Essentials of Conservation Biology

Great book - easy read. The text and topics are straight forward and not at all convoluted. Good book for getting straight to the point of the topics.

There is no perfect conservaton biology textbook, but this one is probably the best all-around choice for a general introduction to the field. I've just switched to this textbook for my undergraduate Conservation Biology class. I don't know what the 3rd edition was like, but the 2006 4th edition seems very nicely organized and well-written. I've tried 2 other texts for this course and found Hunter & Gibbs to be too oversimplified, while Groom et al. is too advanced for most undergraduates. Groom et al. is a fantastic reference for a professional or grad student, but is just too overwhelming for your average sophomore bio major. Anyway, Primack's 4th edition hits the middle ground exactly right - a lot of good detail, all the key vocabulary, decent coverage of recent developments in the field, clearly written, nice figures, but not too overwhelming. It's organized in 6 major sections: (1) biodiversity (what & where it is), (2) why we should care, (3) why it's vanishing, (4) population biology (how to keep a small pop'n going), (5) practical solutions (reserve design, restoration ecology etc.), and (6) human society. I plan to supplement it with outside readings & a case-study popular book or two, probably Kurlansky's "Cod" for a look at how human history, culture & economics can combine to gradually drive a species under, and Bodsworth's "Last of the Curlews" (the edition with the beautiful illustrations by T.M.Shortt) just for emotional impact and sheer beauty.