{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/60351b4234ff8e4678ef413e/607ddf23e5bdf35cea0c5a4f?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"GONE - An excerpt","thumbnail_width":200,"thumbnail_height":200,"thumbnail_url":"https://open-images.acast.com/shows/60351b4234ff8e4678ef413e/1618861209158-0c16448c7b34669b91d8aeb24801381b.jpeg?height=200","description":"<p><strong>Here you can listen to a preview of&nbsp;the GONE audiobook - OUT NOW</strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Dynamic naturalist Michael Blencowe has travelled the globe to uncover the fascinating backstories of 11 extinct animals, which he shares with charm and insight in&nbsp;<em>Gone</em>.</strong></p><p>Inspired by his childhood obsession with extinct species,&nbsp;Blencowe takes us around the globe&nbsp;- from the forests of New Zealand to the ferries of Finland, from the urban sprawl of San Francisco to an inflatable crocodile on Brighton’s Widewater Lagoon.&nbsp;Spanning five centuries, from the last sighting of New Zealand’s Upland Moa to the 2012 death of the Pinta Island Giant Tortoise, Lonesome George, his memoir is peppered with the&nbsp;accounts of the hunters and naturalists of the past&nbsp;as well as revealing&nbsp;conversations with the custodians of these totemic animals today.&nbsp;</p><p><br></p><p>Warm, wry, and thought-provoking,&nbsp;<em>Gone</em>&nbsp;shows that&nbsp;while each extinction story is different, all can inform how we live in the future. Discover and learn from the stories of the:&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><ul><li><strong>Great Auk</strong>. A majestic flightless seabird of the North Atlantic and the \"original penguin\".</li><li><strong>Spectacled Cormorant</strong>. The \"ludicrous bird\" from the remote islands of the Bering Sea.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Steller’s Sea Cow</strong>. An incredible 10-tonne dugong with skin as furrowed as oak bark.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Upland Moa</strong>. The improbable birds and the one-time rulers of New Zealand.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Huia</strong>. The unique bird with two beaks and twelve precious tail feathers.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>South Island Kōkako</strong>. The \"orange-wattled crow\", New Zealand’s elusive Grey Ghost.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Xerces Blue</strong>. The gossamer-winged butterfly of the San Francisco sand dunes.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Pinta Island Tortoise</strong>. The slow-moving, long-lived giant of the Galápagos Islands.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Dodo</strong>. The superstar of extinction.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Schomburgk’s Deer</strong>. A mysterious deer from the wide floodplains of central Thailand.&nbsp;</li><li><strong>Ivell’s Sea Anemone</strong>. A see-through sea creature known only from southern England.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li></ul><p><br></p>","author_name":"Quarto Publishing"}