Glen Chilton Glen Chilton i(A128380 works by)
Born: Established: 1958 ;
Gender: Male
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Works By

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1 1 y separately published work icon The Last Place You’d Look for a Wallaby : My Obsessive Quest to Seek out Alien Species Glen Chilton , Toronto : HarperCollins (Canada) , 2012 Z1932820 2012 single work autobiography travel 'Glen Chilton, author of the rollicking Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour finalist The Curse of the Labrador Duck, returns with yet another quest, this time to seek out species ill-advisedly introduced into foreign environments.

Chilton visits Ireland to witness how rhododendrons, an ornamental plant that escaped a private garden, now threaten to choke out the last of the great oak forests of the United Kingdom. He escapes blood-thirsty midges and a murderous Hungarian architect while visiting a colony of forgotten Scottish wallabies; finds out how termites, brought in on packing crates after the Second World War, contributed to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans; dives with turtles in North Queensland; and dodges crocodiles and big guns in the eucalyptus forests of Ethiopia.

Along the way, Glen Chilton never turns down the opportunity to share a few pints with eccentric locals, often finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.' (Publisher's blurb)
1 1 y separately published work icon The Curse of the Labrador Duck Glen Chilton , Pymble : Simon and Schuster Australia , 2009 Z1638275 2009 single work autobiography travel

'Finally, the world's leading authority on the extinct Labrador Duck, Dr. Glen Chilton, shares the story of his frenzied obsession to reveal the histories behind the mysterious bird -- a saga wherein he sets out to examine the remains of every Labrador Duck, conduct genetic analysis on every Labrador Duck egg, and visit every site where the duck was shot...with many a (mis)adventure along the way.

'More elusive than the Passenger Pigeon, the Dodo, or the Great Auk and breeding in places so obscure that no certain records exist of its nests, the Labrador Duck succumbed to extinction almost before anyone realized it was in decline. When Chilton began his travels, there were thought to be approximately fifty stuffed specimens, scattered among the museums of Europe and North America. However, as his search progressed, it became clear that some specimens had been lost to war and theft, while others lay hidden in far-flung collections, overseen by secretive curators. After traveling the equivalent of 3.3 times around the world with a series of oddball companions, Chilton finally began to close in on every known specimen...but not before he risked heavy-metal poisoning in Russia, swam naked in a glacier-fed stream, corresponded with a millionaire murderer, and narrowly avoided arrest in New York City.

'A magnificent blend of travel writing, science, detective work, and mishap, The Curse of the Labrador Duck is the zany adventure of one biologist's obsessive quest to uncover the mysteries of one of the world's most enigmatic birds.' (From the publisher's website.)

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