Why a Booktrail?
1954 – present day: The story of Sir David Attenborough and his love for adventures to find animals.
Adventures of a Young Naturalist
What you need to know before your trail
In 1954, a young David Attenborough was offered the opportunity of a lifetime – to travel the world finding rare and elusive animals for London Zoo’s collection, and to film the expeditions for the BBC for a new show called Zoo Quest.
This book records those voyages, which mark the very beginning of a career that spans decades and stretches across continents, from Life on Earth to Blue Planet II, from the deepest oceans, the darkest jungles and everywhere in between’. Staying with local tribes while trekking in search of giant anteaters in Guyana, Komodo dragons in Indonesia and armadillos in Paraguay, he and the rest of the team battled with cannibal fish, aggressive tree porcupines and escape-artist wild pigs, as well as treacherous terrain and unpredictable weather, to record the incredible beauty and biodiversity of these regions. The methods may be outdated now, but the fascination and respect for the wildlife, the people and the environment – and the importance of protecting these wild places – is not.
Travel Guide
Guyana
South America is the home of some of the strangest, some of the loveliest and some of the most horrifying animals in the world.
There can be few creatures more improbable that the sloth which spends its life in a permanent state of mute slow motion, hanging upside down in the tall forest trees
Many of the South American animals inspire the fascination which comes from revulsion. Shoals of cannibal fish infest the rivers waiting to rep the flesh from any animals which tumbles among them, and vampire bats, a legend in Europe by a grim reality in South America, fly out at night from their roosts in the forest to suck blood from cows and men.
Indonesia
This time we decided on Indonesia where our main target would be the Komodo dragon, the largest lizard in the world, that htn had never been seen on television.
Back then the Komodo island was difficult to reach, but now it’s on the tourist route
Similarly for the Javanese monument of Borobudur and Bali, these places are definitely on the tourist map today!
Paraguay
In 1958, we went to Paraguay to look for armadillos
Both in their general appearance and their internal anatomy, they are quite unlike anything which inhabits out own continent ; they are the last of their kind, the survivors from past geological ages when most of the animals of today had not yet appeared on earth.
They pass Asuncion and head through the amazon to the Orinoco which is the largest area of primary jungle in the whole world.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Adventures of a Young Naturalist
Destination: England, Worldwide Author/Guide: Sir David Attenborough Departure Time: 1954 onwards
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