Adventures of a Young Naturalist by David Attenborough

This is a collection of three books David Attenborough wrote describing his expeditions to Guyana, Indonesia in search of the Komodo Dragon and Paraguay in search of armadillos. They date back to the 1950s so the practice of collecting animals from the wild to put into zoos was quite acceptable then. He makes a point of noting this in his introduction, saying that the practice is no longer acceptable. It’s a fairly old fashioned read, but very interesting. I was surprised, because I’d never really thought about it I guess, about the amount of time wasted getting visas, gathering provisions and waiting for the weather to improve enough to go out. The connections between places were almost non-existent and David and his photographer partner on the expeditions, Charles, take the most incredible risks in the pursuit of their quarry. They sail in leaky boats to god knows where, fly around in small planes held together by string and chewing gum, and head off into the unknown with no food supplies. Extemporisation is the name of the game. I doubt whether they’d be allowed by their employers to travel in this way these days. I liked reading about the animals but these books are more about the journeys, the customs of the local people (before the days of mass tourism) and the characters that these adventurers meet. David Attenborough’s voice permeates the whole thing of course, and I have such a fondness for him that it was like spending an afternoon with an old mate.