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| Chasing the Dragon's Tail: The Struggle To Save Thailand's Wild Cats | 
| Author: Alan Rabinowitz
Publisher: Island Press
Category: Book
List Price: $30.00
Buy New: $19.80
You Save: $10.20 (34%)
New (6) from $19.80
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 96316
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 264
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 1559639806
Dewey Decimal Number: 333.9541609593
EAN: 9781559639804
ASIN: 1559639806
Publication Date: July 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Struggle To Save Thailand's Biodiversity August 21, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This book describes the day-to-day life and frustrations of renowned conservationist Alan Rabinowitz in Thailand. While the large mammal biodiversity of the country is amazing, it is being severely depleted. The large mammals are victims of a local culture that seems to think of wildlife as free wealth to be plundered for subsistence or luxury.
While he is primarily a conservationist, Dr. Rabinowitz sometimes assumes the role of animal rights advocate as he describes acts of heartless cruelty by the locals towards animals. Examples: a python which is skinned alive by some of his servants (it is easier to remove the skin when the animal is alive), and a magnificent gaur (the largest wild cattle species in the world) which had died a slow death from starvation after its jaw had been shattered by a bullet.
A distinctive feature of Dr. Rabinowitz's passionate first-person narrative is that he cares for wild animals as individuals apart from his desire to save them as species. His study animals are given Thai names and not numbers. He is emotionally involved with their well-being and does not maintain the cold detachment towards them that one might expect from a scientist. He also does not hesitate to give vent to his anger and anguish when one of the animals he has grown familiar with dies a horrible death at the hands of poachers. His view of the local culture is heavily influenced by how they treat animals and is understandably negative. This has been described as "cultural imperialism" by a reviewer but it is hard not to be moved by the sufferings of animals which are skinned alive and left to die in agony. Readers would have to judge for themselves on this point. In my opinion, Dr. Rabinowitz would have failed in his duty as a conservationist if he did not portray accurately the problems of saving Thailand's biodiversity - and most of the problems undoubtedly stem from the fact that the local culture does not see animals as deserving basic human sympathy, kindness and ethical treatment. "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."
Apart from the above sociological aspects of conservation in Thailand, the book contains a lot of information about the mammals themselves and their ecology. There are detailed descriptions of radiocollaring leopards and other wild cats which are very exciting, as are some of the descriptions of the largest cat of them all, the tiger.
Alan Rabinowitz may be a biologist, but he is certainly a skilled writer. January 22, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This is the true story of a biologist with a dark past heading to a small Asian country to study leopards. Though the story is about animal conservation, the human interactions are what make the bulk of it. The author is an emotional person, and the conveyance of his feelings and thoughts in his writing make this story very entertaining. He is also very candid about some of the things he did in Thailand.
I have to say one more thing about his writing style. As I was reading the book, I could picture myself hiking along the trails of the forest reserve, or talking to the forest monks. I cringed and felt helpless as I read of the daily cases of skinning and cooking animals alive. And I felt the sense of helplessness and frustration of trying to stop an entire nation from devouring every bit of wildlife left.
 With Friends Like Alan, Who Needs Enemies? April 30, 2004
3 out of 17 found this review helpful
Self-indulgent prose about a self-involved man's self-pitying and self-important journey halfway around the world to assert himself and his culture on other people. I'm not qualified to comment on his zoological practices, but I don't come away impressed with him. His writing is C level work -- simply wretched. It does have the quality of being revealing, but not necessarily of the point he labors and fails to make. This book is a depressing first-person account of cultural imperialism. No wonder Americans are so universally reviled in other countries...
A captivating story of the state of the tiger in Thailand October 1, 1997
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
"Like his first book, Jaguar, Rabinowitz's Chasing The Dragon's Tail is a telling testimony to the difficulties emarked upon in the attempt at large predator conservation. Rabinowitz's books are a must read for anyone interested in habitat preservation and conservation."
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Wildlife, nature and the Environment
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