Southern Wonder
Alabama’s Surprising Biodiversity
University of Alabama Press, 2013
Cover photo: Hunter Nichols
“Scot Duncan has delivered one of the most important books ever written about Alabama. Beautifully composed, it is a revelation about one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America and a call to Alabama’s people to treasure and protect the state’s living heritage.”
— Edward O. Wilson Pulitzer Prize-winning author, “father of biodiversity,” and native Alabamian
Southern Wonder: Alabama’s Surprising Biodiversity (2013, University of Alabama Press). Written for the layperson, the book interweaves the disciplines of ecology, evolution, and geology to explain why Alabama is home to more species than any state east of the Mississippi River. Southern Wonder’s foreword was written by Alabama native and distinguished scientist, Dr. Edward O. Wilson. Southern Wonder won the Southern Environmental Law Center’s 2014 Phil Reed Environmental Writing Award, and the Southeastern Library Association’s 2013 Overall Excellence: Hard Cover Award.
How to buy Southern Wonder
Southern Wonder can be purchased through the University of Alabama Press or from book sellers such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
You may also arrange to stop by Alabama Audubon’s Birmingham office to purchase a signed copy (use the “contact us” form on the webpage). All proceeds of that sale will benefit the organization’s conservation and outreach efforts.
The Story Behind Southern Wonder
When I moved to Alabama in 2002 to take a job as a professor at Birmingham-Southern College, I was embarrassingly ignorant about the state’s incredible natural heritage. Read more…