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Fundamentals of conservation biology is exactly what its title advertises – an introductory text that guides undergraduate students through the major topics in the field. The text is divided into four sections – description of biodiversity (four chapters), threats to (five chapters) and maintenance of (four chapters) biodiversity, and finally, the socio-economics and politics of conservation (three chapters). The first chapter provides a brief history of the development of modern-day conservation biology and its historical roots. From the start we are drawn into Hunter’s comfortable writing style that flows easily and effortlessly from one topic to the next. Basic theories are presented, but these are done largely verbally and only occasionally in equations or graphs. Hunter makes good use of box insets to expand on particular methodologies, theories, or case studies. In addition, most chapters end with a specific application; many of these tell conservation success stories or at the least after painting the specific crisis situation, he ends with an optimistic and hopeful tone. The complexities of nature led David Ehrenfeld to claim that there will be no shorthand book to conservation (1989. Hard times for diversity, pp. 247-250 in David Western and Mary Pearl, eds. Conservation for the twenty-first century. Oxford University Press). Hunter does not offer one here. Throughout the text Hunter identifies where basic principles are not generally supported by empirical data. Nonetheless, his own opinions of these theories, or other controversial issues often emerge from the text. Students are challenged at the end of each chapter with a series of discussion questions – questions to which there invariably are no simple or “right” answers.

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Caughley and Gunn discuss the conservation and ecology of species in 13 chapters in Conservation biology in theory and practice. Although some chapters parallel those found in Hunter (e.g., extinctions, design of nature reserves), Caughley and Dunn approach their topic quite differently. Perhaps in response to the criticism that conservation biology is not a hard science, the first chapter is devoted to describing the scientific process and stressing the importance of hypothesis testing and experimental design. The examples in this chapter provide a common thread to the book as they are revisited in later sections on population demography, loss of genetic variation, population viability analyses, in situ and ex situ recovery methods, reserve design, economics and trade, and establishment and enforcement of international treaties and national legislation. In numerous cases, failure of species’ recovery are described and attributed to either misdiagnoses of the cause of population declines, the multiplicity of problems impeding recovery, or the failure to take the necessary action (i.e., correcting the root cause of the decline).
More so than Hunter, Caughley and Gunn portray the practice of conservation as quite difficult from both theoretical and real world perspectives. They stress the inadequacy of empirical data to scientifically diagnose population declines, let alone assess those declines and prescribe solutions. Moreover, even when the ecology is well understood and solutions are apparent, Caughley and Gunn describe how the practicality of implementing these management plans from biological, socio-economic, and political perspectives often becomes a barrier to successful recovery of populations. Throughout each section, Caughley and Gunn provide critical evaluation of topics and caution against developing recovery plans, designing reserve networks, or enacting treaties or laws with inadequate data. In both, the examples are admittedly biased towards bird and mammal examples. The line drawings are excellent and add a nice touch to both texts. Hunter’s text has very few typographical errors, whereas considerably more occur in Caughley and Gunn. Use of simpler maps to show species’ geographic distributions would have made the figures less “busy” in Caughley and Gunn. In addition, the inclusion of graphical depictions of models to supplement presentation of equations would likely enhance students’ ability to understand many of the models included in Caughley and Gunn.
Hunter’s progression through the major issues and topics of conservation biology largely parallels my undergraduate course, where the sole prerequisite is completion of an introductory biology course. A strength of Hunter’s text is the breadth of material covered and the excellent writing style. In contrast, a strength of Caughley and Gunn’s text is the emphasis on a scientific approach, in-depth coverage of the theoretical problems of small populations and their dynamics, and the presentation and critical evaluation of numerous case studies. This text would provide a solid foundation for a more quantitative undergraduate conservation biology course or seminar. When I started teaching undergraduate conservation biology courses in 1990, I also felt that there was a gaping hole out there just waiting to be filled. These two books have made significant progress in closing this gap.