Thursday, June 2, 2016

Running with Rhinos by Ed Warner

When I requested Running with Rhinos: Stories from a Radical Conservationist by Ed Warner through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program I imagined I would be reading stories about rhinos: rescues, births, and poachers. When I started reading, I learned right away that the most important rule of rhino tracking is that you must always have a tree nearby. Oh boy. Foreshadowing! Instead, the stories were written by someone working behind the scenes. Although Mr. Warner's role in Sand County Foundation was equally important as that of a vet tech, it just wasn't as interesting. He goes to fundraisers and orders supplies. One of the stories was about how he accidentally overpaid $8 at the grocery store. A more appropriate title would be, "Running through Customs."

I bet the author is a good campfire story teller. I really wanted to like this book just based on the fact that the black rhino rescue in Zimbabwe is named after Aldo Leopold's land ethic. I just don't feel confident recommending this book to people based on the cover and title, and the lack of scrambling-for-a-nearby-tree moments.

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