Last Chance to See

Douglas Adams departs from fiction to document his global travels with zoologist Mark Carwardine, tracking species on the brink of extinction. The narrative details their search for the nearly blind Yangtze River dolphin, the flightless Kakapo parrot in New Zealand, and the Komodo dragon. Adams describes the logistical absurdities of international travel and the technical difficulties of field research, such as sourcing condom-based waterproof microphone covers. The text focuses on the specific biological niches these animals occupy and the human behaviors, from poaching to habitat destruction, causing their decline.

This book serves naturalists and fans of observational humor who want to understand the realities of conservation biology without academic dryness. Readers learn about the fragility of isolated ecosystems and the unintended consequences of human expansion. It provides a sobering look at biodiversity loss while offering a perspective on the absurdity of the human condition. People read it to gain a clearer view of the natural world’s current state and a better grasp of what exactly is lost when a species vanishes.