Searching for Pekpek: Cassowaries and Conservation in the New Guinea Rainforest

by Andrew L. Mack

Andrew Mack immersed himself in a vast expanse of roadless, old growth rainforest of Papua New Guinea in 1987.

He and his co-investigator Debra Wright, built a research station by hand and lived there for years. Their mission was to study the secretive and perhaps most dinosaur-like creature still roaming the the cassowary.

The ensuing adventures of this unorthodox biologist--studying seeds found in cassowary droppings (pekpek), learning to live among the indigenous Pawai'ia, traversing jungles, fighting pests and loneliness, struggling against unscrupulous oil speculators, and more--are woven into a compelling tale that spans two decades. Mack shares the insights he garnered about rainforest ecology while studying something as seemingly mundane as cassowary pekpek. He ultimately gained profound insight into why conservation is failing in places like Papua New Guinea and struggled to create a more viable strategy for conserving some of Earth's last wild rainforests.

Genres: Natural History, Biology

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 11, 2014

Reviews

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring and heartbreaking.

[Doug Wechsler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Andy Mack's gripping account of his and Debra Wright's efforts to conduct research and foster conservation in Papua New Guinea is a page turner. This story of his 25-years of experience working under incredibly difficult conditions will appeal to anyone with even the slightest interest in adventure, exploration, exotic cultures, biology, or conservation.

Though I have logged years myself working in tropical forests around the world, nothing I have done comes close to what Mack and Wright endured in the rain forest of New Guinea. Mack describes extreme hardships while keeping the story moving.

Mack shares his unflinching insights into why big conservation organizations fail in places like New Guinea. At the same time he shows us how a few people can make great progress toward bringing on a new generation of conservationists. We are fortunate a tireless worker, so dedicated to the cause of conservation, also turns out to have such a good sense of humor and to be a great in the art or crafting non-fiction stories.

[Deborah Bower · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s been a while since I cried in a book but Andy Mack took me there. A book written with ease, as if he is casually telling you the story over some arvo beers. I laughed out loud a plenty. He eloquently reveals the joys of working in Papua New Guinea, a remarkable place rich in culture and nature but where adventure comes knocking. His descriptions of field work were both relatable and at times even more extreme than I can imagine. I really felt that he was on my wave length about the importance of lifting up others with less opportunity and I think this helped me to focus in on my own thoughts around research and conservation. I highly recommend!

[Ulises Balza · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for every ecologist

[Delta Willis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most people who venture to Papua New Guinea go to see the birds of paradise, plumed beyond our wildest fashions, imitated by local tribesmen wearing magnificent headdresses. They are not one species of birds but 39, their evolutionary variety drew the attention of Charles Darwin, Alfred Russell Wallace; their behavior, Sir David Attenborough.

Biologist Andrew Mack is instead keen on the cassowary, a large flightless bird so tall you might look it in the eye, at your peril. Like ostrich, cassowaries can be aggressive, and pack a powerful kick. To Mack, their kinship with dinosaurs is “viscerally evident.” But he’s driven to discover what their seed dispersal does for the world’s third largest rainforest, after the Amazon and Congo. Papua New Guinea is one of the Earth’s least explored countries, with fogged in passes making for white-knuckle flying, and over 800 tribal groups, each with their own culture and language; at least one cultivates a reputation for cannibalism.

Mack befriends the natives and employs Tok Pisin, the lingua franca of PNG, in delightful chapter headings. We see their faces as he sketches quick portraits in few words. His story begins in 1987, about the same time I visited PNG and decided Crocodile Dundee had the right idea, preferring a wide open space “where I can see what’s coming at me.” Mack describes the dark side of living in a rainforest: persistent rot, dripping grey skies, in your face insects, and putting on wet clothes in the morning because things rarely dry. But he draws our focus to the majesty of this fecund landscape, life beneath a lush canopy, while he pursues a humble quest for pekpek, or bird poop. Before you dismiss this as quaint or worse, seed dispersal by birds is vital to the cycle of life on earth, just as pollinating bees give us avocadoes and apples. A remarkable sense of humor lifts the science, as do touching insights. This is my favorite passage; it is cinematic, and makes you want to be in a place where you can grin like a monkey.

