Kevin Gepford: Tortoise!, Gebunden

Klappentext

For more than 50 million years, tortoises have carved an unhurried but indelible path on our planet. Armed with improbable anatomy and incredible longevity, these evolutionary wonders have adapted and endured through eons of changing climates and landscapes. But today they are among Earth's most imperiled creatures.

Journalist Kevin Gepford travels across five continents and remote islands to uncover tortoises' hidden worlds, their unexpected roles in nature, and what's at stake as they disappear. He ventures to the island of St. Helena to meet 190-year-old Jonathan, the oldest known land animal; the Mojave Desert, where tortoises navigate a habitat threatened by renewable energy development; and Aldabra Atoll, where more than 150, 000 giant tortoises have created the only reptile-dominated ecosystem on Earth--a glimpse of worlds that have vanished elsewhere.

Surprising, transportive, and enlightening, Tortoise! reveals why the survival of these ancient animals matters--to their ecosystems and to us.