Original title: Last Chance to See
by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine
(first published in 1990)

In 1985 Douglas Adams met zoologist Mark Carwardine on a trip to Madagascar, where - for The Observer - they should look for the aye-aye, a lemur that can’t be found anywhere else in the world.



It turned out to be a rather challenging trip. But Adams and Carwardine hit it off immediately, and since both of them happened to have no plans for 1988 yet, they decided to meet again, and travel around the world in search of other endangered species. Being aware that it might be their last chance to see them.

And thus we follow the two of them to:

Indonesia, where on Komodo island they were observing the Komodo dragon,


to Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), in search of the northern white rhinoceros,


to New Zealand, where they were looking for the kakapo,


to China, trying to find the baiji, also known as the Yangtze river dolphin,


and lastly to Mauritius, where they were planning to look for the Rodrigues flying fox.


On that last trip, though, they ended up mostly observing other endangered species, as Mauritius actually has a lot of them.

In general one learns quite a bit about the places that Adams and Carwardine visited. It is a travelogue after all. And a rather funny one, as many things went not the way they had been planned, and the two of them also met some quite interesting people, most of them very passionate about the conservation of animals, and a lot of those being very special characters as well. And then, of course, there is the challenge of traveling, in the 80’s, to some countries that make it especially difficult for visitors.

Douglas Adams tells about all of this with considerable amount of humor. He and Carwardine, but he especially found himself in so many absurd situations, which he sometimes faced with a sort of bewildered amusement, often with sarcasm, and also with some inevitable gallows humor here and there. I admire his ability to teach us a couple of things about those countries and raise awareness for the endangered animals, while he manages to make people laugh. It’s a great way to learn things. Although there were a couple of moments when it got almost too silly for my taste. Sometimes I felt like he was trying to force it. But more often than not he got it exactly right.

The book’s title, unfortunately, turned out to be rather accurate in some cases. While some of those species above are doing comparatively well - mostly thanks to the enormous efforts of some determined people, of which we meet a few in this book - I’m sad to report that the baiji is now considered as possibly extinct. The last confirmed sighting being in 2002. And the northern white rhino also is possibly extinct in the wild. Right now there are only two of this subspecies left, which both live in a wildlife conservancy in Kenia. They are both female.

Sorry to finish this review on such a sad note. It is a sad topic, and often times it is a lack of human awareness that leads to these developments. Which is exactly what makes those kind of books so important. Now, this is a rather old book by now, of course. But even though there’s no more chance to see some of these animals, the book as such is not outdated. It still matters and it still can make people more aware of what’s going on all over the world. And ultimately it is my additional research that made me sad. The book on the other hand managed to make me laugh a lot.

Lastly, great narration of the German audiobook by Stefan Kaminski. The guy completely nailed it. Certainly one of the best audiobooks I've listened to (probably in my top 2 at this point). But I hear that the English audio is narrated by Stephen Fry. So that one might not be too bad either.

4.5 stars

UPDATED!

Douglas Adams' famous book about his travels to animals that are about to be extinct. As entertaining, hilarious and smart as everything else Adams has written, but because of its subject definitely my favourite of his books. I can't believe I waited so long to read this. Maybe, if more people had read this book sooner, the statistics would look a bit better today. Let's take a look at how the animals that Adams visited in 1990 are doing 16 years later.

Komodo Dragon
1990: appr. 5000
2006: appr. 6000
Classified Vulnerable by the IUCN Red List, mostly due to its restricted habitat.

Mountain Gorilla
1990: ca. 280
2006: ca. 380
2010: About 300 (Source: IUCN).
Classified Critically Endangered by the IUCN.

Northern White Rhinoceros
1990: 22
2006: 5 to 20, depending on source
2010: 8, worldwide, including zoo animals (Source: http://www.northernwhiterhinolastchan...), or maybe 4 (source IUCN).
Classified Critically Endangered.

Kakapo
1990: 40
2006: 86
2010: 122 (Source: Wikipedia)
Classified Critically Endangered.

Baiji Dolphin
1990: 200
2006: unknown. 1998 7 were found
2010: Last sighted in August 2007 (not proven). So I guess it's safe to say that the Baiji is extinct, and, like Adams said, it was the last chance to see one. We sure won't get to see one anymore. Ever.

