Certainly Douglas Adams has a unique sense of humor. I actually like it even if it felt a bit rambling.

Despite being infused with the trademark Douglas Adams wit and humour, this book is a poignant reminder that wildlife conservation is (and has been for quite some time) the need of the hour.
I'm usually not one to proclaim books as 'must-read' but I think this one is.

Douglas Adams may have missed his calling in life: instead of a writer of humorous science fiction novels, he could have been a fantastic nature writer. Sure, he wouldn't have made as much money, and far fewer people would have read his books, but Last Chance to See.... is, in many ways, one of the most profound environmentalist tracts I've ever read. Each chapter in this book details a different trip that Adams (and co-author Mark Carwardine) made to a different part of the world to see one of the last-remaining survivors of a different species of animal. By itself, any single trip such as this is an ultimately humbling and thought-provoking experience--especially when most of these animals are facing extinction thanks to us ape-descended life forms--but in the hands of Adams, it becomes an almost-transcendental journey.

Adams is, of course, a humorist, and in large part a satirist. Any act of true satire requires a keen insight into the human condition, for it is only by truly understanding a concept that a satirist can then twist that concept to show the rest of us how silly (or sad) it is. Perhaps this is why there have been so few effective satirists. Adams, however, is one of the best, though you often have to look through layers of jokes to find his social commentaries. Last Chance... takes away many of those layers, and what we are left with is a thinly-veiled criticism of humanity's lack of concern for the very planet that sustains it. The near-extinct animals that Adams and Carwardine visit are held up as individual examples of our (and I mean "our" in the largest, most collective sense) stupidity and carelessness, and general inability to think beyond the extremities of our own selfish lives.

There are, of course, jokes. Adams can't write even a single paragraph without sticking one in, and at times these humorous passages extend to several extraneous pages. While these parts do make the book intensely readable and enjoyable, they can also distract from the overall message--thus my deletion of a single star from the rating. (Note that I would have only taken away half of a star, had goodreads.com's program let me.)

It may be an odd thing to say, considering I've read every single book in the Hitchhiker's Trilogy at least a dozen times, and claim all of them to be my "favorite book" (purposefully left singular). But if I were to recommend a single Adams volume, it would be Last Chance to See..... Even now, though it's been two years since I last read it, my memories of this book are tinged with a profound sense of loss and sadness, but most importantly, a need to change the way I live my life: no species should ever die so that I may continue to exist.

Thank you, Douglas, for the lesson.

I was a big fan of Douglas Adams already, still I have to say that upon reading this book my respect and admiration for him, as an author but even more still as a human being, has greatly increased. In this book he gives a touching account of travels in which he and his zoologist friend travelled the world in search of some of its rarest animal species. An at times entertaining, at times heartbreaking, account of the impact of human society on the fast dwindling wildlife diversity of planet Earth.

If you've ever wondered why you should bother caring about whether or not some obscure species of lemur in the rainforest of Madagascar lives or dies, or what the consequences of the destruction of its and many other species' habitats might be, then read this book. Read it, and weep.

“We are not an endangered species ourselves yet, but this is not for lack of trying.”
― Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See

Starting in Madagascar and ending in Mauritius, Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine visit a handful of the species deemed critically endangered at the time and give a colorful account of both the bundu-bashing required to see the various animals as well as the people working tirelessly to save them.

In true Hitchhiker's fashion, Douglas has created a book that is equally entertaining and informative. You'll find yourself learning strange and wonderful things and you will laugh constantly.

Reading this book in retrospect, and with 2 of the 7 species having gone extinct since the book's publication, new meaning and urgency is given to the message consistently repeated throughout: variety is the spice of life and we can, and must, ensure that there is and continues to be space for all variety of living being on this planet. Not just for the welfare and continuation of so many amazing and essential eco-systems but also because the world would be a poorer and blander place without them.

I absolutely loved reading this book and would recommend it to everyone.

This is a very good book. It's funny (as you'd expect from Douglas Adams) and terribly saddening (as you'd expect from a book about endangered animals), and somehow those two things work together.

The biology and ecology are interesting.

I did think it started off a bit on the wrong foot. It felt less like an animal book and more like a travelogue which mostly consisted of complaining about the host country and pretty much everything else. This was done in a witty way, of course, but it felt a little uncomfortable. And when they met the first animal—it was over in about three lines. I thought, "Come on, Douglas Adams, you're better than this." And he was. The book got better and better as it progressed. I didn't want it to end. There was a still too much complaining travelogue, but the author/s tied it in better to the complicated web of perils/benefits surrounding ecotourism. And there was a lot more about the actual animals and the quest to find them.

Overall, sobering and entertaining at the same time—quite a feat of writing.

More accurate rating: 4.5 stars

My husband urged me to read this book when it was first written but I feared it would be too depressing. Then when Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine retraced the steps of Carwardine and Adams on TV I realised what a great story this was. Still it languished unopened on our shelves. One day after Christmas it finally caught my eye and said...read me now before it's too late. A little parable for animals and plants in obscure places....appreciate and notice and cherish me now...... Before it's too late....

Like the Yangtze River dolphin Douglas Adams is no more but the book celebrates the dedication of those all over the world who are fighting, sometimes against enormous odds to fight for the right of indigenous species to live long and prosper. We need to notice more, care more, do more....

This book was recommended by my mother, who sometimes had to think about Douglas Adams' humor before she got it. That didn't surprise me. She doesn't get my humor either.
It did make her very concerned for the state of our dwindling wildlife and the paradoxes we create when we save one species and inadvertently put another one at risk.

The best non-fiction I've read in my life. I finished it and wanted to start reading it again within two minutes.

Engrossing. Now to watch the follow up Last Chance To See: In he Footsteps of Douglas Adams

This is a fascinating book dealing with the authors’ task to track and visit little known animals facing imminent extinction. We learn of the measures and people involved. Many are island species and the book becomes a travelogue as the authors set about visiting remote and interesting places describing their adventures in varied environments and the travel challenges in such places as Zaire, for rhino , Komodo to see the giant lizards, New Zealand to track down flightless parrots, Mauritius for fruit bats and the Yangtze River for pink dolphins. It is very interestingly written by the author of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, and offers an entertaining take on a serious subject.

Don't know how Doug manages to make a book so depressing so lighthearted, but it works. The saddest thing is this book was published in 1990, and now most of the animals mentioned are worse off, yay