Heather reviewed A Most Remarkable Creature by Jonathan Meiburg
Review of 'A Most Remarkable Creature' on 'Goodreads'
I had never heard of caracaras. I feel like a failure admitting that. How have I missed them? Caracaras live mostly in South America with a few outposts in central Florida and in Texas. This book uses the writings of Charles Darwin and William Henry Hudson to introduce them. Darwin saw them in the Falkland Islands and realized that they were different to other birds of prey. They were curious. Most falcons hunt. They don't branch out much. This attitude always reminds me of this quote from MAS*H.
https://flic.kr/p/2kTAyeA
That's the attitude of most birds of prey.Caracaras are different. They explore. They are able to problem solve. They will eat absolutely anything even remotely edible that they can find. William Henry Hudson was a man from Argentina who moved to England. He wrote a lot about South American wildlife. I'd never heard of him either but he was …
I had never heard of caracaras. I feel like a failure admitting that. How have I missed them? Caracaras live mostly in South America with a few outposts in central Florida and in Texas. This book uses the writings of Charles Darwin and William Henry Hudson to introduce them. Darwin saw them in the Falkland Islands and realized that they were different to other birds of prey. They were curious. Most falcons hunt. They don't branch out much. This attitude always reminds me of this quote from MAS*H.
https://flic.kr/p/2kTAyeA
That's the attitude of most birds of prey.Caracaras are different. They explore. They are able to problem solve. They will eat absolutely anything even remotely edible that they can find. William Henry Hudson was a man from Argentina who moved to England. He wrote a lot about South American wildlife. I'd never heard of him either but he was a very popular writer in his day. The author of this book used his writings often during his journey around South America in search of caracaras.
https://flic.kr/p/2kTAd1m
That search took him on a one month trip up a river into the jungles of Guyana in search of caracaras. He was accompanied by three Guyanese guides/forest experts along with an endearingly enthusiastic American scientist who gets super excited about insects. There are several species of caracaras. Each occupies a specific niche in South America but they are starting to move around a bit. Their creativity allows them to do this where other bird species can't. They are even starting to be seen in the northern U.S. and Canada. I learned quite a bit about the development of different American animals in this book. As North and South America first came into contact with each other, there was a large shift of animals from one land mass to another. I also learned that Antarctica was a temperate haven for animals in the aftermath of the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. Different animals in different parts of the world can be traced back and followed to see how they got from the area where they evolved to where they live now. This was a fascinating book about more than just the caracaras. This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story