Humorous science fiction writers and zoologists don’t come together very often, but when they do something wonderful can happen. People who may not be interested in zoology may end up with a lasting involvement, it can change the way they think, bring awareness and help with the protection and continuation of rare animals, and help the environment on the whole. This is what happened with Last Chance To See.

Where It All Began

In 1985 Douglas Adams was in Madagascar looking for a possibly extinct lemur called the Aye-aye. The World Wildlife Fund and the Observer were sending famous authors to remote places to look for endangered species in order to write articles for the Observer Colour Magazine to help raise awareness of ecological issues.

Arriving in Madagascar Douglas was met by zoologist Mark Carwardine (who was working for the World Wildlife Fund at the time), they got on well together and actually found, or rather (briefly) saw, the Aye-aye alive and well.

It would seem that this event in Douglas Adams’ life would change him and the rest of his life forever. Indeed, in conversation the next day, Mark told him about a whole host of other endangered and possibly extinct animals. The result of this was what would become the Last Chance To See Radio Series, Book and CD-ROM.

The Project

Originally envisaged for Television, the costs incurred meant that it was not possible, so they came round to the idea of a radio series. In fact, it seems that a ten minute radio program called Natural Selection: In Search Of The Aye-aye, detailing their first meeting was made and broadcast on the 1 November, 1985.

After working with Geoffrey Perkins on the Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy Radio Series, Douglas asked him to produce Last Chance To See, but after finding out that, rather than accompanying Douglas and Mark on their travels, he’d be staying at home to assemble the raw material, he politely declined.

They decided on spending three weeks to search for each animal, as it turned out, to find them all would take about 300 years, 1,000 more if they included rare species of plants. So they came up with a list and actually found about eight of them. It was generally a case of ‘I’d like to go here...’, ‘Well I’d like to go here...’, ‘OK, so lets go here...’.

It was 1988, when both Mark Carwardine and Douglas Adams were available to start their travels. Mark Carwardine had done most of the organising, since it was field of expertise. So from mid ‘88 to mid ‘89 Mark and Douglas and radio producer Gaynor Shuttle spent the year travelling the world.

The Radio Series

The Radio series was narrated by Peter Jones, again someone who Douglas had worked with on Hitchhikers, and it was broadcast on BBC Radio 4, between October and November 1989. Six, 30 minute episodes made up the series, each episode dealing with a different animal. Four of the episode were repeated the following year. Another five episode series called Last Chance To See was broadcast in May 1997, this series though, was just Douglas reading from the book.

The budget for the radio series wasn’t large, In fact both Mark and Douglas were only paid presenters fees for the series. Their travel and expenses and that of the producer and sound recordist travel and expenses, were paid by Mark and Douglas themselves out of the advance for the novel of the series. It was a little rough, they were given little time to edit and produce the series, and it was rushed out with little promotion, which, understandably, left them a little aggrieved.

Episode Titles and Air Dates

Part 1: The Kakapo Parrot (11 October, 1989)
Part 2: The Yangtze River Dolphin (11 October, 1989)
Part 3: The Amazonian Manatee (18 October, 1989)
Part 4: The Rodrigues Fruit Bat (25 October, 1989)
Part 5: The Komodo Dragon (1 November, 1989)
Part 6: The Juan Fernandez Fur Seal (8 November, 1989)

Infomation about the series is sadly in short supply, most likely due to not having been aired in the UK in its entirety for some time. The Rodrigues Fruit Bat episode however, was broadcast on BBC7 as part of tribute to Douglas Adams in 2003, and maybe possible to find.

Also the series was broadcast in Australia in 2001, on ABC Radio National. The episode titles and episode details below therefore have been taken from their site, however according to epguides.com, the episodes are titled:-

Ralph, the Fragrant Parrot of Codfish Island
Gone Fishing!
Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?
The Answer is Blowing in the Wind
A Man-Eating, Evil-Smelling Dragon
The Sultan of Juan Fernandez

Episode Details

Part 1: The Kakapo Parrot
The fragrant parrot of Codfish Island in New Zealand is large, green and has forgotten how to fly. Which is worrying because there are less than fifty of them left.

Part 2: The Yangtze River Dolphin
According to Chinese legend she's the reincarnation of a drowned princess. She is twenty stone, not very bright, short-sighted and in increasingly short supply.

Part 3: The Amazonian Manatee
….is easily mistaken for a mudbank. The Jesuits thought it was a fish and ate it on Fridays, but in fact it's a totally harmless mammal.

Part 4: The Rodrigues Fruit Bat
….spends most of its time hanging around in trees in the middle of a cyclone belt. At regular intervals it is blown into oblivion somewhere over the Indian Ocean.

Part 5: The Komodo Dragon
….grows up to twelve feet in length, eats goats and people, and has the worst smelling breath of any creature known to man.

Part 6: The Juan Fernandez Fur Seal
Juan Fernandez Island, off the coast of Chile, was the inspiration for 'Robinson Crusoe'. When the book was written in 1719 there were so many Southern Fur Seals it was impossible to walk on the beaches. Today it's very different

Clips

Though its very hard to find, some clips from the radio series are available.

The Official Last Chance To See Website, has a clip of, Dr Struan Sutherland imparting some vital advice about snakes.

The BBC’s online Hitchhikers pages, has a section about Last Chance To See, which includes a clip, Douglas talking about Komodo Dragons.

