Piers Torday - The Last Wild

I think extinction is a scary word. It means gone forever.

So I created a cast of animal characters who would capture the essence of animals long gone and animals under threat, as well as some who might even outlive us — like that most indestructible of species, the cockroach.

Here are some of the real creatures who inspired my imaginary ones…

The water snakes of Lake Erie in the United States nearly became extinct when their habitat was destroyed by people building houses along the lake shore. But when the government explained the danger the snakes were in, local residents agreed to keep parts of the shore free of houses so the snakes could live there.

The government, local environmental campaigners and residents all worked together to save the snakes. In my world, the water snakes work with Kester to help save Polly.

You might think you see pigeons everywhere — but not the passenger pigeon. These birds went from being one of the most abundant species in the nineteenth century to being extinct in the twentieth century. A bird that had lived on this planet for over 100,000 years, in flocks as big as 3.5 billion, disappeared in a few decades.

Why? Because people farmed them for meat, shot them for sport and cleared the forests where they lived in order to build towns and cities. Cities that provided ideal nesting conditions for the rock pigeon — the kind in the story — to take their place. So while they may seem as numerous today, don’t count your chickens. Or pigeons.

The grey wolf is not yet globally extinct, but the last wolf in the UK was killed in around 1776. Although there are wolves to be found all over the world, from Russia to North America, this beautiful hunter species remains under threat from another apex predator.

Us.

It’s estimated that over eighty per cent of wolves born in the United States each year are shot for sport, including some illegally released from wolf reservations for that purpose.

Wolves may seem frightening, but in fact they have a long history of coexisting peacefully with humans, which is why some Native American tribes revere them as hunter spirits to this day. The wolf-cub honours this ancient custom of wolves living alongside humans, rather than in fear of each other.

This magnificent creature — the biggest deer that ever lived — was extinct a long time before humans were around. You might have found him some 7,700 years ago roaming forests rather like the Ring of Trees.

The ‘Giant Deer’ also had the largest antlers ever recorded, but some experts think this was what led to them becoming extinct as it slowed them down when they were looking for food or escaping hunters in forests. Luckily that’s not a problem the stag seems to suffer from…