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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What point does Quammen make by describing his sighting of the species he sought on Aru?

2. What was the state of the muriqui population when Quammen visited Karen Strier?

3. What was the consequence of the Simberloff and Abele article?

4. How does Quammen's visit to Aru compare with Wallace's?

5. According to Jared Diamond, a nature reserve has to have what characteristics, in order to support a large number of species?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Quammen say about applying the case of the Mauritius kestrel to other species?

2. What was the effect of 'An Equilibrium Theory of Insular Zoogeography', according to Quammen?

3. What did Simberloff and Abele propose as a result of their data?

4. What is Quammen doing at the end of the book?

5. What data did Simberloff and Abele deploy in challenging this theory?

6. Describe Quammen's attempt to see an indri.

7. What is the concept of the minimum viable population?

8. What did Lovejoy find in his studies on this question?

9. How do genetics play a role in the minimum viable population?

10. What conclusion dis scientists reach in the Texas case?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is Quammen somehow at fault for not making solid proposals for how to mitigate switch loss? Is his informative book somehow flawed for failing to make recommendations? Debate this proposition using examples from the book.

Essay Topic 2

If you were in charge of protecting the maximum number of species in your region, would you create one large nature reserve, or a number of smaller reserves? Use arguments from the book as well as descriptions of local wildlife in your answer.

Essay Topic 3

What is the genre of 'The Song of the Dodo'? Is it a travel narrative? Is it primarily a memoir? A book-length article about a scientific field? Is it a scientific treatise?

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