Zoo Quest to Madagascar

Zoo Quest to Madagascar PDF Author: David Attenborough
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780718894825
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
David Attenborough is well known as a leading naturalist and explorer, travelling in little-known countries in search of the rare and exotic, and writing his extrememly popular books about strange encounters and unforgettable scenes. This is the full account of four months he spent travelling several thousand miles throughout the island of Madagascar to meet the varied peoples whose origin stems from the Far East rather than from nearby Africa, study their local customs, and film some of the remarkable animals which occur nowhere else in the world. Spectacular chamaeleons, nearly three feet in length and gaudily coloured, geckos so well camouflaged they are almost impossible to find, millipedes the size of golf-balls, the ceremonies of turning of the dead and sacrificing to crocodiles-these are some of the things described in this fascinating book. But the principal objective of the expedition was to film and observe the unique, and uniquely charming, lemurs. He saw brown lemurs, gentle lemurs, ruffed lemurs, ringed lemurs and mouse lemurs. He spent days tracking the snow-white sifakas which few naturalists have observed in the wild, witnessed their prodigious leap, watched them play and writes about their affectionate family life. Finally, he heard the weird, deafening wail of the legendary indris and day after day returned to the same place in the dense rain forest in the hope of seeing this magnificent lemur. At last he was rewarded with the sight of a big male sitting astride a branch like a child on a see-saw, two youngsters and an old female carrying a baby on her back. For a week he watched this family, entranced by the indris which of all the creatures we filmed in Madagascar was the rarest, the least known scientifically, and the most enduring. David Attenborough is a lively writer with an incredible understanding of nature and acute powers of observation. Whether he is describeding the emergence from its large cocoon of the spectacular Malagasy comet moth, or telling the amusing story of how a tenrec was lost in and recovered from the coachwork of a car, or writing about his painstaking search for the egg fragments of an extinct bird, he brings to bear his vivid descriptive talents which makes this a most rewarding and entertaining book to read

Zoo Quest to Madagascar

Zoo Quest to Madagascar PDF Author: David Attenborough
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780718894825
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 162

Get Book

Book Description
David Attenborough is well known as a leading naturalist and explorer, travelling in little-known countries in search of the rare and exotic, and writing his extrememly popular books about strange encounters and unforgettable scenes. This is the full account of four months he spent travelling several thousand miles throughout the island of Madagascar to meet the varied peoples whose origin stems from the Far East rather than from nearby Africa, study their local customs, and film some of the remarkable animals which occur nowhere else in the world. Spectacular chamaeleons, nearly three feet in length and gaudily coloured, geckos so well camouflaged they are almost impossible to find, millipedes the size of golf-balls, the ceremonies of turning of the dead and sacrificing to crocodiles-these are some of the things described in this fascinating book. But the principal objective of the expedition was to film and observe the unique, and uniquely charming, lemurs. He saw brown lemurs, gentle lemurs, ruffed lemurs, ringed lemurs and mouse lemurs. He spent days tracking the snow-white sifakas which few naturalists have observed in the wild, witnessed their prodigious leap, watched them play and writes about their affectionate family life. Finally, he heard the weird, deafening wail of the legendary indris and day after day returned to the same place in the dense rain forest in the hope of seeing this magnificent lemur. At last he was rewarded with the sight of a big male sitting astride a branch like a child on a see-saw, two youngsters and an old female carrying a baby on her back. For a week he watched this family, entranced by the indris which of all the creatures we filmed in Madagascar was the rarest, the least known scientifically, and the most enduring. David Attenborough is a lively writer with an incredible understanding of nature and acute powers of observation. Whether he is describeding the emergence from its large cocoon of the spectacular Malagasy comet moth, or telling the amusing story of how a tenrec was lost in and recovered from the coachwork of a car, or writing about his painstaking search for the egg fragments of an extinct bird, he brings to bear his vivid descriptive talents which makes this a most rewarding and entertaining book to read

Zoo Quest to Madagascar

Zoo Quest to Madagascar PDF Author: David Attenborough
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Madagascar
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description


Zoo Quest to Guyana

Zoo Quest to Guyana PDF Author: David Attenborough
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781856952033
Category : Animal behavior
Languages : en
Pages : 250

