Turaco Country
Reminiscences of East African Birding
Dale A. Zimmerman
$82.50, Hard Bound
783 pages, 937 images
Publication Date: 2015
Eco Books, Rodeo NM
Order : Turaco Country
Praise for TURACO COUNTRY
“Dale Zimmerman’s Túraco Country is a wonderful introduction to the wildlife that still existed in eastern equatorial Africa in the last half of the 20th century.
“Focused mainly on birds––but not to the exclusion of plants, mammals, reptiles, and butterflies––this substantial volume summarizes several decades of experiences of one of the most knowledgeable naturalists ever to study this region. Many locations, habitats, and species are vividly described, although the book provides a special emphasis on the creatures of the sizeable Kakamega Forest of western Kenya, where the author conducted years of basic descriptive ornithological research, together with his wife and son. In the author’s commentary,
based mainly on his journals, the reader comes to appreciate not just the incredible variety of life forms characteristic of eastern Africa, but the many challenges faced by scientists working in a turbulent political arena, with colonialism crumbling and human populations expanding at a chaotic rate.
“Túraco Country is not a book of false optimism about what the future holds, as it chronicles massive habitat destruction occurring in numerous locations and the disappearances of numerous species. Instead, it serves importantly as a personal celebration of magnificent creatures of the Pleistocene that the region once hosted, in addition to being a powerful and melancholy testimony to the unwitting impacts of our own species on natural systems worldwide.
“The more than 930 photographs presented in the pages of this book, mostly taken by the author, are of the very highest quality and interest. They deserve special mention, as they convey in ways that words cannot the astonishing beauty of a unique world and its inhabitants. Especially because of the photographs, this is a memoir that one will read and reread endlessly for its vivid images of a disappearing Africa and for the joy in nature it so beautifully expresses.”
–– Noel F.R. Snyder
“This evocatively written memoir chronicles a lifelong obsession with East
Africa’s birds and wildlife by one of the region’s preeminent ornithological authorities.
“In Túraco Country, Dale Zimmerman leads us on an intimate, intensely personal journey of ornithological discovery, brimming with the eager enthusiasm and obvious passion of an ardent birder and naturalist, yet interwoven throughout with the scholarly insights of a distinguished biologist – he is simultaneously student and teacher, explorer and tour guide. Along the way, we are introduced to East Africa’s spectacular avifauna and unrivaled wildlife, experience the excitement of trekking for Mountain Gorillas and the adrenaline rush that comes with tent-camping in lion country, and pause frequently for butterflies, bats, reptiles and plants, much of it captured in a stunning collection of photographs.
“Spanning three decades of fieldwork, beginning just as much of sub-Saharan Africa was emerging from colonial rule into independence, and before a burgeoning human population had forever altered much of the African landscape, this narrative poignantly reveals East Africa and its wildlife as it was, while providing a fascinating glimpse into a period of important ornithological discovery. This book will appeal to birders and naturalists of all stripes, and should leave even the most sedentary of armchair travelers looking to book the next flight to Africa!”
–– Kevin J. Zimmer
Dale Zimmerman's singular memoir...
In 1961, Dale Zimmerman set off for Africa, armed with a degree in Botany, years of study of African avifauna, and a keen passion for wild nature. Thus began an adventure that would span a half-century. In the ensuing years, while Dr. Zimmerman was Professor of Biology at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, he continued to explore birdlife on all continents, but always returned to Africa. An acclaimed artist as well as scientist, he co-illustrated two field guides, Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania and Birds of New Guinea.
Zimmerman’s first step into Africa led to immersion in the misty Kakamega Forest, where he unraveled mysteries surrounding its little-investigated birdlife. Often with his wife Marian (also a botanist) and young son Allan (later himself a fine naturalist), he found adventure aplenty among the lions, elephants, boomslangs, and ezxquisite turacos.
Generously spiced with photographs of Dr. Zimmerman and friends, Turaco Country sparkles with a life that is uniquely African.
This enduring witness to wild Africa is natural history writing at its best.
More about the author
Dale Zimmerman is a lifelong naturalist with broad biological interests. Although best known as an ornithologist, he earned three degrees in botany during his days at the University of Michigan. He there met and married Marian Allen, who shared his obsession for wild places and animals, primarily birds. Together for nearly 62 years, they actively sought and photographed the planet’s birdlife on each of the seven continents, yet returned again and again to East Africa, and to their home base in Silver City, New Mexico. Practicality, plus a nostalgic interest in Mexico’s avifauna, dictated residing in the American Southwest, ”second best” among the world’s places in which to life, from Dale’s viewpoint. For 30 years, he was a professor of Biology at Western New Mexico University in Silver City.
Although he finds bird photography more rewarding, less stressful than painting them, he has for years devoted considerable time to bird portraiture, and has illustrated, in part, the first edition of Birds of New Guinea (Beehler, Pratt and Zimmerman, Princeton, 1986) and Birds of Kenya and Northern Tanzania (Zimmerman, Turner and Pearson, A&C Black, 1996).
The Zimmermans’ son, Allan, also is a dedicated naturalist who has traveled extensively with his parents. He resides in the Sonoran Desert north of Tucson.
