Wild Cats – Status Survey and Conservation Action Plan
The 1972 publication became the bible of the then relatively few devotees of Madagascar. It was the only work available in English to summarize what was known at the time of Malagasy physical and biological landscapes. This new book re®nes and expands our knowledge in many key ®elds, including cultural anthropology, thanks to a multi-disciplinary approach made possible by modern techniques. There are fewer taxon-based articles, however, and as an amateur naturalist, I do miss learning what's new on invertebrates, ®sh and non-lemur mammals. But such personal nostalgia is insigni®cant in view of the fact that the book tackles so refreshingly the broad issues of origins and environment. General readers will be intrigued by the terms `deep time', `®rst contact' and maybe even by `integrated conservation and development'. Specialists will be eager to hear how the distinguished authors support ideas which rival traditional thinking about Madagascar: biological isolation began in the Mesozoic, not the Cenozoic; it may be possible to mitigate the negative eects of ancient erosion processes; climatic as well as anthropogenic changes explain the current vegetation cover; disease brought in by human colonists could have been an important factor in killing o the megafauna; losses of big herbivorous lemurs from all habitats indicate acute ecological instability in remaining communities; the patterns of human settlement across Madagascar were highly variable and thus have had variable impacts on the environment; the key to success in biodiversity conservation eorts is certainly not big budgets, but will more likely be found in a matrix of stakeholders engaged in understanding broad environmental issues, evaluating project progress and participating in the process as their speci®c needs dictate. The claims in the book are tempered by realism throughout, for existing gaps in our knowledge and understanding are readily discussed. But as all the authors are quite likely to close many of the gaps during their lifetime's work, one can be hopeful that solutions to Madagascar's paradoxes and problems will be found over the next 25 years.