Classified Critically Endangered, possibly extinct. Which, if you haven't guessed already, is the last step to extinct. (Source: IUCN)

Mauritius Kestrel
1990: I can't seem to find the information in the book.
2006: ca. 1000
2010: ca. 1000, trend increasing (Source: IUCN)
Classified Vulnerable

Echo Parakeet
1990: 15
2006: less than 200
Classified Critically Endangered.
2010 Endangered, trend increasing! Yay for the Parakeet, it got downlisted by the IUCN!

Cafe Marron/Ramus Mania:
The one plant he visited, the wild coffee plant Ramus Mania, seems to have disappeared, if not from Mauritius, at least from the web.

UPDATE in 2010: Here's more information about the coffee plant: http://insel-rodrigues.blogspot.com/2...

Erschreckendes und zugleich stellenweise lustiges Reisetagebuch von Douglas Adams. Besonders die Tatsache, dass bereits in den 80ern solche Bedrohungen für die Umwelt erkannt und beschrieben wurden, dass jedoch trotzdem viel zu wenig getan wird, sollte jeden zum Nachdenken bringen. Dieses Buch muss man gelesen haben!

Really interesting read. I enjoyed it

Douglas Adams is one of my favorite authors of all time. The Hitchhiker's series was formative in middle school, and the Dirk Gently books even more so. I made it a point to read every book Douglas Adams ever wrote, except of course, his "boring one." Last Chance to See is the book I declared sometime in the eighth grade as "boring."

Despite the obvious shallowness of my younger self, there is some truth to it. This book is truly not as humorous or engaging as his other works, but that isn't the intent. Adams is trying to reveal the desperate and losing battle that conservationists are fighting to keep some of the rarest animals on Earth alive. And to that end, he succeeds. The photographs included help give visual life to the animals Adams describe.

I am glad I finally read this book, and glad I was mature enough to enjoy it. While it won't top his other books, it's a great addition to his bibliography that should be read by more people.

Mark Carwardine was a zoologist working for the World Wildlife Fund when he was hired by a magazine to take Douglas Adams to see the world’s rarest nocturnal lemur, the Madagascar aye-aye. The trip was enough of a success that they decided having Adams write funny things about his attempt to visit endangered species was a good way to raise awareness about animal conservation, so they reunited a few years later to track down some other animals whose numbers have fallen into the double digits. The resulting collection of ecology/travel essays is hands down one of my all time favorite books.

During the course of their travels, Carwardine and Adams go to Indonesia to visit the Komodo dragon, Zaire to see the Northern White rhinoceros, New Zealand to see the Kakapo parrot, China to see the Yangtzee River dolphin and Mauritius to see the Rodrigues fruit bat. Adams’ style of absurdist humor is particularly well-suited to detailing the problems involved in merely getting to the places where these animals are supposed to be, since they are frequently located rather inconveniently in remote areas of third world countries. His front line reports set the stage by being laugh out loud funny, keeping us so entertained and open that by the time we finally do get to meet these precarious creatures, we have no choice but to care about them and their fates as much as our intrepid reporters do.

Charming, very funny, and extremely important. This is the book that introduced me to the kakapo (which, happily, is doing much better now than it was when the book was published!) and the Baiji (which, sadly, is virtually gone). I'd recommend this to just about anyone, even if you're not a fan of Douglas Adams's other work.

Have you ever read a book laughing so hard that tears are streaming down your face and then in the next five minutes, crying copiously and having very different tears stream down the same old face? Well, I just did. I always knew that the dodo was extinct but today I sat in a corner and wept for a full fifteen minutes because there are no dodos left in the world anymore. That is what the Last Chance to See does to you. It makes you see things about the world and what we've done with it, things you always knew (but possibly were never interested in being aware of) in such a stark new light that it's like a whack to the back of your head. And to put across something as sensitive as this, in an entirely non-confrontational, non-preachy, poignant way laced with such uproarious humor, is something other writers can only dream of. Traversing across people, bureaucracy, rainforests, wildlife, flora and cultures with so much nonchalance, this one is an eye-opener and as cheesy as it sounds, could be your 'last chance' to see this world and your co-inhabitants with some new found love and respect. MUST READ.

