Page 89 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #11
P. 89
WILD AT HOME
MEET THE AUTHOR
NEW TIGER BOOKS
TheRiseandFallof
theEmerald Tigers Noah Strycker
BY RAGHU CHUNDAWAT, The birder talks about his quest to see half
SPEAKING TIGER BOOKS, £9.72
of the world’s bird species in one year.
The best book on tigers
for many years – and
the saddest. Raghu Whatmadeyoutakeonthisquest? Howdidyouplanthetrip?
Chundawat led a As a kid, I was inspired by Kenn Kaufman’s It took six months to make all the travel
successful pioneering Kingbird Highway, about birding across arrangements. For me, the soul of the trip
study of tigers in the dry forests the US. Then I read of Ruth Miller and was meeting birders in every country I
of Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Alan Davies’ Big Year (a challenge to see as visited. I spent hundreds of hours online
Pradesh, before catastrophe many bird species as possible in 12 months contacting complete strangers, and the
struck: a spike in poaching and a within a specific area) global record of 4,341 response was overwhelming. Many of
new director who didn’t want to species in 2008. I imagined what it would them invited me to stay in their homes.
hear bad news. Chundawat and be like to do one continuous global Big
his team were banned from the Year, birding every day, and picked a target Whatwerethelowpoints?
forest and Panna lost all of its of 5,000 as a nice round number. I came down with flu in South America
tigers. After years of grief, the and suffered Delhi belly in India. The
author has assembled his data in Giveusafewtripstatistics... scariest moment came in Tanzania, when
a comprehensive work, which is I birded in 41 countries on all seven I was in a Land Rover that had a high-
full of fresh insights that only a continents. My highest day-count was 186 speed blowout and ran off the road.
trained observer accrues over species in one morning in Panama, while
years in the field. Magnificent. Ecuador provided the most species in the Wherewereyouwhenyourealised
shortest time – 625 in 12 days. To reach youhadhityourtargetof5,000?
my goal, I needed to see at least one new In the Philippines, with a flame-crowned
species every waking hour – so if a bird flowerpecker. I still had two months to
took longer than an hour to find, I would go, and ended up with a total of 6,042
actually be going backwards. species. My final sighting was a silver-
breasted broadbill, which I saw at sunset
Whatwasthemostmemorable on December 31 in north-east India.
sightingofthetrip?
In Brazil I waited hours for a harpy eagle Howdidyoufeelwhenyourrecord
to arrive at its nest and was eventually wasbrokenbyArjanDwarshuis?
rewarded when the male swooped in with Records are made to be broken! Arjan
Second Nature a coati in its talons. I found a spoon- did a great job streamlining the itinerary.
billed sandpiper in Thailand on my third I will be curious to hear about how other
BY SANJAY GUBBI, RAINFED BOOKS, £11 try – bittersweet, because the species is birders will push the boundaries over
crushingly endangered. the years ahead.
India’s Bandipur and
Nagarahole Tiger
The harpy eagle – a
Reserves are traversed
“Sherman tank with
by seven major roads fighter jet wings.”
whose upgrade posed
a serious threat to wildlife. The
solution, which took years of
byzantine politicking and complex
court cases, was to close the main
arteries at night. Gubbi recounts
Harpy: Nick Garbutt/naturepl.com; tiger: Aditya Singh/Getty something of the wonder of an Birding Without
his involvement in this and other
nitty-gritty case histories, catching
India hurtling into the 21st century
with tigers, elephants and leopards
in its path. His stories offer a
Borders: An
valuable blueprint for campaigning
Obsession, a
in countries where conservation
Quest, and the
Biggest Year in
law does not tick along.
the World
Stephen Mills Tiger expert
£18, Souvenir
Press
November 2018 BBC Wildlife 89
