Science current events, science news articles, research and discoveries.
Top science news articles and science current events stories from the past week.
Science Current Events Resources
Science Current Events and Science News RSS Feeds
Earth, Life and Space Science News and Current Events RSS Feeds.
|
 |
 |
 |
| View Larger Image | Jaguar: One Man's Struggle To Establish The World's First Jaguar Preserve
by Alan Rabinowitz
| | List Price: | $29.95 | | Price: | $26.95 | | You Save: | $3.00 (10%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 397275 | | Studio: | Island Press | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 416 | | Publication Date: | February 02, 2000 | | Publisher: | Island Press |
| |
EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
In 1983, zoologist Alan Rabinowitz ventured into the rain forest of Belize, determined to study the little-known jaguar in its natural habitat and to establish the world's first jaguar preserve. Within two years, he had succeeded. In "Jaguar" he provides the only first-hand account of a scientist's experience with jaguars in the wild. Originally published in 1986, this edition includes a new preface and epilogue by the author that bring the story up to date with recent events in the region and around the world. |
Amazon.com Review
In the early 1980s, working at the behest of the noted biologist George Schaller, Alan Rabinowitz traveled to the newly independent Central American nation of Belize to study jaguars, once extensive throughout the Americas, in a remote, densely forested part of that country. ("If the world had any ends, [Belize] would surely be one of them" Aldous Huxley once wrote.) There, deep within mountainous jungle, Rabinowitz conducted a thorough study of the jaguar's natural history, studying its diet (made up, he writes, of a surprising quantity of armadillos), movements, and territories, and learning the ways of the much-feared cat. He also learned a little something about himself--discovering, he writes, that "once I had overcome my initial fears of this dense, dark green world, I started to enjoy it." Over his two-year stay, Rabinowitz developed plans to establish a forest sanctuary that would be free of the jaguar's principal enemies--not deadly fer-de-lance snakes or other large predators, but loggers, poachers, and cattle ranchers, all of whom had their reasons for wanting to see jaguars disappear from the region. Although he was successful in convincing the Belizean government to authorize the Cockscomb preserve, Rabinowitz writes in the afterword to this revised edition of Jaguar (first published in 1986), the jaguar haven came at a cost to Mayan people who lived in the area and were forced to relocate. His memoir will be of great interest not only to admirers of the jaguar, a magnificent animal by any measure, but also to students of international ecological issues. --Gregory McNamee |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 14 reviews)
|
Machismo in the Bush 
Not a trace of humility here, nor any sense that there were consequences for the people who lived in the Coxcomb basin, who were thrown out so the author could pursue his goals. Conservation as a macho story about the white man.
September 28, 2008 | |
A nature and adventure must-read 
An excellent, passionate book by one of the world's greatest explorers and conservationists. High price for a paperback - hopefully some of the proceeds go to wildlife or land conservation.
February 25, 2008 | |
One of my favorite books!!
Very well written and interesting. Rabinowitz gives an amazingly personal account of his work in Belize. It is truly a great read for anyone.
January 19, 2008 | |
Entertaining and instructive
"Jaguar" is an interesting mix of memoir and natural history, with eye-opening descriptions of life in a remote Mayan village. I read the book while at Cockscomb Basin. I met people who lived there when "Dr. Alan" was doing his work, and they said the book is accurate (though it perhaps made things seem "better" than they were, which is a startling statement once you've read how hard life was for the Maya in this book). He writes in a surprisingly engaging style for a scientist and tells a satisfyingly complete story. There is also a lot in this book for readers who enjoy adventure travel narratives in which people endure extreme hardship and live through things we would never like to experience in person.
November 20, 2007 | |
The Heart of the Jungle
"Jaguar" is the fascinating story of one scientist's journey to study and protect the elusive jaguar, the third largest cat in the world.
Written like a book of fiction, "Jaguar" reads smoothly, capturing your attention and curiosity with its first-person portrayal of life in an alien world: the jungles of Belize. It is peopled with the Maya, a culture rich in history yet suffering poverty, disease, and insignificance in modern times. And in this world exists the jaguar, a powerful cat who is rarely seen and is not a man-eater, yet is hunted almost to extinction for its exquisite spotted fur and because, quite simply, people fear it.
I read "Jaguar" in about 2 days, and fell completely in love with its spirit. The author, a young scientist, struggled hard to successfully understand the lives of these cats within its world and to keep it alive, often to his own personal tragedies. His description of the jungle is unromantic and riveting, as are the terrible hardships that go with it. I will never forget all the diseases, snakes, and parasites than run amok in this story, practically characters of their own. One lesson I came back with is how thankful I am to live in a country with exceptional sanitation and medical care.
"Jaguar" is haunting. You can't finish it without wishing to enter that dark, dangerous jungle of the majestic jaguar. It draws out the adventurer in you. It stirs your compassion.
November 29, 2004 | |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| |
|
|
|
|
