Reaching way back in the bookshelf for this one.
AnimalTreasure: A Naturalist in Search of Strange Creatures
Sanderson, Ivan T. (1937: Viking Press, 325pp.)
The first book by Sanderson, who went on to become an
important and controversial figure in zoology and cryptozoology, is a delight for animal
lovers of all sorts. Sanderson was part of the generation of Western zoologists
that finally abandoned the “collect everything you can shoot” mentality to study
animals in situ. This book followed his first major expedition to British
Cameroon (now split between Nigeria and Cameroon). Everything here fascinates
Sanderson: he pays as much attention to ants as to antelopes. In vivid language,
he recounts adventures from being trapped and lost in a cave of bats to trying
to befriend a troop of baboons. The
animals pop off the page as if still alive.
His writing shows some 1930s condescension of Westerners toward the indigenous tribes, although he never says they aren’t his equals as people (in another book, he refers to an African elder as the wisest man he ever met.)
Two wildlife incidents are especially memorable. On one occasion, men
who wanted to show Sanderson they were better fishermen than a rival tribe
dragged ashore a stingray over 11 feet (3.4 m) long. Sanderson had no idea such
giants lived in African rivers. This is also Sanderson’s initial account of a
giant black bat that swooped toward him at head level. He describes it here as
the size of an eagle. [He wrote much later that he and fellow witness Gerald
Russell later compared their diaries and agreed it was 12 feet (3.6 m)
across.] He closes by saying he was
sorrowed by the destruction of the forest, a thought rare in 1937.
Sanderson became one of the first TV nature series hosts and wrote many more books.
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