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Distributed for ForeEdge

Emerald Labyrinth

A Scientist’s Adventures in the Jungles of the Congo

Distributed for ForeEdge

Emerald Labyrinth

A Scientist’s Adventures in the Jungles of the Congo

Emerald Labyrinth is a scientist and adventurer’s chronicle of years exploring the rainforests of sub-Saharan Africa. The richly varied habitats of the Democratic Republic of the Congo offer a wealth of animal, plant, chemical, and medical discoveries. But the country also has a deeply troubled colonial past and a complicated political present. Author Eli Greenbaum is a leading expert in sub-Saharan herpetology—snakes, lizards, and frogs—who brings a sense of wonder to the question of how science works in the twenty-first century. Along the way he comes face to face with spitting cobras, silverback mountain gorillas, wild elephants, and the teenaged armies of AK-47-toting fighters engaged in the continent’s longest-running war. As a bellwether of the climate and biodiversity crises now facing the planet, the Congo holds the key to our planet’s future. Writing in the tradition of books like The Lost City of Z, Greenbaum seeks out the creatures struggling to survive in a war-torn, environmentally threatened country. Emerald Labyrinth is an extraordinary book about the enormous challenges and hard-won satisfactions of doing science in one of the least known, least hospitable places on earth.

336 pages | 6 x 9 | © 2017

Biological Sciences: Natural History


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Table of Contents

Preface • List of Abbreviations • A Note regarding Provinces • No Joy in the Brilliance of Sunshine • King Kong of Kahuzi Volcano • The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time • The Rats of Miki • A Vampire in Virunga • Wandege’s Eye • The Murderer of Mugegema • Congolization • This Man Is Not Right in the Head • Frogs in Elephant Footprints • The Death of Asukulu • Acknowledgments • Congolese Swahili Glossary • How Can I Help? • Notes • References • Index

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