The Tapir's Morning Bath: Mysteries of the Tropical Rain Forest and the Scientists Who Are Trying...
This mischievous behind-the-scenes account of life at a biological research station on a Panamanian island "conveys the uncertainties, frustrations...
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Apr 20, 2011
Petra X
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The book is all about an island in Panama that is devoted to research. Only bona fide scientists are allowed on the island and they have to submit their projects and book space months in advance. There is additionally a team of local support workers to cook, clean and carry out the necessities that enable the scientists to devote themselves to their research rather than housekeeping. Which is, in fact, their downfall.
One scientist is measuring rainfall and water in many places on t More...
One scientist is measuring rainfall and water in many places on t More...
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Jul 20, 2011
Warnie B.
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I really enjoyed this. It's basically the story of a journalist's stay at Barro Colorado Island (BCI) in Panama, a research institute where scientists come to study the tropical rain forest and its inhabitants. While there, Royte helped with various projects involving bats, spider monkeys, rats, moths, and ants, among others, getting to know the scientists who had come to work there and learning about their goals and the things they were hoping to find out during their time on the island. And it
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Apr 01, 2011
David
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If you like Elizabeth Royte's writing style you'll probably enjoy this book. Her style is very personal and while she seems to me to be very bright and inquisitive I don't think she takes herself too seriously. Her flaws and doubts are there for you to see. Much like Garbage Land and Bottlemania you travel along with her and meet scientists (or specialists in a particular field) and learn some facts along the way. This book is more heavily weighted towards the individual stories of the scien
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Sep 28, 2011
Anne
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A reread of The Tapir's Morning Bath, after ten years on the shelf and numerous loans to others, has not disappointed me. A field study of Barro Colorado Island, a Smithsonian Research Institute Center in Panama, provides a look at not only the leaf cutter ants, spider monkeys, lianas, and assorted flora and fauna of this tropical rain forest, but is study of the scientists who study them. Elizabeth Royte, a formidable writer and scientist herself, shows them as real people with all of their ide
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Mar 22, 2010
Kay
rated it: 
I gave it two stars since I've only read about that much of it, I completely forgot I had it until the day it was due back at the library. When I first tried to check it out the lady at the desk had to re-enter it into the system and said, "We pulled this book from the shelves, you could have just walked out of here with it!" Now I wish I had, at least then I'd have finished.
Jan 25, 2009
Melody
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I enjoyed both of Royte's more recent books. This was more memoir than science, and while that's not a bad thing, it's certainly not what I was led to expect. Some wonderful moments, but ultimately not memorable, I'm afraid.
Dec 12, 2009
Luke
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This is a great book, well-written and certainly interesting to the right audience. People with a keener interest in biology would eat this stuff up (as did the person who recommended it to me). I found the personal stories of the scientists much more compelling than the specifics of their research, more an indication of my failings than the writer's. It did give me a broader appreciation of the tropics, and thus a better understanding of my current environs. A good book that I wish I was more i
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Apr 05, 2011
Lisa
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I thought this was okay. I guess not much of a page turner because it took me ~ three months to read.
It was one of about 50 books on the back shelf of a coffee shop in the Mission in SF on sale $3.80. It was a little bit wild to find because it describes the scientists living and doing ecological research on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. That is where I did my undergraduate study abroad in ecology. So I enjoyed the incestuousness of it, but probably not every reader would have th More...
It was one of about 50 books on the back shelf of a coffee shop in the Mission in SF on sale $3.80. It was a little bit wild to find because it describes the scientists living and doing ecological research on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. That is where I did my undergraduate study abroad in ecology. So I enjoyed the incestuousness of it, but probably not every reader would have th More...
May 12, 2008
April
rated it:
An excellent book about the role and importance of science in human culture, set in my favorite - the tropics. Naturalist observation versus abstract geneology. The freedom to think, make connections, be creative as a scientist or observer versus the pressure to publish, earn grants, deliver dissertations. Does concentrating on studying the movement of certain ant colonies on Barro Colorado Island (an island in the middle of the Panama Canal) really matter in the grand scheme of worldwide hab
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Feb 28, 2008
Zepp
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A great example of bad science journalism. An urban writer finds herself more interesting than the amazing beauty and diversity of the tropics she encounters. And then she gets all huffy that exhausted researchers aren't overly receptive to her self-serving interference. There is no tapir in the book, by the way.
Nevertheless, there's some good information in here, despite her best efforts to smother it in endless musings on how she is pregnant and not in NYC.
Nevertheless, there's some good information in here, despite her best efforts to smother it in endless musings on how she is pregnant and not in NYC.
Apr 18, 2009
Flibertigib
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very noticeable that the author genuinely loves what she wrote about, and her time spent in the rain forest.
Apr 19, 2010
Michelle
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This is one of the my favorite book ever. It accurately describes the joys and miseries of fieldwork, and really conveys the beauty of the forest and why field biologists do what they do. When I read it at home, it makes me nostalgic for the field, and when I read it in the field, I always feel I can relate to it.
Jul 31, 2008
Lisa
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Great gossipy account of scientists at the Smithsonian field station in Panama where lots of people I know have worked. Unfortunately, science content is lacking. I learned next to nothing about the rainforest.
Aug 30, 2007
Aga
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This book really made me nostalgic for my time spent at research stations in the rainforest.
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