A review by liberrydude
The Last Unicorn: A Search for One of Earth's Rarest Creatures by William deBuys

3.0

Part adventure trek and part lamentation on the avarice of man. William duBuys relates his three week slog through the Annamite Mountains of Laos with a biologist, Bill Robichaud, and Laotian scientists and guides. Arduous trekking through jungle and steep mountains in search of a metaphorical unicorn, the saola- an antelope like goat ungulate. They are very rare and when caught do not live long in captivity. It is feared they will not survive the organized criminal syndicates who will poach them for their dual horns. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) has fostered an insatiable demand for animal parts. Rarely are tigers and elephants seen and this is in a protected area. Many of the local people collude with the poachers who are mostly Vietnamese. This can be discerned through new found consumerism in remote villages that don’t even have roads. Nothing is safe from the poachers’ indiscriminate use of snares.

DeBuys’ description of finding animals along a trail of death is heartbreaking and will fill you with anger. It’s not even selective targeting. Just killing everything that moves. He has many moments of zen and also anxiety in the forest as he candidly relates the cultural and leadership challenges in a remote environment that is beautiful, uncomfortable, and potentially dangerous. Bomb craters from America’s secret war in Laos are also in evidence but there’s never any anxiety expressed over unexploded ordnance. The author took this physically arduous trip in his early sixties and that’s quite a feat too. Lions, tigers, and leeches. Oh my.