Beast Friends

Chimpanzees have Jane Goodall; gorillas had Dian Fossey; and jaguars have Alan Rabinowitz.

Some fortunate species have had amazing human ambassadors that connected them with humans everywhere, and Rabinowitz's work with jaguars has revolutionized our understanding of and connection to jaguars. Two years ago, I blogged about some of the previous contributions he has made to the study and protection of big cats. Now, he's back with a new book called An Indomitable Beast, which he'll release in September.

In his first book, Jaguar, Rabinowitz impressed me with his ability to communicate the experiences he's had with jaguars. Most biologists have close contact with the species they study, but Rabinowitz shares Goodall's ability to put the public in those experiences through strong storytelling. For this reason, I'm looking forward to his new book.

An Indomitable Beast tells the story of the jaguar's successes and its threats and the work being done to protect it; but the book also promises to further explain how Rabinowitz earned his knowledge of these cats (the stories about this in Jaguar took hold of me and haven't let me go). It's this blurring of the human and the animal that makes Rabinowitz's work (and that of others like him) so valuable. The stories provide common ground with nature. For more information about An Indomitable Beast, click here.

By communicating their connections with animals, researchers like Rabinowitz show us the ways to develop our own relationships with nature.

Listen Up

In my last entry, I blogged that today is Endangered Species Day and said our ability to help stop extinction depends on changing how we interact with the environment.

With that in mind, I wanted to share this Alan Rabinowitz interview, which was done by TreeHugger. Rabinowitz is a zoologist who specializes in the study of wild cats, especially the big cats. He also heads Panthera, a wild cat conservation organization.

The interview is wonderful. Rabinowitz is clearly very smart, and his ideas have helped revolutionize conservation and how we think about the human-nature relationship. As you'll find out, he is also a great communicator, explaining environmental issues in clear and interesting ways. That makes the interview very instructive for both members of the general public and individuals who seek to communicate environmental messages.

If you're interested, Rabinowitz also has a book called Jaguar, which I read a few years ago and would highly recommend. It's an example of great storytelling about an environmental subject.