Sy Montgomery - Search for the Golden Moon Bear: Science and Adventure in Pursuit of a New Species

PRAISE FOR Search for the Golden Moon Bear

Sy Montgomerys work is in a class by itself. No safe, stay-at-home desk job for herevidently unworried by minefields and bandits, she traveled in very dangerous parts of Southeast Asia, taking risks that make John Wayne look like a wussie, to learn about a rare and vanishing relative of the black bear. The result is her usual brilliance, a book that is as original and interesting as it is insightful and beautiful. The author does more for animals in any one of her books than most of us do in a lifetime.

ELIZABETH MARSHALL THOMAS,
author of The Hidden Life of Dogs

Sy Montgomerys adventurous pilgrimage into Southeast Asias misty forests for an elusive bear the Brou people say is just like a person is also a search for human compassion. Like that of a modern-day shaman, Montgomerys far-sighted quest for animals and people, science and story, heaven and earth inspires gratitude andif the world could be as wonderful as this bookchange.

BRENDA PETERSON,
author of Build Me an Ark

Sy Montgomery takes us on an unforgettable scientific, yet ultimately spiritual, adventure through a bloody land of monks and land mines, of Buddhist compassion and empty forests. In her hope and despair for the way in which we treat nonhuman animals, our environment, and one another, we witness a struggle for the fate of the planet and the human soul.

STEVE WISE, author of
Rattling the Cage

Sy Montgomery knows a thousand things you didnt think you needed to know, but every page of her Search for the Golden Moon Bear will make you hungry for more of her particular kind of knowledge. I read this book like the mystery it is, rapt at the combination of precision and lyricism with which she re-creates the trail of this most captivating of animals. Finally, what she taught me was awe at the gorgeous multiplicity of the earths creatures, and the complex web of human interactions necessary to discover their world, which would otherwise stay hidden from us.

ROSELLEN BROWN, author of
Before and After and Half a Heart

What Montgomery witnesses in terms of animal and human suffering gives her nightmares and will make her readers shudder, but her riveting chronicle is not without hope, rich as it is in adventure, discovery, profiles of heroic wildlife specialists, bear lore sacred and scientific, humor, and a subtle but pervasive spirituality.

Booklist (Starred Review)

Though this eye-opening book starts out as a chronicle of a scientists search for the elusive golden moon bears of Southeast Asia, it quickly turns into a spiritual, cultural and ecological study of two Third World nations ravaged by war and greed.... Montgomery vividly recounts her sometimes humorous, sometimes horrifying experiences with a reporters keen eye, a conservationists outrage, and a poets lyricism.... Readers who arent conservationists to begin with will be by the end of this heady and haunting narrative.

Publishers Weekly

There is something heartbreaking and life changing about the stories Sy Montgomery tells, something so passionate and questing that it is impossible not to sit up straight, take notice.... This is a most beautiful and important bookexhaustively researched, persuasively presented, poetic and vital and throbbing with heart.

BETH KEPHART,
Book magazine

Nature writer Montgomery leads us on an evocative journey to difficult places, following the trail of a mysterious creature... a treat for fans of the crocodile-hunting, snow leopard-searching, wolves-and-man genre.

Kirkus Reviews

Sy Montgomery combines a poets keen eye for observation with the intrepid spirit of a Victorian-era explorer.... While there are plenty of books about searching for vanishing or unknown species in the worlds last wild places, the quality of Montgomerys writing sets this one apart.

Barnes and Noble Review

Haunting... with heart and humor, Montgomery evokes the delights as well as the devastation in countries like Cambodia and Laos.... Montgomery does not shy away from the horrors, but she paints a sensuous picture of the beauties of the region and its animals, especially its magnificent bears.

STEPHEN BODIO,
Minneapolis Star Tribune

... a chronicle of four quixotic trips to the remotest regions of Southeast Asiafield work that manages to touch upon biology and anthropology, myth and history, extinction and epicurian hazards.... Scientific news and exotic adventure.

CHRISTOPHER COX,
Boston Herald

Montgomerys tale draws the reader into the mystery of the bear and the troubled world of the illegal trade of wild animals. It takes the reader deep into Cambodias rich history, recent culture and wild mountain jungles which hold the promise of undiscovered species.

The Spokesman-Review

... goes beyond biology to the interaction of bears, other species of animals and an ancient third-world culture that is rapidly changing to a money-oriented society.

Lewiston Morning Tribune

O THER BOOKS BY S Y M ONTGOMERY

The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary
Life of Christopher Hogwood

Journey of the Pink Dolphins:
An Amazon Quest

Walking with the Great Apes: Jane Goodall,
Dian Fossey, Birute Galdikas

Spell of the Tiger:
The Man-Eaters of Sundarbans

The Curious Naturalist:
Natures Everyday Mysteries

The Wild Out Your Window

F OR C HILDREN

The Snake Scientist

The Man-Eaters of Sundarbans

Encantado: Pink Dolphin of the Amazon

Search for the Golden Moon Bear:
Science and Adventure in the Asian Tropics

The Tarantula Scientist

Quest for the Tree Kangaroo

Saving the Ghost of the Mountain:
An Expedition Among Snow Leopards in Mongolia

SEARCH FOR

THE GOLDEN

MOON BEAR

SCIENCE AND ADVENTURE
IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

SY MONTGOMERY

C HELSEA G REEN P UBLISHING
W HITE R IVER J UNCTION, V ERMONT

Copyright 2002 by Sy Montgomery
Scientific Addendum copyright 2009 by Gary Galbreath
Maps copyright 2002 by Liddy Hubbell
All photographs by Sy Montgomery and Gary Galbreath

All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
To request permission to reproduce from this book, contact Chelsea Green Publishing.
Originally published by Simon & Schuster, 2002.
This edition published by Chelsea Green Publishing, 2009.

Printed in the United States of America.
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Our Commitment to Green Publishing
Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using soy-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because we use recycled paper, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. Chelsea Green is a member of the Green Press Initiative (www.greenpressinitiative.org), a nonprofit coalition of publishers, manufacturers, and authors working to protect the worlds endangered forests and conserve natural resources. Search for theGolden Moon Bear was printed on 55-lb. Natures Natural, an FSC-certified, 30-percent postconsumer-waste recycled paper supplied by Thomson-Shore.

Chelsea Green edition

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Montgomery, Sy.
Search for the golden moon bear : science and adventure in Southeast Asia / Sy Montgomery.