The Snow Leopard: Peter Matthiessen

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Early in the book, I found myself wondering why or to be more exact what type of father would leave a young son just a year after the son lost his mother. Matthiessen himself seems to be aware of this reaction, and he does not try to beg excuses. Instead, he quotes his son’s letter, a sobering missive. The sole predator of snow leopards? Humans. Poaching, habitat loss, declines in natural prey species, and retaliatory killings resulting from human-wildlife conflict are the main reasons this big cat is under threat.

Up in the mountains there are beautiful lyrical passages (perhaps I need to add purple passages to my list of content warnings) describing what he saw. I wondered if these were affected by the thin air or his drugs regime or his desire to experience the profound despite his Buddhist teacher warned him to expect nothing. Marma, B., V. Yunchis. 1968. Observations on the breeding, management and physiology of Snow leopards. International Zoo Yearbook. Zoology Society of London, 8: 66-73.

Vertebrata: information (1) Vertebrata: pictures (15168) Vertebrata: specimens (6827) Vertebrata: sounds (709) A masterpiece of travel and nature writing that gloriously transcends both genres. This is one of the best books I've ever read in the English language. Yes, that's right. I'm including a quote at the end of this review so you can see what I'm talking about. When you get to that quote, try reading it aloud. The beauty of those words spoken will break your heart. Matthiessen frequently digresses to remember his wife Deborah Love who had died of cancer prior to the adventure. [4] The book is, therefore, also a meditation upon death, suffering, loss, memory and healing. The memories of Deborah operate with a number of other recursive stylistic traits that play against the linear, outward progress of the journey logged through maps and dates. [5] Tl;dr - A great winter book with stunning illustrations and a rather mythical, mystical bent to it. I'm not giving it five stars because I am not clear on some things. Where are the girl's parents? Were they killed by the invaders? Does anyone notice the girl is missing? Does the girl miss her family when she is taken away by the snow leopard and taught how to be a mystical protector? Too much is up in the air for me to be completely satisfied with this book.

Matthiessen's endlessly droning voice reassures us that One Day we will all be completely happy.... Don't worry, the snow leopard saves the village later by convincing the soldiers that the village is haunted by demons. Genesis: how the Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program and the Snow Leopard Initiative were formed

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The snow leopard’s powerful build allows it to scale great steep slopes with ease. Its hind legs give the snow leopard the ability to leap six times the length of its body. A long tail enables agility, provides balance and wraps around the resting snow leopard as protection from the cold. Join our discovery rangers for a wild walking tour and discover how animals like polar bears are helping protect our native species! Every 5 seconds we would drift off into some gabble about Buddhism that made no sense. Sometimes I feel that the concepts of Buddhism aren’t so hard to grasp, but scholarly scriptures make it harder. What I mean is, I often wondered if Matthiessen himself knew what he was talking about. The point where I gave up was when he was talking about doing LSD while “reveling in the lessons and scriptures of Buddhism”. I understand that during the 60-70, associating drugs to eastern philosophy was a thing, but putting that in a book isn’t going to make me believe that the person is serious about learning (or even knows what their saying). He read the book in sequence with the retraced journey. Did it feel strange to read about his father missing him as a boy in those exact landscapes? Hill, N., J. Dubey, L. Vogelnest, M. Power, E. Deane. 2008. Do free-ranging common brushtail possums ( Trichosurus vulpecula) play a role in the transmission of Toxoplasma gondii within a zoo environment?. Veterinary Parasitology, 152(3-4): 202-209.