Antipode FROM THE PUBLISHER
"By Definition an "Antipode" is a point on the earth diametrically opposite from another." "As a field biologist specializing in reptiles and amphibians, Heather E. Heying has been to some of the most remote places on the globe. Her career consists of trekking through dense forests, sitting for hours at a time observing elusive creatures, and spending weeks on end in remote, sometimes inhospitable locales. But nothing she previously experienced quite prepared her for the three seasons she spent studying the tiny, bright, poisonous frogs found only on what is the antipode of her world, both geographically and culturally - the island-nation of Madagascar." The majority of Madagascar's wildlife is endemic: found nowhere else. Lemurs rule the forest canopy, while on the ground snakes and lizards search for evening meals of frogs and bugs, all against a gorgeous backdrop of rain forest. It's a biologist's paradise, but at times it can also be a foreigner's worst nightmare. Madagascar in no way resembles what most Westerners know as normal existence. Technologically it is leagues behind the first world. Time shuffles by at a slow gait. Poverty is rampant: People pride themselves on how many pots of rice a day they are lucky enough to eat. Language and culture barriers, combined with bureaucratic red tape, can make travel virtually impossible.
FROM THE CRITICS
Natural History Magazine
Insights into the creature world come only through painstaking research, [made] clear in [Heying's] vivid chronicle of Malagasy fieldwork.
Library Journal
The subtitle of Heying's memoir of her field studies in Madagascar is slightly misleading. Instead of attempting a general overview of the wildlife of the island (as in Peter Tyson's The Eighth Continent), Heying offers a detailed account of her work and adventures primarily on Nosy Mangabe, a smaller island off the northwest coast of Madagascar. This tiny island, while devoid of carnivores, birds, most of Madagascar's famous lemurs, and even ants, abounds in frogs in particular the mantella, a colorful and toxic frog with interesting breeding behavior that Heying studied for insights into evolutionary biology. Heying relates her own "evolution," from her initial frustration and dismay over the slow pace and poverty of the island to a growing resourcefulness, respect, and fondness for the people who live there. Much of her actual research involved sitting perfectly still for hours, watching tagged (and even tattooed!) frogs go about their business. She does an excellent job of conveying both the rigors of field research in a remote location and the intellectual joy of "basic research" the kind of science that does not necessarily lead to direct benefits for humankind. While this is not a crucial title, many readers who liked Margaret Lowman's Life in the Treetops will also enjoy Heying's blend of science and travels far off the "beaten path." Beth Clewis Crim, Prince William P.L., VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A descriptive chronicle of herpetological fieldwork in Madagascar, from naturalist Heying. Madagascarﾽs unique biota, of which 90% are endemic, is a naturalistﾽs dream. Heying went there to study brightly colored poisonous frogs, but also to ﾽtweak her worldﾽﾽto gain some perspective on life on the other side of the world. What she delivers here, aside from unexpectedly fascinating material on the sexual selection that goes on in the world of poisonous frogs, is a sense of what itﾽs like to live and work daily in a place so fundamentally different from her university life back in Ann Arbor. It proves to be laden with incident, whether itﾽs simply observing a woman carrying a basket of ducks on her head, caring for injuries received from lemurs, rectifying the theft of her property at camp, or dealing with the naked sailors who come to bathe in the fresh water of the island where sheﾽs conducting her research. Heyingﾽs curiosity and openness allow her to gain a new sense of timeﾽthereﾽs an abundance of it in Madagascar, and her homegrown standards donﾽt applyﾽas well as a new diet: ﾽIt would be an absurd understatement to suggest that rice is the staple of the Malagasy diet.ﾽ The author brings a neat-fingered writing to her scientific findings and the same to stories of fashioning a toilet seat or whipping up a forest risotto. Without walking on tiptoe, she also tries to avoid being the ham-handed foreigner foisting her cultural biases on Malagasy ways. A skillful example of notes from the field: lively, discerning, and full of an ingrained enthusiasm for science. (8-page color photo insert, not seen)
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING
An honest, brave, and compassionate portrayal...A sharply observed portrait of an extraordinary land. (Peter Tyson, author of The Eighth Continent: Life, Death, and Discovery in the Lost World of Madagascar)
— Peter Tyson
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