The Last Unicorn
A Search for One of Earth's Rarest Creatures
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
An award-winning author's quest to find and understand a creature as rare and enigmatic as any on Earth.
In 1992, in a remote mountain range, a team of scientists discovered the remains of an unusual animal with exquisite long horns. It turned out to be a living species new to Western science -- a saola, the first large land mammal discovered in fifty years.
Rare then and rarer now, a live saola had never been glimpsed by a Westerner in the wild when Pulitzer Prize finalist and nature writer William deBuys and conservation biologist William Robichaud set off to search for it in central Laos. Their team endured a punishing trek up and down white-water rivers and through mountainous terrain ribboned with the snare lines of armed poachers who roamed the forest, stripping it of wildlife.
In the tradition of Bruce Chatwin, Colin Thubron, and Peter Matthiessen, The Last Unicorn chronicles deBuys's journey deep into one of the world's most remote places. It's a story rich with the joys and sorrows of an expedition into undiscovered country, pursuing a species as rare and elusive as the fabled unicorn. As is true with the quest for the unicorn, in the end the expedition becomes a search for something more: the essence of wildness in nature, evidence that the soul of a place can endure, and the transformative power of natural beauty.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Conservation journalist deBuys (A Great Aridness) deftly takes the role of a quiet observer while conveying a sense of immersion and intimacy as he documents a 2011 expedition for signs of the saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), led by field biologist William Robichaud. A phylogenetically distinctive, preternaturally peaceful, reclusive, and nearly extinct ungulate entirely unknown to Western science until 1992, the saola is so rare that it does not even appear in traditional Chinese medicine. In Nakai-Nam Theun, a remote region of Laos on the border of Vietnam, the team drills bits of bone from old antler mounts, places camera traps at salt licks, and scans the forest for evidence of neatly munched vegetation. Showing much admiration for Robichaud and the relationships he has built with the community, deBuys shares stories of the challenging interactions between the locals and Robichaud the outsider, doing so with humor. With a wilderness-loving voice that is lyrical but never saccharine, deBuys elicits a sense of mystery and beauty befitting the creature itself. Maps & photos.
