I don’t usually read non-fiction, and especially not books on biology. So it must have been the big, friendly picture of a bear on the cover of this book that led me to pick it up. Though the book is slower-paced and took me a long time to read, I’m glad I read it.
Search for the Golden Moon Bear follows its title pretty closely. Sy Montgomery, the author, and a biologist friend hear strange reports of a golden moon bear in the region of Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos. Until then, the only known moon bears were deep black. Could this be a new species? In the scientific world, that discovery would be nothing short of amazing. Braving a landscape rife with landmines, unstable governments, poachers armed with AK47s, illness, dangerous methods of transportation and bug-ridden hotels, they travel the back roads of Southeast Asia, looking for this elusive golden bear.
This book is very hard to sum up: at times philosophical, at times a funny travelogue, Montgomery brings Southeast Asia and its jungles and cities alive in her prose. One thing I very much appreciated was that this book is not simply an environmental polemic. Montgomery writes about poachers and conservationists with equal respect and understanding. Like a true scientist, she describes, as much as possible, without condemning. The result is a fascinating journey of discovery into one of the lost corners of the world.
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