“I have always said the one thing possibly as gratifying as being a biologist in PNG is being a chopper pilot in PNG. Both carry certain risks but the dividends are huge. Sometimes Mal, or one of his pilots, would thunder past so close to the ground that our eyes would meet, both of us grinning like monkeys, and we would connect in the way to people who pass each other, knowing they are exactly where they belong – one happy spirit to another. And then the moment would be over as the copter roared up to the clouds, the noise of its rotors fading quickly in Doppler shift and the quiet sounds of the rainforest settling back in. I envied the fast freedom of the pilots, but knew they missed all the subtle nuances I so enjoyed that would be invisible and inaudible from within their machines.”

Mack’s gift for observation takes you up treacherous trails, leaping from boulder to boulder in raging rivers, and inside a dogged dream to build a field station where local researchers can be trained. His quest for “capacity building” is what is often needed in developing countries, where American, World Bank, or other foreign intrusions can be as blindly fervent as missionaries, dismissing the knowledge of locals, imposing Western dress, and culture. In his final chapters, the author has an ax to grind, referring to Big Conservation (his caps) self-important lawyers, and disconnected development lingo (stakeholders;) branding concepts that wag the dog in glossy appeals for donors. It makes for painful reading because his criticism rings true, especially when he cites how NGO’s fly in staff from all over the world for conferences in hotels, belying the very concept of a conservation mission. Mack regains his constructive tone, listing with pride the many students in PNG who achieved their PhD’s and carry on research, growing from the seed he and his then wife, Debra Wright, planted. It is overall a great read, an adventurous memoir into remote wild terrain, with a flair for insights that are hilarious or profound.

“More than half the men we hired to help us when we first arrived have already died. In a couple of short generations, the research station at Sera will be just another example of white people coming and leaving, just like the thousands of missionaries, the hordes of government consultants, the miners and loggers, and even the million soldiers and sailors who came suddenly during World War II and left just as abruptly. Like the rusting wrecks of planes and sunken ships from the war, the National Science Foundation funded steel frame in the forest will stand for decades, a mute testimony to the struggle and unfinished dreams of two visitors from another world.”

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Delta Willis visited Papua New Guinea in 1986. A member of The Explorers Club, she profiled Richard Leakey in The Hominid Gang, and served as Sr. Communications Manager for the National Audubon Society 2007-2013.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A highly readable account of the ups and downs of ecological research in the tropics - Papua New Guinea in particular, probably one of the most difficult places to conduct research in the tropics. I especially appreciated this book because I knew the author through his pioneering scientific papers but not the real-life stories behind that research. I did similar research but in the relative luxury of Costa Rica - a country very welcoming to researchers - so the work of Andy Mack and Deb Wright is all the more impressive considering the difficult conditions in which they were working. It was also interesting, and quite disturbing, to read about the bureaucratic bungling and malfeasance of the organizations they worked for later - something I have also been on the wrong end of.

You don't need to be a tropical ecologist or researcher to enjoy this book. It's an adventure story at heart, set mostly in the remote rainforests of New Guinea. PhD students and ecologists will, of course, get special insight from this book by comparing their own experiences.

[David Rudin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of science, conservation and all the complications that happen along the way. Mack is a field biologist so his tales of doing research in Papua New Guinea (PNG) resonates with authenticity as he navigates disease, weather, skeptical natives, daunting logistics, oil companies and even coming from where you would least expect it: large, international conservation organizations.
Throughout it all, Mack perseveres fighting for his vision of developing the type of scientific literacy among native scientists necessary to be independent of those unpredictable foreign environmental juggernauts. After quite the struggle he achieves what he sought, but it's not exactly the how and what of that he had in mind. This is what makes the story so interesting.

[Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mack may have set out to chronicle his work in PNG, but in this memoir, he has accomplished so much more. Searching for Pekpek is endearingly funny as Mack brings in his own frank observations of his work, local PNG culture, and conservation politics. This book is an adventure that transcends the pages. Educational and inspiring, entertaining and enlightening.

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for anyone planning research field work in Papua New Guinea or in a rainforest location.