Flight of the Huia: Ecology and Conservation of New Zealand's Frogs, Reptiles, Birds, and Mammals (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 411 pages
• Publisher: Canterbury University Press (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0908812523
• ISBN-13: 978-0908812523
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,901,595 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Appreciating NZ's unique wildlife - and keeping it, April 28, 2007

By	Frank King (Christchurch, NZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I must confess I had found the eco-mystical title and the drab cover of this book to be barriers that long delayed me picking it up. Even the subtitle does little to hint at the real value in it. What a mistake. It meant I actually read every other book I could find on the subject before this one when it should have been the first that I read.

Kerry-Jayne is an expert on NZ's ecology, and its weird and wonderful products of isolated evolution. In Flight of the Huia she places an immense amount of useful, and even surprising, information in an easy to follow framework for a non-academic reader. The framework of evolutionary processes and history presented here is invaluable in itself and I haven't encountered similar elsewhere in an easily accessible form. The wealth of detail can be skimmed or skipped, but then easily returned to if needed. This makes the book worth buying rather than just borrowing. However I found the detail so facinating I read it through as I went.

Kerry-Jayne comes across as a practical person. There's a clear intellectual honesty in her writing, which is not always the case with NZ's eco-academics. In contrast this book's sub-narrative seems always seeking broad buy-in.

More's the pity if it hasn't reached as wide a readership as it could through a poor marketing job by the publisher.

As for my recommendation: if you're interested in this topic and you've 'bought the bumper sticker', as they say, then buy this book too. It'll help make sure your mind is also where your mouth is.