Appointment at the Ends of the World: Memoirs of a Wildlife Veterinarian - Hardcover

William B. Karesh

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446523712 ISBN 13: 9780446523714

Publisher: Grand Central Pub, 1999

Synopsis

An internationally famous wildlife veterinarian chronicles his experiences and adventures caring for wild animals in virtually every corner of the world and discusses his fierce dedication to the cause of wildlife conservation. 40,000 first printing.

About this title

Review

Ever since his childhood days of rescuing, raising, and releasing orphaned blue jays and raccoons, William B. Karesh knew that working with wild animals was his calling. After training as a veterinarian and working for years with zoo animals, he developed the International Field Veterinary Program (IFVP) for the Wildlife Conservation Society, providing advice and assistance to conservation programs worldwide. His adventures battling bureaucrats, poachers, and other short-sighted humans while endangered animals lay sick and dying are recounted in Appointment at the Ends of the World. The book is an exciting, inspiring read that appeals to animal lovers, environmentalists, and devotees of amazing stories alike.

From Borneo to Zaire, Karesh has shuttled through much of the world to bring much-needed medicines and surgical techniques to populations of animals that can't afford to lose even one to disease or injury. Plenty of illustrations and color plates bring the rhinos, peccaries, and macaws helped by the good doctor vividly to life, and the maps and sidebars help the reader achieve a sense of place missing from so many world-spanning books. Appointment at the Ends of the World is as certain to enrage as it is to delight; more than this, though, it kindles the desire to reach out and help those in need. --Rob Lightner

From Kirkus Reviews

The life of a globetrotting animal doctor, ungussied and enthusiastic. This is not so much a memoir as a diary of five missions Karesh undertook in aid of rare wildlife. A veterinarian for the Wildlife Conservation Society, Karesh often finds himself in the remotest patches, there to work with indigenous people and the local political structure to determine the overall health of a wildlife population, train biologists, and do research on and minister to the animals. While Karesh obviously loves his work, in principal and in practice, it fast becomes clear that its an arduous, risky, and uncomfortable business. Not just because he sleeps most nights on damp ground in strange places with dangerous animals, but because of the humans, the most violently unpredictable of creatures, bureaucratic martinets and teenagers waving AK-47sfar worse than jumped rhinos. Karesh tells his story in an unadorned voice, as much an educator as a veterinarian. He wants readers to get a full picture of the places he goes, and to that end he doesn't confine himself to conservation matters alone, but saturates the pages with topical sidebars that have an impact on his work. These include the spread of HIV in Africa and the constant low level of terror that comes from simply living in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; satellite tracking of elephants and pygmy culture; the role of coca and the evolution of an oxbow lake, and dozens more. Whether he is determining if peccaries maintain the natural architecture of the Bolivian woodlands, gauging the health of macaws in the forest canopy of Peru, or poking his finger in the eye of Birute Galdikas's orangutan project, Karesh is a humble man, with a respectfully guarded openness. Anyone contemplating the life of a roving veterinarian should commune with these pages. Likely 95 percent will reevaluate their career options. (b&w photos throughout, 16 pages color photos) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grand Central Pub
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0446523712
• ISBN 13: 9780446523714
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 376