Wildlife Issues and Crisis in a Changing World: A Naturalist's 25 Years Jungle Journey in Asia Africa

Seeing wildlife was common in India two decades ago when the author studied Hanuman langurs in the Masanagudi jungle at Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary. During a recent visit, the author saw a bustling town ravaged by thousands of cattle that scavenged the forest floor replacing the langur habitat. Destruction of natural forest is not limited to India. When the author surveyed wildlife on the other side of the globe-in Trinidad and Tobago in 1990, he saw agriculture farms in the midst of a major wildlife sanctuary. Even in the remote wilderness of Liberia’s only protected reserve in 1980s, he saw chainsaws chopping rainforest trees. From the Malay Peninsula to the islands of Java, Sumatra and Borneo, he had seen more palm plantations than rainforests. As a result, one of man’s closest relatives and Asia’s only great ape, the orangutan is nearing extinction. The conflict between human progress and wildlife survival is not likely to end any time soon. In this book, the author based on his 25 years of wildlife research in Africa, South America and Asia, introduces the pressing global wildlife conservation crisis into 20/20 focus. This monograph highlights a variety of wildlife, biodiversity and environmental issues facing developing nations globally. It emphasizes how field research could contribute to nature conservation. Therefore this book should serve as an introductory, supplementary and reference text for wildlife, biodiversity, environmental conservation, and sustainable development courses in colleges, universities and other institutes of higher learning around the globe.