Vanishing Tracks: Four Years Among the Snow Leopards of Nepal

by Darla Hillard

Book by Hillard, Darla

Genres: Animals, Natural History, Nonfiction, Asia, Nature, Biology, Science

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Grace DiChristina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun book! Not really necessary to read unless u work at the zoo tho

[Sheena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would love to see a snow leopard in the wild but have to accept some things do not come to pass. This was the next best thing

[Jakob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vanishing Tracks: Four Years among the Snow Leopards of Nepal was written by Darla Hillard. I think she wrote this book to document the findings of the research project that she and her colleagues did during the events of the book. Based on the content of the story, her friends that had been a part of the project wanted her to write a book about the project using diaries and notes written during the project, so she did.
During this book, the main characters are the author and several of her friends who are going to Nepal to do extensive research on the elusive snow leopard. With lots of help from native villagers, they manage to establish several camps throughout the rugged terrain of a Nepalese gorge to radio collar and track snow leopards. Thus, I believe that a main theme is survival, since they were completely focused on, after their studies, of course, on surviving in the harsh conditions of the study area. Another theme might be perseverance, since the characters had to persevere to stay in it to complete the project and put up with each other for four years.
This story was told in first person, because the reader only had insight into the author’s thoughts and feelings and only knew what the others were feeling based on what the author knew. This story is also a narrative because it was told through the chronological revealing of the story’s events. This type combination of styles suites this story as it is a compilation of the events of a research project. I think that these two things make the whole story kind of like one big diary of one of the characters. It makes the story seem like it was a documentation instead of a story. Since it actually happened instead of being solely for entertainment, it is fitting that it was arranged like this.
This book was an okay book, as far as I was concerned. I usually like survival type books, so I picked this one because it sounded interesting. But, it didn’t really seem to ever get going. It was a fairly repetitive pattern of the characters going to Nepal, getting to an airport, flying to a remote village, hiking to the study area, staying for a while, going home, and stating all over. Plus, there was a lot of waiting written in. There was almost always a paragraph stating how much they had to wait. There were also many sentences and paragraphs just stating how miserable the characters were, making me wonder what the point was at all. There was never a ton of stuff to keep the reader interested other than wondering how it would end. But, that’s what kept me reading and I eventually finished. Other than being a bit bland, drawn out, and repetitive, it was an okay read.

[g-na · Rating 5 out of 5]

The adventures of a young couple studying snow leopards in the extreme remote regions of the Nepalese Himalayas. The man, a biologist, went on to found the Snow Leopard Conservancy in order to help preserve these beautiful, but extremely endangered, animals. After reading this book I was ready to go adventuring in Central Asia as well, I was so captivated by the descriptions of the wilderness and, of course, of the snow leopards themselves. Recommended.

[Johnr66 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rodney Jackson and the author travel to a remote mountainous region of Nepal to study the endangered and elusive snow leopard. Just to get into the study area required long treks on foot through often foul weather and over mountain passes. They needed to find, trap and collect preliminary data on the cats in time so they could get funding to continue their study. The story at times seems to move slowly but I find it overall to be a great adventure.

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This an amazing book to me. Well written, entertaining. One can almost visualize the country side by the way the author describes it.

I wish I had read it closer to the time it was written, but alas.

[Eileen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could not get into it.

[Ross Hoerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was great to find a book on this subject, and found the subject matter endlessly interesting. Reading about the locations, the culture, the animals, and how the project came together was great. The author, however...less so. Found myself disliking her more and more as I read. From complaining about the lack of hygiene when the villagers are initially offering them food and drink, to her emotional outbursts, and the worst were just little additional sentences that did nothing for the subject matter. I wish she would've stuck to the story of the project without injecting her personal insights/opinions/attempts at humor. Could just be me though... Though I'm sure she was a help to the project as a whole, it seems she often stayed back in camp and was a secondary figure to this whole thing. Would've rather read an account by one of the driving forces behind this project.

[Mckenzee Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweeping and wildly interesting account of two biologists' hunt for snow leopards in the Himalayas. Hillard doesn't sugarcoat the reality of life as a field biologist, but she also showcases just how rewarding the hard work can be. This is well worth the investment of your time. 4 stars.