Adventures of a Young Naturalist

Rating

7.5/10 When I read Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman in May/June of 2024, I was delighted by the breadth, the depth and simultaneously the accessibility of his writing. It was truly a masterpiece, so when I found out that he died only 2 months before that, I was quite sad I didn’t manage to read his book while he was still alive. It wouldn’t change anything about my appreciation of his work. It in fact wouldn’t make any difference whatsoever. Yet, I had this lingering feeling that I am sorry I haven’t appreciated his insights and discoveries while he was still alive. It was then that I decided to try and read books by contemporary scientific giants that are still alive before it’s too late.

I did a mental survey of any old people who I know for sure are still alive and about whom I have heard as great scientific contributors. People that immediately came to mind were David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, Noam Chomsky and Roger Penrose. Although that list can be vastly enlarged, I settled on starting with these fours . So here is a review of a book from the first person on this list; David Attenborough.

Although maybe not strictly a scientific figure, Mr. Attenborough had a giant impact on several generations of people when it comes to appreciating nature. His documentaries and his great voice overs describing animal behavior became pretty much a cultural meme (not an Instagram meme, although that most likely as well). So I picked up a book that describes the beginning of his career as a naturalist and a nature popularizer. He retells three trips to three different parts of the world that he has taken on commission by the London Zoo and the BBC to record animal documentaries and capture unique species for display back in London.

All in all, it was an easy enjoyable read. The stories from the trips were fun to re-live and the storytelling was engaging and natural (no pun intended). Here and there the book contained fancy British adjectives that I didn’t bother to decipher but it for sure added an oura of personality to his writing. I’m giving it an easy 7.5 out of 10. It’s not a piece I would wildly recommend but if you’d like to read about how David Attenborough started his career and go on a few virtual trips into the wilderness with him, it’s a great piece to pick up. It for sure gave me the time to appreciate his impact and his life’s journey.

Synopsis

David Attenborough describes three of his first trips as a naturalist and documentarist for the London Zoo and the BBC. He travels to French Guyana, Indonesia and Paraguay to document local fauna, catch some rare species to bring back to London and have a good time as a young adventurist being paid to travel the world and observe animals in their natural habitat.

Notes

• I’m quite surprised by how nonchalantly the animal catching is described. I feel like descriptions like these would not fly in today’s day and age. There would have to be many more caveats about the animal’s safety and much more argumentation about the moral aspects of going into the wilderness to catch animals for Zoo captivity. I wonder if Attenborough was at any point in time on these trips wrestling with these ideas in his head but just didn’t raise the point in the book
• I wish there was more information about the financial and contractual arrangements that these trips were based on. I would find it interesting to know how much did it cost, how much did they get paid and what kind of contracts there were in place - also if this book was an after-thought or part of “the deal”
• manatees are pretty fascinating and ridiculously looking animals
• an armadillo standing on his hind legs looks like a wise wizard that will send you on a side-quest of your lifetime!