Reviews for The gypsy trail

The average rating for The gypsy trail based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-12-23 00:00:00 Romain Gilson The book is compared with classics of ecology like Silent Spring, and rightly so. The science of biological invasions is very complex, something the author was careful to admit; but his seminal survey of the problem holds up well on most points (as eminent ecologist Daniel Simberloff points out in the introduction). There's a lot of quotable quotes and witty turns of phrase that make the reading more easy; and the study of biological invasions leads Elton into discussion of the grave threat to biodiversity that has only become worse in the 60 years since this book was first published. The work is also an interesting snapshot of the times. Not just the long list of examples of invasive species that he gives; inevitably, some of these are old news (and I did skim read some of this, it becomes repetitive). The introductory chapters look at how the natural distribution of diversity arose, due to evolution occurring differently on separate continents - and you suddenly realise, how different a view of the world was held before the idea of plate tectonics was adopted (and Elton's book was first published just on the cusp of that revolution in the geological sciences). Still, the discussion of evolution generally holds up despite this, and you can hardly fault Elton for holding the normal scientific view of his times. The scientific discussion of the biological mechanisms of invasion is the most remembered part of this book. Its main contemporary audience is probably biologists looking at the source of the ideas they are researching. But perhaps the best section is his discussion of why should we care about conservation of biodiversity, something that has more than specialist relevance. Is conservation a moral or ethical imperative? An aesthetic and cultural appreciation of nature? Or practical, with considerations of protecting our health and our crops by maintaining ecological stability? Elton weaves all three together to draw a picture of what conservation within our farmlands and urban landscapes might consist of, a vision that has inspired many efforts to date, and should continue to do so.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-03-26 00:00:00 Prashanth Santhekadur It turns out that almost everything we think of as "common knowledge" now about the disasters resulting from humans introducing foreign species was originally the work of C.S. Elton back in the mid 1950s. So in a way, it is hard to appreciate the book because of that --- but it is well worth reading anyway. Who can resist an author who writes lines like, "It is curious that both human beings and this mollusc on the eastern seaboard of North America have evolved the same skyscraper prinicple for exploiting valuable ground to the full."