num_pages: 304
description: Naturalist Tim Gallagher journeys deep into the savagely beautiful Sierra Madre home to rich wildlife and other natural treasuresand also to Mexican drug cartelsin a dangerous quest to locate the rarest bird in the worldthe possibly extinct Imperial Woodpecker the largest of all carpinteros. Explorer and noted bird expert Tim Gallagher is no stranger to the obsession for adventure. In the early 2000s Gallagher rediscovered the legendary Ivory-billed Woodpeckerwhich most scientists believed had been extinct for sixty yearscausing an international stir.Now in Imperial Dreams Gallagher once again hits the trail with a natural treasure map of sightings of the Imperial bestowed on him by a friend on his deathbed. Charged with continuing the quest of a line of distinguished naturalists including the great Aldo Leopold to find and protect the Imperial woodpecker in its last habitat Gallagher ventures deep into isolated territory the high pine forests of Mexicos Sierra Madre Occidental. In this mysterious historically wild area Geronimo led Apaches in their last stand and William Randolph Hearst inherited a storied ranch which Pancho Villa looted. Today drug lords rule the land.Here in the Sierra the giant Imperials pounding drumbeat once echoed like the blows of an ax through the Sierra as it bored into the massive grub-infested pines hammering on them powerfully for weeks at a time until they groaned shuddered and finally toppled with a thunderous impact that shook the ground. The bird had largely disappeared by the early 1950s yet rumors of Imperial Woodpeckers flying through remote forests persist.Gallaghers quest takes a terrifying turn as he encounters armed drug traffickers burning houses and fleeing villagers. His passionate mission now a life-and-death drama will keep armchair adventurers on the edge of their seats as he chases truth in the most dangerous of habitats.
language: English
title: Imperial Dreams: Tracking the Imperial Woodpecker through the Wild Sierra Madre
publisher: Atria Books