The whole book revolved around two shipwrecks on different parts of Auckland Island, a deserted, barren and really nasty place to find yourself alone and without help. Neither of the shipwrecked crews knew about the other. One set, inspired by their captain, built a community and eventually a ship to sail out on. The other set became murderous and turned to cannibalism.Sounds thrilling right? And it should have been. It should have been such an amazing story it would snapped up to be filmed as soon as it was published. Unfortunately, it was flat and boring. Too much detail that might have been interesting presented better and submerged the exciting and amazing story beneath. Three and a half stars, rounded down because I only finished it because I kept hoping it would improve. __________Notes on reading the book. It is conventional wisdom that the huge male sea lions called beachmasters dominate their harems of much-smaller cows with aggression and fear. But the documentaries we see and the ethologists we read are generally men, occasionally a female scientist, like Elizabeth Marshall Thomas will come up with a totally different view. And so it is with Joan Druett.When the heavily pregnant seals make landfall, the beachmasters who have already (violently) carved out their territories and welcome them beginning to pester them for sex. But the females gallop at speed towards their friends and family known from previous years and rebuff the males until they've had their pups. When the females are ready for mating, if the male isn't showing any interest having perhaps given up, the females rub up against them and display themselves. Mating is a long affair, about 40 minutes, and is usually ended when the female has had enough and turns to bite the male on his neck.After this she will move away from the harem, often miles away with her pup to avoid further attentions of the males.One interesting thing is that male adolescent seals are kept away from the rest of the herd! Very sensible.__________The truth about cows, bulls and chickens when they are allowed to live as they please. Where I live the farmers consider the whole island and everyone's garden their farm and leave their livestock to wander as they will. If you don't have a cattle grid (I don't) then the cows will get in the garden for sure. Some things that are against the 'conventional wisdom' of animal behaviour quickly become apparent. Take cows. A herd of cows is always led by the largest female. Any bulls (and most are removed for beef whilst very young) are not dominant. The cows will challenge people and if either you have a dog or they have calves, they can be fairly dangerous. They do not like dogs at all. The bulls are never dangerous, they always run away, even the big ones, before you can get close. (If the cows have been up on the mountain it is quite likely that in a month their cow pats will have magic mushrooms growing from them. The rastas will come and steal them and sell them to tourists!)Chickens - if they are around a bakery they are likely to be in a flock. But if they are in the country, mostly you see 'married' pairs. A rooster and a hen will always be together. The hen will lay eggs, the chicks get raised and go off on their own, if they survive the hawks, cats and rats, and the rooster and hen will again be stalking around. The pair around where I live have been together for years. The females are always braver than the males who never come forward to pick up scraps except at a run, grab and retreat. It's not really like an Attenborough documentary at all.