The Tapir's Morning Bath: Solving the Mysteries of the Tropical Rain Forest

by Elizabeth Royte

Paperback, 2002

Status

Available

Call number

577.34

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

Mariner Books (2002), Paperback, 336 pages

Description

One hundred and fifty years ago, Charles Darwin asked how a rain forest could contain so many species: "What explains the riot?” The same question occupies the scientists who toil on Panama’s Barro Colorado Island today. Tropical and steamy, these six square miles comprise the best-studied rain forest in the world, a locus of scientific activity since 1923. In THE TAPIR'S MORNING BATH, Elizabeth Royte weaves together her own adventures on Barro Colorado with tales of researchers struggling to parse the intricate workings of the rain forest, the most complicated natural system on the planet. Through the lens of the field station, she also traces the history of modern biology from its earliest days of collection and classification through the decline of the naturalist to the days of intense niche specialization and rigorous scientific quantification. As Royte counts seeds and sorts insects, collects monkey dung and radiotracks bats, she begins to wonder: what is the point of such arcane studies? The world over, rain forests are rapidly disappearing and species are going extinct. While humanizing the scientists in the field, she explores the tension between their research and the reality of a world that may not have time for the answers.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member mayoung

Barro Colorado Island may be the world's most thoroughly studied patch of tropical forest. Royte writes of this treasure and her field work experiences.

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LibraryThing member NielsenGW

While at times Royte treads too far into the personal, her quest to understand the incredibly interconnected nature of the rain forest is rich with theory and practice. She investigates the activities on Panama’s Barro Colorado Island finds that not only are the animals worth studying, but so are

the people that cross paths there.

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LibraryThing member satyridae

I enjoyed both of Royte's more recent books. This was more memoir than science, and while that's not a bad thing, it's certainly not what I was led to expect. Some wonderful moments, but ultimately not memorable, I'm afraid.

LibraryThing member albertgoldfain

Royte does a good job expressing the outsider's awe at the BCI ecosystem and seems genuinely invested in the cycle of drudgery and fleeting payoff that is scientific fieldwork. The patience and endurance of some of these scientists and their willingness to do basic research for its own sake makes

this a compelling read. When viewing the handful of sections at a large zoo it is easy to forget that the rainforest are teeming with millions of species (of just beetles), and this book exposes a bit of the vast complexity of the living world.

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LibraryThing member ebethe

Interesting stories about scientists, their very narrow focus now-a-days in comparison to early pioneers like Darwin or even more recent early ecologists.

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