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Book Description


Journeys to the Other Side of the World

Journeys to the Other Side of the World PDF Author: David Attenborough
Publisher: Two Roads
ISBN: 147366666X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
'With charm, erudition, humour and passion, the world's favourite natural history broadcaster documents some of his expeditions from the late 1950s onwards' Sunday Express Following the success of the original Zoo Quest expeditions, the young David Attenborough embarked on further travels in a very different part of the world. From Madagascar and New Guinea to the Pacific Islands and the Northern Territory of Australia, he and his cameraman companion were aiming to record not just the wildlife, but the way of life of some of the indigenous people of these regions, whose traditions had never been encountered by most of the British public before. From the land divers of Pentecost Island and the sing-sings of New Guinea, to a Royal Kava ceremony on Tonga and the ancient art of the Northern Territory, it is a journey like no other. Alongside these remarkable cultures he encounters paradise birds, chameleons, sifakas and many more animals in some of the most unique environments on the planet. Written with David Attenborough's characteristic charm, humour and warmth, Journeys to the Other Side of the World is an inimitable adventure among people, places and the wildest of wildlife. 'Abundantly good' TLS 'A wondrous reminder of Attenborough's pioneering role . . . full of delightful tales' Daily Express 'An adventure that sparked a lifetime's commitment to the planet' The Lady 'Attenborough is a fine writer and storyteller' Irish Times

Zoo Quest for a Dragon

Zoo Quest for a Dragon PDF Author: David Attenborough
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780718894795
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
This is the full account of David Attenborough's recent Zoo Quest expedition to the islands of Indonesia. "Our plan," he writes, "was to travel widely throughout these islands, filming not only animals but also people and their everyday life. Our ultimate objective was to reach a small islet named Komodo, for we were going there to seek one of the most remarkable creatures alive today, the largest lizard in the world, the Komodo dragon." Zoo Quest for a Dragon describes an exciting 3,000-mile journey in Indonesia- to the enchanting island of Bali, where the author and his companion, Charles Lagus, were fascinated by the dancing, music and temples; to Java, where they climbed the sleep slopes of an active volcano and gazed down into the heaving cauldron; and to the interior of Borneo, where they stayed in the longhouses of the Dyak peoples, and observed and captured many animals including Benjamin, the baby bear, and Charlie, a mischievous orang-utan. Finally, in a hazardous voyage by prau under the captaincy of a gun-smuggler, they reached Komodo, and discovered and filmed a fabulous dragon. David Attenborough writes vividly about his travels, the people he met, and the animals he saw and captured. But above all it is an entertaining story, for as in his first book, Zoo Quest to Guiana, the author reveals his irrepressible sense of the ridiculous, his rich vein of humour, and his gift as a brilliant raconteur

Journeys to the Past

Journeys to the Past PDF Author: David Attenborough
Publisher: Conran Octopus
ISBN:
Category : Aboriginal Australians
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description
This volume comprises abridged versions of: Zoo quest to Madagascar, Quest in paradise, and Quest under Capricorn.

Life on Air

Life on Air PDF Author: David Attenborough
Publisher: BBC Books
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
Sir David Attenborough's career as a naturalist and broadcaster has spanned nearly five decades and there are very few places on the globe that he has not visited. In this volume of memoirs David tells stories of the people and animals he has met and the places that he has visited.Sir David's first job after Cambridge University and two years in the Royal Navy - was at the London publishing house Hodder & Stoughton.Then in 1952 he joined the BBC as a trainee producer and it was while working on the Zoo Quest series (1954-64) that he had his first opportunity to undertake expeditions to remote parts of the globe to capture intimate footage of rare wildlife in its natural habitat. He was Controller of BBC2 (1965-68), during which time he introduced colour television to Britain, then Director of Programmes for the BBC (1969-1972). However in 1973 he abandoned administration altogether to return to documentary-making and writing.Over the last 25 years he has established himself as the world's leading natural history programme maker with several landmark BBC series, including Life on Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984), The Trials of Life (1990), The Private Life of Plants (1995) and Life of Birds (1998).Sir David Attenborough is a Trustee of the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: an Honorary Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge: a Fellow of the Royal Society and was knighted in 1985.

Adventures of a Young Naturalist

Adventures of a Young Naturalist PDF Author: David Attenborough
Publisher: Quercus
ISBN: 1635060710
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
"A GREAT BOOK." --THE NEW YORK TIMES "MARVELOUS." --THE TELEGRAPH "A RARE GLIMPSE OF A FLEDGLING DAVID ATTENBOROUGH IN THE WILD." --VANITY FAIR Living legend and presenter of BBC's Planet Earth series Sir David Attenborough tells the story of his early career as a broadcaster and a naturalist in his own words. In 1954, David Attenborough, a young television presenter, was offered the opportunity of a lifetime--to travel the world finding rare and elusive animals for the London Zoo's collection, and to film the expedition for the BBC for a new show called Zoo Quest. This is the story of those voyages. Staying with local tribes while trekking in search of giant anteaters in Guyana, Komodo dragons in Indonesia, and armadillos in Paraguay, he and the rest of the team contended with cannibal fish, aggressive tree porcupines, and escape-artist wild pigs, as well as treacherous terrain and unpredictable weather, to record the incredible beauty and biodiversity of these regions. Written with his trademark wit and charm, Adventures of a Young Naturalist is not just the story of a remarkable adventure, but of the man who made us fall in love with the natural world and taught us the importance of protecting it--and who is still doing so today.

