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A Most Remarkable Creature

The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World's Smartest Birds of Prey

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About this listen

 “Utterly captivating and beautifully written, this book is a hugely entertaining and enlightening exploration of a bird so wickedly smart, curious, and social, it boggles the mind.”—Jennifer Ackerman, author of The Bird Way

“A fascinating, entertaining, and totally engrossing story.”—David Sibley, author of What It's Like to Be a Bird

An enthralling account of a modern voyage of discovery as we meet the clever, social birds of prey called caracaras, which puzzled Darwin, fascinate modern-day falconers, and carry secrets of our planet's deep past in their family history.

“As curious, wide-ranging, gregarious, and intelligent as its subject.”—Charles C. Mann, author of 1491

In 1833, Charles Darwin was astonished by an animal he met in the Falkland Islands: handsome, social, and oddly crow-like falcons that were "tame and inquisitive . . . quarrelsome and passionate," and so insatiably curious that they stole hats, compasses, and other valuables from the crew of the Beagle. Darwin wondered why these birds were confined to remote islands at the tip of South America, sensing a larger story, but he set this mystery aside and never returned to it.

Almost two hundred years later, Jonathan Meiburg takes up this chase. He takes us through South America, from the fog-bound coasts of Tierra del Fuego to the tropical forests of Guyana, in search of these birds: striated caracaras, which still exist, though they're very rare. He reveals the wild, fascinating story of their history, origins, and possible futures. And along the way, he draws us into the life and work of William Henry Hudson, the Victorian writer and naturalist who championed caracaras as an unsung wonder of the natural world, and to falconry parks in the English countryside, where captive caracaras perform incredible feats of memory and problem-solving. A Most Remarkable Creature is a hybrid of science writing, travelogue, and biography, as generous and accessible as it is sophisticated, and absolutely riveting. Americas Animals Biological Sciences Environmentalists & Naturalists Outdoors & Nature Professionals & Academics Science Travel Writing & Commentary Animal Science
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I was a little apprehensive about buying this book but wow what a tale, beautifully told and engaging though out, Interesting educational and entertaining

Brilliant book well produced

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I've been lucky enough to see a Striated Caracara at a local bird of prey centre and I was mesmerized by it's inquisitive nature. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it would be impossible to choose which of the four parts was my favourite. I loved learning about the taxonomy of caracaras and their separation from other falcons was told in a way that captured my imagination of foreign lands in prehistoric times. The authors journey through South America was narrated in a way that allowed the reader to join the adventure.

Captured my imagination

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really great book about a little known bird I love how charismatic this creature is and how the book takes you on the journey of the author and his thoight process as well as giving the birds story through time. highly recommend if you like ornithology and its changes due to human intervention

wonderful insightful and funny

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Querky and well written. Provides a comprehensive natural history of South America through the eyes of just one fascinating species of bird (that I had
hardly heard of before). Bird calls amusingly rendered by narrator.

Querky

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