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Katherine Rundell’s Bestiary of Vanishing Treasures

Author photo credit: Nina Subin
/
Doubleday Books

The author Katherine Rundell didn’t believe in love at first sight until she met a pangolin. The encounter with the anteater-like creature made her curious about other endangered animals, and now, she wants us to notice more of these  exquisite creatures.

Her book, “Vanishing Treasures,” highlights some of her favorites. Her beloved pangolins are hunted for food, and their scales are harvested for traditional medicine. Seahorses — the extraordinary species whose male members give birth — are threatened by fishing. Thanks, in part, to fairytales, wolves are seen as malevolent. But, Katherine Rundell says, each of these and other endangered animals are deserving of not just our protection but also our awe. That’s partly what she’s arguing for in her book: that we remember that even animals we see all the time, like raccoons, aren’t ordinary at all.

 

GUEST — 

 

Katherine Rundell | Author of the books “Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne,” “Impossible Creatures” and more. She’s a Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. We spoke with her about “Vanishing Treasures: A Bestiary of Extraordinary Endangered Creatures” [Amazon|Bookshop].

Airdate: Thur., Nov. 7, 2024 at 9 a.m. and Sat. Nov. 9, 2024 at 11 a.m.

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