Platypus Matters
The Extraordinary Story of Australian Mammals
By: Jack Ashby
Paperback | 18 October 2023
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Winner of the Whitley Award for Best Natural History Book 2022
A compelling, funny, first-hand account of Australia's wonderfully unique mammals and how our perceptions impact their future.
Think of a platypus: they lay eggs (that hatch into so-called platypups), they produce milk without nipples and venom without fangs and they can detect electricity. Or a wombat: their teeth never stop growing, they poo cubes and they defend themselves with reinforced rears. Platypuses, possums, wombats, echidnas, devils, kangaroos, quolls, dibblers, dunnarts, kowaris: Australia has some truly astonishing mammals with incredible, unfamiliar features. But how does the world regard these creatures? And what does that mean for their conservation?
In Platypus Matters, naturalist Jack Ashby shares his love for these often-misunderstood animals. Informed by his own experiences meeting living marsupials and egg-laying mammals on fieldwork in Tasmania and mainland Australia, as well as his work with thousands of zoological specimens collected for museums over the last 200-plus years, Ashby's tale not only explains the extraordinary lives of these animals, but the historical mysteries surrounding them and the myths that persist (especially about the platypus). He also reveals the toll these myths can take.
Ashby makes it clear that calling these animals ‘weird’ or ‘primitive’ – or incorrectly implying that Australia is an ‘evolutionary backwater’ – a perception that can be traced back to the country's colonial history – has undermined conservation: Australia now has the worst mammal extinction rate of anywhere on Earth. Important, timely and written with humour and wisdom by a scientist and self-described platypus nerd, this celebration of Australian wildlife will open eyes and change minds about how we contemplate and interact with the natural world – everywhere.
About the Author
Jack Ashby is the Assistant Director of the Museum of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, one of the UK's largest and most significant natural history museums. His life is split between a career dedicated to engaging people with the natural world - chiefly through museums - and ecological fieldwork across Australia, on behalf of universities and wildlife organisations there.
Jack is also the author of Animal Kingdom: A Natural History in 100 Objects a trustee of the Natural Sciences Collections Association and the international Society for the History of Natural History; and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London. When he's not chasing animals for work, he's generally doing it for fun, undertaking mammal watching trips around the world, and sharing his excitement for what he finds on social media.
He lives in Hertfordshire.
A compelling, funny, first-hand account of Australia's wonderfully unique mammals and how our perceptions impact their future.
Think of a platypus: they lay eggs (that hatch into so-called platypups), they produce milk without nipples and venom without fangs and they can detect electricity. Or a wombat: their teeth never stop growing, they poo cubes and they defend themselves with reinforced rears. Platypuses, possums, wombats, echidnas, devils, kangaroos, quolls, dibblers, dunnarts, kowaris: Australia has some truly astonishing mammals with incredible, unfamiliar features. But how does the world regard these creatures? And what does that mean for their conservation?
In Platypus Matters, naturalist Jack Ashby shares his love for these often-misunderstood animals. Informed by his own experiences meeting living marsupials and egg-laying mammals on fieldwork in Tasmania and mainland Australia, as well as his work with thousands of zoological specimens collected for museums over the last 200-plus years, Ashby's tale not only explains the extraordinary lives of these animals, but the historical mysteries surrounding them and the myths that persist (especially about the platypus). He also reveals the toll these myths can take.
Ashby makes it clear that calling these animals ‘weird’ or ‘primitive’ – or incorrectly implying that Australia is an ‘evolutionary backwater’ – a perception that can be traced back to the country's colonial history – has undermined conservation: Australia now has the worst mammal extinction rate of anywhere on Earth. Important, timely and written with humour and wisdom by a scientist and self-described platypus nerd, this celebration of Australian wildlife will open eyes and change minds about how we contemplate and interact with the natural world – everywhere.
About the Author
Jack Ashby is the Assistant Director of the Museum of Zoology at the University of Cambridge, one of the UK's largest and most significant natural history museums. His life is split between a career dedicated to engaging people with the natural world - chiefly through museums - and ecological fieldwork across Australia, on behalf of universities and wildlife organisations there.
Jack is also the author of Animal Kingdom: A Natural History in 100 Objects a trustee of the Natural Sciences Collections Association and the international Society for the History of Natural History; and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London. When he's not chasing animals for work, he's generally doing it for fun, undertaking mammal watching trips around the world, and sharing his excitement for what he finds on social media.
He lives in Hertfordshire.
ISBN: 9780008431471
ISBN-10: 0008431477
Published: 18th October 2023
Format: Paperback
Language: English
Number of Pages: 384
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Country of Publication: GB
Dimensions (cm): 27.6 x 17 x 6.1
Weight (kg): 0.29
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- Miscellaneous Items
- Non-FictionScienceBiology, Life SciencesZoology & Animal SciencesZoology & VertebratesZoology & MammalsMarsupials & Monotremes
- Non-FictionEarth Sciences, Geography, Environment, PlanningEarth Sciences
- Non-FictionEarth Sciences, Geography, Environment, PlanningThe EnvironmentConservation of The EnvironmentConservation of Wildlife & Habitats
- Non-FictionScienceBiology, Life SciencesLife Sciences in GeneralTaxonomy & Systematics
- Non-FictionNature & The Natural WorldThe Earth & Natural History in General
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