The Last Chance To See CD-ROM, has many clips from the radio series and some that aren’t.

A new triple CD, Douglas Adams At The BBC, has a number of extracts from the series as well.

The Book

The Last Chance To See Book was released in 1990, not long after the radio series. Despite Mark and Douglas retiring to the south of France with the recording and photographs to write it, after four months they had only got a page written (which never even made it into the final book). In the end the publisher said as soon as you’ve got enough for a book, we’ll publish it. This meant that two of the animals they went to see were omitted from the book, these being, The Amazonian Manatee, and The Juan Fernandez Fur Seal.

Of the three mediums that Last Chance To See exists in, the book is the most well known. It is perhaps worth finding a copy of the hardback version as it seems the text is slightly different in parts.

As previously mentioned a second radio series of five episodes was aired in 1997, which was just Douglas reading parts of the book, an abridged reading of the book by Douglas Adams was released. And parts of the book can be read on the the official Last Chance To See website. Although not as well selling as other Douglas Adams books, Last Chance To See remains his and most fans favourite.

The CD-ROM

The Last Chance To See CD-ROM was released in 1995, it contained a whole host of photographs, the entire text from the book, a complete reading of the book by Douglas Adams, extracts from the radio series and additional audio material.

The Animals - Then And Now

The animals that featured in the radio, book and CDROM of Last Chance To See, were endangered or were thought to possibly not exist in the years (1985 - 1990) that Douglas and Mark went to see, write and make radio programs about them. It would be nice to think that in 2005, their fortunes may have changed for the better...

The Aye-aye

In 1985 few Aye-ayes were known to exist, those that did had been moved to the small island called Nosy Mangabe(there should be an accent over the e), some 20 years previously. Their lowest population was thought to be between 12 and 20 in 1965. Currently they are still listed as endangered, though in 1994 it was estimated that their population could be between 1000-10,000

The Kakapo Parrot

In 1974 no Kakapo’s were thought to exist, by 1995 there were at least 50. Their currant total of 86, relies on the efforts of the New Zealand Wildlife Service, set up in the 50’s, and now the Kakapo recovery program, despite good news in recently years, they still need a lot of help to survive.

Kakapo Recovery Program

The Yangtze River Dolphin

Also known as the Baiji dolphin, it lives, not surprisingly, in the Yangtze river, one of the oldest and busiest rivers in the world. In 1975 the dolphin was declared a national treasure in China, and they set up a protection program but it had little success. From about 6,000 pre 1950’s to less than a hundred in 1995, its estimated that there could be as few as 5 left.

The Amazonian Manatee

The main reasons for the decline in numbers of the Amazonian manatee, is hunting, by humans and animals alike, also human actions such as water control and drowning in fishing nets. It was considered endangered in the 70’s, but in 1973 human hunting was banned. At one time there were great herds, now there are only small groups of four to eight. They are classed as vulnerable, which means a high risk of extinction in the medium-term future.

The Rodrigues Fruit Bat

Like many animals, threats to it habitat are a major problem, in this case deforestation, cyclones have also decreased their numbers. In 1974, 75-80 were left in the wild, by 1990 up to 1,000 existed. A cyclone in ‘92 dropped their number down to 350. A study in 2000, showed a population between 1,500 -2,000.

Mauritian Wildlife Foundation

The Komodo Dragon

Known by locals as ’Ora’, and again as the Komodo Island monitor, there are about 1,000 - 5,000, and it would seem that this has always been their number. Human intervention and threats to its restricted habitat are the problems that endanger its survival.

The Juan Fernandez Fur Seal

Hunted almost to extinction from 1792 - 1806 by sealers, they were rediscovered in late 1950’s - early 60’s. Chile gave total protection to all species of the fur seal in 1978. A census showed that in the early nineties over 6,000 existed, today there is up to 12,000.

The Mountain Gorilla

Discovered in 1902, the Mountain Gorilla is one of our closest relatives. War and poaching are the biggest threats, also their small numbers and diminishing habitat due to humans need for farm land are contributing factors. Dian Fossy (whose life story was turned into a film - Gorillas In The Mist), studied the animals from 1967, till her (unsolved) death in 1985. She set up the Digit Fund, later renamed The Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, to help protect the gorillas. There are around 400 left in the wild at present.

Dian Fossy Gorilla Fund

The Northern White Rhino

2,000 - 3,000 Northern White Rhino’s roamed over five north African states in the 1900’s. With two horns, it was even more attractive to poachers, who began hunting it in 1903 when it was discovered. The poachers left 1,000 alive by 1980, and by 1984 they had killed all but 13. The Garamba Project began that year, and by 2003 they had doubled in number to 32. Sadly poaching has become more of a problem, in the last 14 months poachers have again succeeded to half their number. There are between 17 - 22 left today.

Save The Rhino

Resources

There are many places on the internet, where more infomation can be found.

The Official Last Chance To See website, has text from the book, photos, a clip from the radio series and outakes from Douglas reading the book.

Another Chance To See, a website with up to date news about the animals featured in Last Chance To See.

Douglas Adams website, Since the sad passing of Douglas Adams in 2001, its not updated very often, though it still has plenty of information. For all the lastest news on Douglas Adams, Magrathea, is regularly updated.

Mark Carwardine’s Official Site, this site has receintly been updated, Mark is still working as much as ever.