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I saw one firefly this evening, and stopping to watch it made me think about how much our idea of “normal” changes over time. One generation remembers hundreds. The next remembers dozens. A child sees only a few and thinks that is summer. Ecologists call this shifting baseline syndrome. Sometimes loss happens twice: first in nature, then in memory.

In 1971, scientists exploring a remote Galápagos island discovered a solitary giant tortoise living among the cactus and Palo Santo trees. Soon named Lonesome George, he carried an unimaginable burden beneath his massive shell: he was the last of his kind. In Endling: The Story of Lonesome George, Maeve Kiley traces the human choices that connects his story to Martha, Sudan, Toughie, and other animals pushed to extinction’s edge.