Zoo Quest for a Dragon including Quest for the Paradise Birds

Another of Attenborough's Zoo Quest books from his early years where he jets off to remote locations with the aim of photographing and recording rare animals in the wild and capturing certain types live to be housed in the London Zoo. The primary goal of this expedition was a Komodo Dragon, which as we all now know live only on the Indonesian Island of Komodo (and a few nearby minor islands).

Attenborough's secondary goal was to visit the islands of Aru to witness the Birds of Paradise, but Indonesian authorities would not under any circumstances permit them to visit, and so the second book (contained only within the Readers Book Club edition) charts a second, separate expedition to Papua New Guinea to see the many Birds of Paradise.

Once again Attenborough is joined by cameraman Charles Lagus, but this time companions from London Zoo who previously dealt with the actual capture of the animals were not able to accompany them, so they had to draw on their previous experiences to take on this role themselves.

As one might expect, the books covers all aspects of the expedition, from the planning (albeit pretty minimal, as they made up their plans on the go) and preparations to the permit gathering, local transport arrangements, and time spent with the local tribes. Locating and observing of the various animals and capture of these probably only occupies a half of the overall narrative, as much time and effort is spent in engaging with the tribes-people, obtaining food stores and porters and actually travelling (mostly on foot once the remoteness rules out boats and vehicles). Culture, festivals and interactions are captured as well as the birds and animals.

Overall, another excellent look into the early days of David Attenborough's life - some may say his formative years.

4 stars