Flames of Extinction

Over Australia’s 2019–20 Black Summer bushfire season, scientists estimate that more than three billion native animals were killed or displaced. Many species – koalas, the regent honeyeater, glossy black cockatoo, the platypus – are inching towards extinction at the hands of mega-blazes and the changing climate behind them. In Flames of Extinction, award-winning science writer John Pickrell investigates the effects of the 2019–2020 bushfires on Australian wildlife and ecosystems. Journeying across the firegrounds, Pickrell explores the stories of creatures that escaped the flames, the wildlife workers who rescued them, and the conservationists, land managers, Aboriginal rangers, ecologists and firefighters on the front line of the climate catastrophe. He also reveals the radical new conservation methods being trialled to save as many species as possible from the very precipice of extinction.

John Pickrell is an award-winning freelance journalist, the author of Flying Dinosaurs and Weird Dinosaurs, and a former editor of Australian Geographic magazine. He has worked for publications including New Scientist, Science, Science News and Cosmos. John’s articles can be found online and in print at Nature, National Geographic, Scientific American, Focus, BBC Future, The Guardian and the ABC. He has been a finalist in the Australian Museum’s Eureka prizes three times, won an Earth Journalism Award and has frequently featured in The Best Australian Science Writing anthology. Find him on Twitter @johnpickrell.