Tigerland and Other Unintended Destinations

by Eric Dinerstein

In 1972, Eric Dinerstein was in film school at Northwestern University, with few thoughts of nature, let alone tiger-filled jungles at the base of the Himalayas or the antelope-studded Serengeti plain. Yet thanks to some inspiring teachers and the squawk of a little green heron that awakened him to nature's fundamental wonders, Dinerstein would ultimately become a leading conservation biologist, traveling to these and other remote corners of the world to protect creatures ranging from the striking snow leopard to the homely wrinkle-faced bat.

Tigerland and Other Unintended Destinations takes readers on Dinerstein's unlikely journey to conservation's frontiers, from early research in Nepal to recent expeditions as head of Conservation Science at the World Wildlife Fund. We are there as the author renews his resolve after being swept downstream on an elephant's back, tracks snow leopards in the mountains of Kashmir with a remarkable housewife turned zoologist, and finds unexpected grit in a Manhattanite donor he guides into the wildest reaches of the Orinoco River. At every turn, we meet professed and unprofessed ecologists who share
Dinerstein's mission, a cast of free-spirited characters uncommonly committed to-and remarkably successful at-preserving slices of the world's natural heritage.

A simple sense of responsibility, one feels, shines through all of Dinerstein's experiences: not just to marvel at what we see, but to join in efforts sustain the planet's exquisite design. Tigerland's message is clear: individuals make all the difference; if we combine science, advocacy, and passion, ambitious visions for conservation can become reality-even against overwhelming odds.

Genres: Animals, Travel, Nonfiction

279 pages, Paperback

First published September 9, 2005

Reviews

[Sanjay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another beautiful conservation book by the author. His writing simplicity, and gripping description continues in this book. However this book takes us beyond Nepal to several other parts of the world where the author has contributed towards preservation of wildlands.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Not a single human being in my viewfinder, only the creatures that came before us. I felt another purpose for these enchanted islands: not just as a living laboratory to study evolution, but as a natural sanatorium, where they send you to recover when the rigging of your life is ripped from the sails, a safe harbour to undertake repairs of the soul. Maroon me.”- on the Galapagos Islands

Written with beautiful simplicity, this book is a loving amalgamation of science and respectful awe for nature. Each chapter illuminates the glories of different landscapes, teeming with life that most people never get a chance to see, from the Himalayas to the Selous reserve in Tanzania. While many of these animals teeter on the brink of extinction, the author gives us a fleeting glimpse of these precarious creatures, so for a moment we may feel the wonder and love that they inspire. Moreover, the book serves as a potent warning for us to become better guardians of the nature that is in our control. Out of all living species, we are the only ones to decide the fate of entire ecosystems, probably for the worse. The ways in which greed and the illusion of human grandeur threaten environments that support the existence of life on earth is a difficult necessity to read. For instance, the rampant mining for nickel in New Caledonia threatens one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, placing a significant number of species endemic to the area at risk for extinction. The destruction of the Amazon is perhaps even more frightening when reminded that the weather conditions created by this forest impact the success of crop growing that humans rely on in multiple continents. Preventing deforestation, reducing cattle from encroaching on ecologically diverse places, expanding protected areas to prevent faunal collapse and creating natural corridors for migration are all possible. If human greed and shortsightedness reigns, we are liable to make the Earth one giant Easter Island. The book places this absurdity on full display in an existentially comical passage that describes how Delhi and Islamabad troops occasionally trek high up in the Himalayan mountains to attack each other, no doubt to the amusement of an audience of snow leopards. The futile and absurd belief in human exceptionality is our greatest flaw, and potential undoing. It is impossible to read this book without being reminded that we are no better than the wrinkle-faced bat or tsetse fly.

[Richard Williamson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tigerland and Other Unintended Destinations is an excellent book which effectively illustrates the importance of conservation biology. Author Eric Dinerstein recounts his experiences in diverse locations performing research to protect threatened species and ecosystems. Throughout these accounts, Dinerstein emphasizes the ability of individuals to make a difference as well as the cultural aspects relevant to conservation. The descriptions of species and their ecological roles are vividly detailed, but overall, I believe it could be improved with better explanation of scientific vocabulary. Ultimately, I would definitely recommend Tigerland and Other Unintended Destinations to anyone looking to explore the world of conservation biology.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

For an environmental book I thought the author successfully walked the high-wire act of sharing the positive aspects of his experiences in nature and making the case for urgent action without it becoming overly bleak or depressing. His stories were vivid and entertaining, and I liked how each chapter jumped to a different ecosystem around the world. Even so, reading about someone else’s travels is far from getting to experience it firsthand so there was still some degree of just-had-to-be-there.

[Christine Comito · Rating 4 out of 5]

really interesting stories about a biologist for the World Wildlife Fund who traveled to Nepal, the Amazon, Tanzania, Galapagos, etc. studying animals

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decisions always have consequences, and since we are beings of limited prescience (though we foolishly tell ourselves differently) most of those consequences are as unintended as they are unforeseen. Take, for instance, a college student who, inadvertently falling into his own Walden Pond, exchanges his liberal arts classes of literature, philosophy and film criticism for core classes in mathematics and the basic sciences. Such was the experience of author Eric Dinerstein. Next thing he knows, he heading not for the Left Coast or to some tenured ivory tower deep in Academia, but to the wilds of Nepal to study tiger populations and other wildlife. That is just the first stop in an unexpected journey that takes him through all the vanishing lost worlds on the planet, all faithfully recounted in this well written and highly entertaining book that will interest both the classroom naturalist and armchair traveler. We learn, among other things, that prey dung pellets is easier (and safer) than measuring tiger tracks on the trail, that the author has a fascination with vesperian creatures that makes Bruce Wayne's obsession look like a passing phase, and that giant beavers in the wild are nothing like we saw on "The Wonderful World of Disney." Environmentalism (or nature conservation as it was termed in my day) is fraught with fanaticism and hysteria, but the author wisely concentrates on field studies, his own observations of animals and people, and his actual efforts to conserve and repopulate animal and play species. He avoids political pitfalls and environmental shenanigans, and by doing so actually highlights and brings attention to those problems often obscured by activist hype. The author is an erudite and companionable guide for the reader as he travels through a primal world that has not yet vanished, but might some day. This is a book that can be enjoyed on many levels, even by people on opposite sides of the environmental schism.

[Scot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Travel memoir written by a field biologist leader at the WWF. Instructive without being preachy--those who enjoy the study of distant lands or the viewing of Animal Planet should enjoy this book too. Each chapter deals with a different ecosystem and species there that has a conservation issue, and along the way you learn a lot of fascinating details about field biology study practices, an incredibly wide array of birds, insects, animals, and plants, and how these environmentally aware scientists interacted with local cultures in such intriguing places as Nepal, Brazil, New Caledonia, the Galopagos, Tanzania, or Costa Rica. I recommend treating the volume as you would a collection of short stories: dip into it and jump around from chapter to chapter as strikes your fancy, but don't read straight through, or the diverse ecosystems and stream of details about all the differemt species will start to jumble in your mind.

[TRXTRMXTR · Rating 3 out of 5]

The places are well described and there's an image from one that I will never be able to get out of my head. Sloths hanging from Amazonian trees drying themselves in the Sun.