range and the island's 40 million-year history have fostered the Caribbean's greatest variety of habitat types and a diverse insular flora and fauna. Despite the impacts of an accelerated degradation of natural resources, pollution, and the rapidly expanding human population, Hispaniola retains a number of wild places. Fernández, a Dominican-based conservationist and photographer, takes the reader on a circuit of protected areas and biodiversity hotspots. His images include dramatic landscapes (such as Parque Nacional Lago Enriquillo), closer views of habitats (from mountain forests to estuaries and coastal mangroves), and field portraits of animals, plants, and fungi. Researchers provide introductory essays (in Spanish and English) on the island's birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, insects, vegetation, and the "woefully understudied" macrofungi. In his foreword, Edward O. Wilson notes both the beauty and vulnerability of this island biota and hopes that more will be done to save it. * Science *
With its numerous large color photographs, this oversized book would make a great coffee-table piece. However, it is hoped that it will bring attention to the overpopulated island of Hispaniola and aid in protecting the few remaining areas of natural habitat. -- K. L. Williams * Choice *
