7/2/2023 0 Comments A most remarkable creatureAfter a vivid description of the bird, its life on the isolated islands, and a torrent of amusing anecdotes, Meiburg steps back to deliver the big picture. Unlike the fresh-meat diet of most birds of prey, caracara eat nearly everything, including insects, carrion, garbage, mucus, feces, and, according to Falkland lore, “cans of engine grease.” Possessing an insatiable curiosity and intelligence, they have no fear of man, a recipe for extinction, which may be their fate. There he encountered a handsome, raven-sized bird of prey, the striated caracara, distantly related to the falcon, whose bizarre behavior persuaded him to devote “more ink to their antics in The Voyage of the Beagle than he gave any other bird.” Meiburg’s enthusiasm matches Darwin’s, and readers will share it. During his trek, Darwin visited the Falkland Islands, which, along with the Galápagos, are the only New World lands that Europeans actually discovered because they were never inhabited. Meiburg, a journalist and leader of the band Shearwater, begins with Darwin, whose 1831-1836 voyage around the world has provided evergreen material for natural historians since. An entire book devoted to the odd caracara? Yes, and the narrative rarely lags.
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