Arts & Lectures
2001-2002 Season Lecture Series News Release
For Immediate Release

April 9, 2002
Contact: George Yatchisin
(805) 893-3494
e-mail: yatchisin-g@sa.ucsb.edu

Scientist and explorer Alan Rabinowitz to deliver the illustrated lecture “Beyond the Last Village: A Journey of Discovery in Asia’s Forbidden Wilderness” at Victoria Hall in Santa Barbara

Summary Facts:

Alan Rabinowitz, dubbed the “Indiana Jones” of wildlife science by The New York Times, will deliver the illustrated lecture “Beyond the Last Village: A Journey of Discovery in Asia’s Forbidden Wilderness” on Tuesday, May 7 at 7:30 pm at Victoria Hall, 33 W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara.

The lecture, based on his recent Island Press book of the same name, details the compelling story of his journey of exploration, danger and discovery along the rugged unexplored eastern edge of the Himalayan Mountains of northern Myanmar (formerly Burma). The first foreign scientist to enter this territory in nearly half a century, Rabinowitz endured a 250-mile trek on-foot. His expedition led to the creation of Myanmar’s largest wildlife sanctuary, the 1,500-square-mile Hkakabo Razi National Park. Along with his team he identified four new mammals for the country, including the leaf deer, the most primitive true deer in the world. Rabinowitz also made contact with the Taron, a solitary enclave of Asian pygmies, who are on their way to possible self-extinction after years of inbreeding. The book Beyond the Last Village has garnered rave reviews and naturalist David Quammen claims, “Alan Rabinowitz is a tough and restless biological explorer, among the last of a rare type. He’s also a candid, complicated man who tells a good story. Will the wild places he knows so well, and treasures so passionately, survive for many more years? Read and hope.”

Rabinowitz is director of the Science and Exploration Program at the Wildlife Conservation Society, based at the Bronx Zoo in New York. Educated at the University of Tennessee and author of many popular articles and scientific papers, Rabinowitz has conducted surveys and led expeditions in diverse parts of the globe. In 1985 his mission to the rain forests of the Cockscomb Basin in Belize resulted in the world’s first jaguar sanctuary and his book Jaguar: One Man’s Struggle to Establish the World’s First Jaguar Preserve. In 1987 he was recruited by the Thai government to help save the 1,000 square-mile Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuary. For two years he studied Asiatic leopards, tigers, civets and other animals and later published Chasing the Dragon’s Tail: The Struggle to Save Thailand’s Wild Cats about those experiences.

NPR’s Morning Edition aired a lengthy segment on Rabinowitz and Beyond the Last Village in October, 2001. This piece can be listened to on the NPR web site. On the site one can also see a photo gallery of Rabinowitz’s Myanmar journey and listen to an un-aired interview segment about the Taron people.

This lecture is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures and the SB Museum of Natural History. It is part of an on-going collaboration featuring major writers whose work expresses strong ties to nature; previous presentations in the series were by W. S. Merwin, T.C. Boyle, Gretel Ehrlich, Terry Tempest Williams and David Quammen. Courtesy of the UCSB Bookstore, books by Alan Rabinowitz will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Ticket prices are $6 for the general public and $5 for UCSB students and SBMNH members. Tickets are on sale in advance or may be purchased the night of the lecture, if available, beginning at 6:30 pm at Victoria Hall.

For tickets or more information,
call the UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535
or the SB Museum of Natural History at (805) 682-4711

Editor: For photos, please call
George Yatchisin at (805) 893-3494.

©2002 UCSB Arts & Lectures, University of California, Santa Barbara