A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo is about natural history, travel
in the tropics, life sciences, and adventure, with the environment
always in mind. It chronicles the nine years the author spent with
his family on that equatorial island. The book's humorous style
never detracts from the focus on the science, the island of Borneo
and its natural wonders. The story begins in 2007 on top of a
garage in Taiwan, where the author kept a greenhouse filled with
hundreds of carnivorous tropical pitcher plants. In August of the
same year, he attended a conference on these plants in Borneo and
met them in the wild for the first time. This triggered an
obsession with the island's legendary rainforest fauna and flora,
and he decided to move to Borneo with his family for easier access
to the jungle. In a tone reminiscent of Bill Bryson, Douglas Adams,
and Gerald Durrell - funny, self-deprecating, but always satisfying
for the science-minded reader - A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo
documents the Breuer family's adventures with Borneo's enormous
biodiversity: flying snakes, venomous primates, parachuting frogs,
pangolins, king cobras, orangutans, masters of mimicry and
camouflage, the world's rarest lizard and the world's longest
snake. And these are just a fraction of the life forms the reader
will meet. Adventure lurks behind every trail bend: toddler-sized
monkeys terrorize night hikers, bearded jungle pigs hunt stray
dogs, a giant python almost gets stepped on, and other encounters
of the 'not so funny when it happened' kind. The reader will also
meet the people inhabiting the island, such as Asia's last
rainforest nomads, quaint government officials, and former
headhunting tribes that still proudly display their trophies above
their fireplaces. Inevitably, the author's life in Borneo also led
to first-hand insight into the island's environmental tragedy
caused by decades of severe over-exploitation, a recurring topic
throughout the book. A Greenhorn Naturalist in Borneo puts the
reader in a front-row seat to marvel at nature's wonders in all
their magnificence visiting places unknown and creatures unheard
of; and it is also an invitation to consider the state of the
planet, to take it seriously, and to act before it's too late.
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