Stolen World

Stolen World PDF Author: Jennie Erin Smith
Publisher: Crown
ISBN: 0307720268
Category : True Crime
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Tortoises disappear from a Madagascar reserve and reappear in the Bronx Zoo. A dead iguana floats in a jar, awaiting its unveiling in a Florida court. A viper causes mayhem from Ethiopia to Virginia. In Stolen World, Jennie Erin Smith takes the reader on an unforgettable journey, a dark adventure over five decades and six continents. In 1965, Hank Molt, a young cheese salesman from Philadelphia, reinvented himself as a “specialist dealer in rare fauna,” traveling the world to collect exquisite reptiles for zoos and museums. By the end of the decade that followed, new endangered species laws had turned Molt into a convicted smuggler, and an unrepentant one, who went on to provide many of the same rare reptiles to many of the same institutions, covertly. But Molt soon found a rival in Tommy Crutchfield, a Florida carpet salesman with every intention of usurping Molt as the most accomplished reptile smuggler in the country. Like Molt, Crutchfield had modeled himself after an earlier generation of natural-history collectors celebrated for their service to science, an ideal that, for Molt and Crutchfield, eclipsed the realities of the new wildlife-protection laws. Zoo curators, caught between a desire for rare animals and the conservation-minded focus of their institutions, became the smugglers’ antagonists in court but also their best customers, sometimes simultaneously. Crutchfield forged ties with a criminally inclined Malaysian wildlife trader and emerged a millionaire, beloved by some of the finest zoos in the world. Molt, following a string of inventive but disastrous smuggling schemes in New Guinea, was reduced to hanging around Crutchfield’s Florida compound, plotting Crutchfield’s demise. The fallout from their feud would result in a major federal investigation with tentacles in Germany, Madagascar, Holland, and Malaysia. And yet even after prison, personal ruin, and the depredations of age, Molt and Crutchfield never stopped scheming, never stopped longing for the snake or lizard that would earn each his rightful place in a world that had forgotten them—or rather, had never recognized them to begin with.

Quest Under Capricorn

Quest Under Capricorn PDF Author: David Attenborough
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780718894832
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
David Attenborough's accounts of his famous "Quests" have been immensely popular. His latest book is as compelling as any, rich in anecdote, extremely readable, and about a wild, remote and beautiful land, little known even to Australians themselves. The Northern Territory of Australia is vast- although it is no more than one-sixth of Australia, it is six times the size of the British Isles. Yet it has a total population of a mere 37,000. The Tropic of Capricorn runs close to its southern boundary across a desert of naked rock peaks and ochre-red sands. Its northern coasts, a thousand miles away, are rimmed with mangrove swamps and desolate valleys haunted by wallabies, cockatoos and huge flocks of water birds. On his four-months' journey through this desolate and fascinating country David Attenborough spent much of his time observing these and many other creatures that make this part of Australia such an intriguing place for a naturalist- birds that collect white snail-shells and quartz crystals as though they were jewels and build a special arena in which to display them; lizards that run on their hind legs like miniature dinosaurs and have a great flap of skin around the neck which can be erected like an Elizabethan ruff; immense herds of buffalo which, first imported to the Territory over a century ago as beasts of burden, have now run wild and multiplied to become the most dangerous creatures in the bush through which they roam. The author's descriptions of these animals make fascinating reading, but so also do his accounts of the diverse people he met: a man who paints his body with human blood and is preparing to vote in government elections; a solitary gold prospector who, after thirty years of fruitless search in the scorching desert, believes that to find gold would be a disaster; an artist living in a bark shelter with a few possessions other than a knife and a loin-cloth, whose paintings sell for high prices in cities two thousand miles away. David Attenborough writes vividly and wittily about these encounters, as well as describing such subjects as the ancient rock-paintings he examined that show men and women, hunting scenes and animals, all in startling symbolic design, which in many cases parallel the first drawings mankind ever made in the prehistoric caves of Europe; a secret tribal ceremony he witnessed that brings those taking part into communion with the gods of Dreamtime; and how the aborigines survive in the empty desert which, in spite of its apparent barrenness, provides them with all they need