And No Birds Sing: The Story of an Ecological Disaster in a Tropical Paradise [Hardcover]

Mark Jaffe (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1994 | ISBN-10: 0671751077 | ISBN-13: 978-0671751074

A fascinating investigation into the reasons behind the extinction of birds on Guam becomes a cautionary environmental detective story as scientists discover that an imported snake with no natural enemies has decimated the island's birds. 15,000 first printing.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the 1960s Guam's bird population began to plummet; by the '70s, American zoos had begun a captive breeding program to save some species from extinction. Jaffe, the environmental correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer , reported on the program at the Philadelphia Zoo and followed the story to Guam. His is a chilling environmental detective story and an involving tale of scientific fieldwork. During the '80s, biologists Bob Beck and Julie Savidge discovered the cause of the birds' decline--predation by a brown tree snake that had been brought to Guam from the South Pacific after WW II. Snake expert Tom Fritts, arriving in Guam to study this predator, tracked snakes all over the island, finding possibly 12,000 per square mile. In legions the snake, Boiga irregularis , caused power outages and attacked people, puppies and just about every form of life. In 1992 Congress passed a bill supporting a project aimed at reviving the bird populations on Guam. Other islands in the Pacific, including Hawaii, have been alerted to the dangers posed by the brown snake. Photos.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Jaffe, the environmental reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, has written a gripping ecological thriller about the sudden and almost complete disappearance of birds on the island of Guam. During the 1960s, game wardens noticed declining bird populations on the island. By the late 1970s many of Guam's forests were eerily silent; bird life had vanished. Scientists soon realized that if this environmental murder mystery wasn't solved, and solved quickly, a true ecological disaster would result. This well-researched and exciting book describes the valiant efforts made to capture and save the remaining birds and to discover the identity of the perpetrator: a tree snake brought to Guam after World War II that without natural predators had achieved a density of perhaps 12,000 snakes per square mile! The intriguing story line and Jaffe's clear prose make concepts such as island biogeography and population genetics palatable to the lay reader. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries.
- Lynn C. Badger, Univ. of Florida Lib., Gainesville
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 283 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (April 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671751077
• ISBN-13: 978-0671751074
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,676,379 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #77 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Ecosystems > Tropical

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TROUBLE IN PARADISE, August 12, 2003

By 

G. L. Rowsey (benicia, ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: And No Birds Sing: The Story of an Ecological Disaster in a Tropical Paradise (Hardcover)

This account of efforts to understand and deal with threatened bird extinctions on Guam is a gem of a book. The paperback's blurbs focused on Jaffe's "ecological detective thriller." But I found most compelling the seamlessness of the book's widely-informed joined elements -- including biographical and political sketches of great pith, accessible population biology, and a good-scientists-versus-stupid-and-finally-thwarted-others story.

The ecological culprit was not some natural substance, and not even one of homo sapiens' products (the book's index lists only three references to DDT). Nor was he us. But he was (and is) one of our fellows -- a little predator incredibly well adapted to feeding on birds' eggs.

After the paucity and untimeliness of the governmental response to the Guamanian situation had sunk into my consciousness, it seemed ironic that the book ends with the United States Air Force establishing a 50-acre "environmental reclamation experiment" on Guam which Jaffe hopes will provide the setting for much more effective research on the culprit. Like The Lord of the Flies ends with her majesty's warship rescuing from themselves the band of island-stranded, warring boys.