A Life in the Wild: George Schaller's Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts

Tuner has created a vivid, moving biography of George Schaller, a researcher who transformed field biology with his studies of gorillas, tigers, lions, and other wild creatures around the globe. In the nineteenth-century, biologists studied exotic animals by with the approach: "find it, kill it, examine the corpse." Schaller knew he could study these endangered animals by observing them in the wild. After his initial studies in Alaska, Schaller worked for two years in the Belgian Congo studying the mountain gorillas. Next, he observed lions in Tanzania for three years, tracked the elusive snow leopard through the Himalayas for six years, and spend five years working with the pandas in China. Middle school students will like the way this biography moves from place to place. Each chapter focuses on a different animal, and Turner creates suspense and with her descriptions of the challenges that Schaller faced. I particularly liked the way that you get a sense of Schaller living in the wild with his family. George's wife Kay and young sons moved first to India and then to Africa with him. Kay and the boys experienced first hand many of the wild animals George was studying. This is a wonderful book for kids (ages 10 - 14) to read to see that you can follow your dreams. From a young age, Schaller loved animals. He found a way to pursue his interests, developing his knowledge and leading scientists from all over the world in developing new respect for the natural world. for more reviews, go to Great Kid Books [...]

The book is excellent. The connection between George Schaller and the animals is phenomenal. I wish all humankind would set the same example.

As a dedicated George Schaller fan, I will buy and read anything by or about him. I am a long way from the Young Adults at which I believe this book is aimed, but I found "A Life In The Wild, George Schaller's Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts" enjoyable and informative. The story is condensed, not dumbed down, and gives an excellent portrait of the greatest living field biologist and his work. There is a chapter on each of his major projects. The photography, mostly Schaller's own, maps, and Sources chapter at the end add depth. I would recommend this book to any lover of wild animals and wild places. It is George Schaller 101, valuable and enjoyable in itself and as a gateway to his own writings. Buy it - read it - you'll be glad you did.

Turner, Pamela S. A Life in the Wild: George Schaller's Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2008. This is a fascinating account of George Schaller's lifelong dedication to study and save some endangered mammals: gorillas, tigers, lions, pandas and snow leopards. The text is informative but also entertaining to read; it provides a sense of immediacy to the reader describing how a tiger pops up next to him, stares at him and then walks away or a panda accepts that George is not a threat and sits down and falls asleep a short distance away. The final chapter provides a summing up of conservation activities for each area that George studied, additional resources are recommended, quotes are documented and an index is included. The photos and text inspire, as does the author since she states she is donating her royalties from this book to the Wildlife Conservation Society for projects promoted by George Schaller. Pamela says, "We need young people with the moral vision to grant wild places and wild creatures the right to exist, whole, free, and untouched." Give this wonderful book to children in 5th-8th grade and perhaps they will become those young people.