In Praise of Reptiles, Rodents, and things that go Squawk in the Night

Wendall -- every other Thursday

Everyone loves pandas. Everyone loves dolphins. But what about the Visayan warty pig, the numbat, or the long lost gastric brooding frog? 

 

Numbats are losing their habitat in Australia.

 

Not all of the fifty most endangered animals on the planet are cute –well, numbats are pretty cute—but they’re all vital to their individual ecosystems and to the planet overall and they’re disappearing, if I may misquote Annie Lamott, “frog by frog.”

 

The gastric brooding frog, who delivered their young through their mouths and held them there, has been extinct since the mid-80s.

 

41% of amphibians are endangered. This one, Leptopeles spiritusnoctis, is threatened in Ghana.

At present, it’s hard to know exactly how many species we are losing. Conservation sites like the World Wildlife Fund, or CITES, The Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, hazard a guess of 2000 extinctions a year—due largely to poaching, loss of habitat, and climate change—but they admit those estimates may be much higher.

 

When I first considered focusing on the world of endangered animal smuggling and the broader issue of wildlife extinction in the Cyd Redondo series, I was still woefully ignorant on this issue and a bit embarrassed about taking on such a serious topic, especially in what was essentially a beach book.

 

 

Sgt. Ian Knox of Scotland Yard’s Wildlife Crime Prevention Unit put my mind at rest. He was a big fan of the “spoonful of sugar” approach to education, saying a book like mine might make someone ignorant about these issues think twice about buying python boots or real tortoise shell barrettes, or inspire them to join the World Wildlife Fund. 

 

An evidence room full of confiscated endangered animal parts and products.

 

So he and his team took me through their horrifying evidence room, told me a million stories, put me in touch with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the various conservation agencies, and the theme for my series was born. I’d never imagined myself writing animals as characters, but remembering the beloved books of my youth like Black Beauty, The Yearling, or The Jungle Book gave me the courage to try.

 

After spending time with the wildlife agents, I was determined to focus on animals that didn’t normally get attention, animals that might make Cyd, or us, uncomfortable. The other requirement was that the creatures needed to fit in her bottomless Balenciaga bag. 

 

Cyd carries a vintage Balenciaga bag on her travels.

 

Like my character, I am utterly freaked out by most reptiles, so in Lost Luggage I went for maximum conflict and a real learning curve for Cyd by creating Barry the Madagascan chameleon as her first sidekick. 

 

Barry, the chameleon.

 

The market for reptiles (as well as many other creatures and their parts) smuggled from and through Africa, from the spurred tortoise to the Madagascan boa to Kasmer’s dwarf burrowing skink, is massive and growing, so I wanted to shine a light on that. As soon as I imagined Barry taking out Cyd’s false eyelashes with his tongue, I was off.

 

There are so many ways to smuggle reptiles, and not just in their luggage.

 

The choice for Drowned Under was easy, as Tasmania has one of the most famous “functionally extinct” species ever—the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger. The last verified thylacine died in the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania, in 1936, but there are still “sightings” and groups like the Thylacine Awareness Group of Australia, who are sure there are still Tasmanian tigers in the wild.

 

The "last" Tasmanian tiger and his keeper.

James and I visited the former site of the Beaumaris Zoo this summer.

 

Even as babies, they’re fierce creatures with very sharp teeth and a strange, keening bark, so I knew keeping Howard the tiger safe, especially in her purse, would make things more complicated and funnier for Cyd, while still offering insight into the world of wildlife crime.

 

Once I decided to set the third mystery, Fogged Off, in London, I thought it might be time to turn to another misunderstood species—rodents, especially when I happened upon one that was irresistible—the highly endangered hazel dormouse. 

 

The species had its “fifteen minutes of fame” in Alice in Wonderland, but my eco-enthusiast character, Grey Hazelnut, insists these creatures are underappreciated. “When he’s motivated in mating season, that little guy can jump ten meters. . . They sing to the females at night with this trilling kind of sound. And their pheromones are so strong that humans can smell them.” 

 

This is how the hazel dormouse sleeps. . .

 

They also sleep curled up with their tails held over their faces and make a distinctive, snuffling snore which is unbearably cute— unless it’s coming out of your purse. Bruce, the dormouse, allowed me to highlight how loss of habitat contributes to wildlife extinction, and how important it is to use Tupperware when you travel.

 

When I decided on Bali as my setting for Cheap Trills, my choice was easy. Not only is the Bali starling “rock star” gorgeous, but even today, where there has been some conservation progress, they remain the most endangered birds on the island. In 2007, when the book is set, there were only 7 of them documented still in the wild. The more research I did, the more evidence I found of a huge network of poachers, smugglers, and corrupt officials involved the Indonesian songbird trade, so in that book, I tried to shine a light on that problem.

 

The highly endangered Bali starling.

 

If you are interested in this issue you can go to sites for both of the organizations above, to the Monitor Conservation Research Society, or to TRAFFIC to read more about what you can do to help these astounding and under-appreciated creatures.

 

--Wendall