The Snow Leopard: Peter Matthiessen

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The book focuses on ethnography; different indigenous cultures from around the world are compared. For example, cultural similarities of Eskimo, Native American and the peoples of Nepal and Tibet and Japan are discussed. The additional information is fascinating. Snow leopards are top predators, they have few natural predators other than humans. However, interspecific killing between leopards ( Panthera pardus) and snow leopards can occur when competition for resources between these sympatric carnivores increases. Adult snow leopards are also potential predators of younger cubs. ( Lovari, et al., 2013) Oh boy. I gave up on this book. An alternative title to this book should be: “The Snow Leopard: As elusive in this book as in real life”. Matthiessen, equally adept at fiction and non-fiction, in The Snow Leopard writes the book of his life. He’s on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas a year after his wife is dead, leaving his eight-year-old son behind with family as he seeks at least two things: A glimpse of the rare and the presumedly soon-to-be-extinct Snow Leopard, and a visit with the Lama of Shay at the Crystal Mountain, where few westerners have dared venture. As I said, he’s a Zen Buddhist (something I did in the seventies casually study as one life alternative, as I eased slowly but inexorably out of my Dutch Reformed Christian upbringing), and this is a time in his life he wants/needs to make this quest, this journey.

Subchapter 24.1: Rescue, Rehabilitation, Translocation, Reintroduction, and Captive Rearing: Lessons From Handling the Other Big CatsLovari, S., J. Minder, F. Ferretti, N. Mucci, E. Randi, B. Pellizzi. 2013. Common and snow leopards share prey, but not habitats: competition avoidance by large predators?. Journal of Zoology, 291(2): 127-135. Sergio, F., T. Caro, D. Brown, B. Clucas, J. Hunter, J. Ketchum, K. McHugh, F. Hiraldo. 2008. Top Predators as Conservation Tools: Ecological Rationale, Assumptions, and Efficacy. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics, 39: 1-19. At the end of each grueling day, Matthiessen gathered the emotional and physical resources to record the day's events. The incredible vividness and immediacy of his account is a result of that nightly discipline, observed against great odds.

This is one of the most intelligent, beautifully written books I’ve read. I enjoyed every moment of Matthiessen’s physical, emotional, and spiritual journey through Nepal and Tibet. His descriptions of the landscape, the villages, his relationships with the people he meets and travels with, the wildlife he sees, his quest for spiritual enlightenment, and his deep sorrow at his wife’s death the previous year, all are written in the most inspiring and honest language.John Gatta, Storrs (2004). Making Nature Sacred. Oxford University Press. p.191. ISBN 0198036949 . Retrieved 21 June 2014. Rieger, I. 1984. Tail functions in ounces, Uncia uncia. Intl. Ped. Book of Snow Leopards, 4: 85-97. An unforgettable spiritual journey through the Himalayas by renowned writer Peter Matthiessen (1927-2014) Chapter 23: The Role of Zoos in Snow Leopard Conservation: Captive Snow Leopards as Ambassadors of Wild Kin For one thing, there was the semi-mystical possibility of sighting a snow leopard, the bharal’s predator, an animal seen by only a very few western travellers. There was also the chance to live for a while among the Dolpo Pa, the leathery mountain people who lived a “pure” form of Tibetan culture cut off from outside influence (Matthiessen, born into Wasp-ish east coast privilege, had already spent half a lifetime as a writer escaping it in search of remote indigenous tribes and landscapes untouched by man).But more than that, the journey to the Himalayas came at a moment in the writer’s life when his mind was desperate for clarity and, perhaps, solace.