I really enjoy Douglas Adams humor and writing style, so this was a fun and accessible read for me. It brings up plenty to consider with humans, our relationship with nature, and the catch 22s of Eco-Tourism.

This book serves as a time capsule of the status of species during the authors' trips to these destinations, and it feels odd to read their accounts when we live in an internet age, where we may already know about Komodo Dragons, Aye Ayes, river dolphins and rhinos.

For a lot of readers, the book's publishing date of 1990 to present day is within our lifetime, and i think it highlights how good and bad influences like governance, conservation efforts, habit destruction, poaching can have an impact within a relatively short period of time.

Genial einzigartiges Werk! Der Science Fiction Autor Douglas Adams besucht zusammen mit Zoologen und anderen Fachleuten einige Exemplare von Tier- und Pflanzenarten, die vom Aussterben bedroht sind. Dieses Buch ist ein Mittelding zwischen Reisebericht, populärwissenschaftliches Sachbuch zu Biologie, Zoologie und Genetik und - man glaubt es kaum - eine gehörige Portion Satire bzw. Galgenhumor ist auch noch drinnen.

Naiv wie seine Figuren im Anhalter entdeckt Douglas Adams diesmal auf unserem Planeten völlig fremde Welten bzw. auch bekannte Phänomene und beschreibt sie wie ein ausserirdischer Ethnologe sprachgewaltig und mit spitzer Feder. Beispielsweise werden die Komodo-Warane, weisse Nashörner, Yangtse Delfine, Berggorillas und viele andere bedrohte Tiere besucht, die Dramatik der Situation ausführlich mit viel Hintergrundwissen und sehr plakativ beschrieben und ganz nebenbei und lapidar auch noch die afrikanische Bürokratie, der Indonesische Tourismus oder der chinesische Umgang mit der Umwelt herrlich auf die Schippe genommen.

Fazit: Viel gelernt und gut amüsiert. Sprachlich ein Hammer - alles was ein Favorite auf meinen Bücherregalen braucht.

Ach ja mein Lieblingswort im Buch "bewusstseinszerknüllend"

What strikes me the most with this book is that Adams is really good as a non-fiction writer. It's funny, witty, sarcastic while at the same time dead serious. As it should be. This is a serious subject that still today, more than 30 years later, retains it's urgency.

Unfortunately, it starts to feel a bit repetetive towards the end. The jokes are getting old, or maybe it's the fact that they're essentially doing the same trip over and over again. Sure, they're travelling to different parts of the world, visiting different eccentrics, experiencing different culture-clashes, trekking for different animals... But having the same epiphanies.

Still, as an elegy over the incredible stupidity of man, this is top notch.

The year long journey which Douglas Adams shared with environmentalist Mark Carwardine resulted in the writing of a book distinguished by lucidity, humaneness and fine grained detail. It is equal part an exploration of endangered species of animals as it is a depiction of the human cultures which coexist with them. Carefully straying away from anthropomorphism, the work instead spans the spectrum of human attitudes towards other living beings: the Chinese town which rebranded its toilet paper to promote the conservation of the Baiji river dolphin but later served two of them to guests of honour, or the people of Mauritius, who, seeing that a tree was now surrounded by a fence, all of a sudden assumed it to have healing properties, though it grew unnoticed by the side of the road previously. What is special about Last Chance to See is that unlike other books on wildlife conservation, it doesn't point a blaming finger. Instead, it adopts a heartfelt and often humorous tone of shared responsibility, which makes it so much more convincing:

“There is no ‘tropical island paradise’ I know of which remotely matches up the fantasy ideal that such a phrase is meant to conjure up, or even to what we find described in holiday brochures. It is natural to put this down to the discrepancy we are all used to finding between what advertisers promise and what the real world delivers. It doesn’t surprise us much more. t

So it can come as a shock to realise that the world we hear described by travelers f previous centuries and biologists of today really did exist. The state it’s in now is only the result of what we’ve done to it, and the mildness of the disappointment we feel when we arrive somewhere and find that it’s a bit tatty is only a measure of how far our own expectations have been degraded and how little we understand what we’ve lost. The people who do understand what we’ve lost are the ones who are rushing around in a frenzy trying to save the bits that are left.”