We travel to Zaire, Bolivia, Cameroon, and Peru. With him, we immobilize buffalo in Garamba National Park and sip afofo with Baro village elders. We are awakened in the mornings by red howler monkeys. We are transported to these unusual places by a man dedicated to preserving the balance of our fragile ecosystems. As the sun set, I climbed into the branches of a tree, made a little seat by wrapping a hammock between two branches, and set up the darting equipment.
Motmots are magnificent birds with striking turquoise plumage.
They nest in long tunnels that they dig underground in streambanks. I whistled to him, and he flew up to a branch at eye level. He writes simply, but with great enthusiasm for his subject matter. His love of animals and the outdoors, nature and the environment are obvious, and his passion and enthusiasm helps us to care about those things also. He's a manly James Herriot whose writings are both enthusiastic travelogue and charming essay.