From Library Journal
The subtitle of Heying's memoir of her field studies in Madagascar is slightly misleading. Instead of attempting a general overview of the wildlife of the island (as in Peter Tyson's The Eighth Continent), Heying offers a detailed account of her work and adventures primarily on Nosy Mangabe, a smaller island off the northwest coast of Madagascar. This tiny island, while devoid of carnivores, birds, most of Madagascar's famous lemurs, and even ants, abounds in frogs in particular the mantella, a colorful and toxic frog with interesting breeding behavior that Heying studied for insights into evolutionary biology. Heying relates her own "evolution," from her initial frustration and dismay over the slow pace and poverty of the island to a growing resourcefulness, respect, and fondness for the people who live there. Much of her actual research involved sitting perfectly still for hours, watching tagged (and even tattooed!) frogs go about their business. She does an excellent job of conveying both the rigors of field research in a remote location and the intellectual joy of "basic research" the kind of science that does not necessarily lead to direct benefits for humankind. While this is not a crucial title, many readers who liked Margaret Lowman's Life in the Treetops will also enjoy Heying's blend of science and travels far off the "beaten path." Beth Clewis Crim, Prince William P.L., VA Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
Antipode is defined as the opposite side of the world. Heying grew up in Santa Cruz, California, and the nearest landmass on the other side of the globe is Madagascar. A field biologist by training, the author made four trips to Madagascar between 1993 and 1999 to study the island's poisonous frogs. Heying recounts the adventure of studying little-known animals in a non-Western country. The insularity of Madagascar makes it a wonderful place to research evolution and endemic animals, but can also create problems for the still fairly rare foreigners that come to study these animals. Mixing stories of terrestrial leeches, lemur bites, and the petty bureaucracy of obtaining visas and permits with the wonder of observing maternal behavior in Mantella frogs or of watching an aye aye lemur at night, Heying conveys the difficulties--and the marvels that more than balance them--that keep naturalists coming back to learn the secrets of little-known areas. In her quiet, meditative prose, the author helps us to understand the lure of field research. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Peter Tyson, author of The Eighth Continent: Life, Death, and Discovery in the Lost World of Madagascar
"An honest, brave, and compassionate portrayal...A sharply observed portrait of an extraordinary land."


Peter Tyson, author of The Eighth Continent: Life, Death, and Discovery in the Lost World of Madagascar
"An honest, brave, and compassionate portrayal...A sharply observed portrait of an extraordinary land."


Natural History Magazine
"Insights into the creature world come only through painstaking research, [made] clear in [Heying's] vivid chronicle of Malagasy fieldwork, "


Book Description
By definition, "antipode" is a point on the earth diametrically opposite from another. As a field biologist specializing in reptiles and amphibians, Heather Heying has been to some of the most remote places on the globe. Her career consists of trekking through dense rainforests, sitting for hours at a time observing elusive creatures, and spending weeks on end in remote, sometimes inhospitable locales. But nothing she previously experienced quite prepared her for the three seasons she spent studying the tiny, bright, poisonous frogs found only at what is the antipode of her world, both geographically and figuratively - the island-nation of Madagascar. The majority of Madagascar's wildlife is endemic -- found nowhere else. Lemurs rule the forest canopy, while on the ground, snakes and lizards search for evening meals of frogs and bugs, all against a gorgeous backdrop of rainforest. It's a biologist's paradise - but at times can also be a foreigner's worst nightmare. Madagascar in no way resembles what most Westerners know as normal existence. Technologically, it is laps behind the first world. Time shuffles by at a slow gait. Poverty is rampant - people pride themselves on how many pots of rice a day they eat. Language and culture barriers, combined with bureaucratic red tape, can make travel virtually impossible. In stories that are in turns moving, insightful, hilarious, and beautiful, Heather recounts her experiences -- from run-ins with naked sailors and unusually hostile lemurs to tropical hurricanes and greedy tourist entrepreneurs. As she carefully navigates an obstacle-strewn path, she gradually uncovers the hidden lives of the beautiful yellow and blue poison frogs she studies. And all the while, she is coming to understand her role as a female Westerner in a foreign society, and her intense love for and fascination with the stunning cultures and wildlife of Madagascar.


About the Author
Heather E. Heying was born in Santa Monica, California, and received her Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Michigan. She currently resides in Olympia, Washington, where she is on the faculty at the Evergreen State College

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"By Definition an "Antipode" is a point on the earth diametrically opposite from another." "As a field biologist specializing in reptiles and amphibians, Heather E. Heying has been to some of the most remote places on the globe. Her career consists of trekking through dense forests, sitting for hours at a time observing elusive creatures, and spending weeks on end in remote, sometimes inhospitable locales. But nothing she previously experienced quite prepared her for the three seasons she spent studying the tiny, bright, poisonous frogs found only on what is the antipode of her world, both geographically and culturally - the island-nation of Madagascar." The majority of Madagascar's wildlife is endemic: found nowhere else. Lemurs rule the forest canopy, while on the ground snakes and lizards search for evening meals of frogs and bugs, all against a gorgeous backdrop of rain forest. It's a biologist's paradise, but at times it can also be a foreigner's worst nightmare. Madagascar in no way resembles what most Westerners know as normal existence. Technologically it is leagues behind the first world. Time shuffles by at a slow gait. Poverty is rampant: People pride themselves on how many pots of rice a day they are lucky enough to eat. Language and culture barriers, combined with bureaucratic red tape, can make travel virtually impossible.

FROM THE CRITICS

Natural History Magazine

Insights into the creature world come only through painstaking research, [made] clear in [Heying's] vivid chronicle of Malagasy fieldwork.

Library Journal

The subtitle of Heying's memoir of her field studies in Madagascar is slightly misleading. Instead of attempting a general overview of the wildlife of the island (as in Peter Tyson's The Eighth Continent), Heying offers a detailed account of her work and adventures primarily on Nosy Mangabe, a smaller island off the northwest coast of Madagascar. This tiny island, while devoid of carnivores, birds, most of Madagascar's famous lemurs, and even ants, abounds in frogs in particular the mantella, a colorful and toxic frog with interesting breeding behavior that Heying studied for insights into evolutionary biology. Heying relates her own "evolution," from her initial frustration and dismay over the slow pace and poverty of the island to a growing resourcefulness, respect, and fondness for the people who live there. Much of her actual research involved sitting perfectly still for hours, watching tagged (and even tattooed!) frogs go about their business. She does an excellent job of conveying both the rigors of field research in a remote location and the intellectual joy of "basic research" the kind of science that does not necessarily lead to direct benefits for humankind. While this is not a crucial title, many readers who liked Margaret Lowman's Life in the Treetops will also enjoy Heying's blend of science and travels far off the "beaten path." Beth Clewis Crim, Prince William P.L., VA Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

A descriptive chronicle of herpetological fieldwork in Madagascar, from naturalist Heying. Madagascar￯﾿ﾽs unique biota, of which 90% are endemic, is a naturalist￯﾿ﾽs dream. Heying went there to study brightly colored poisonous frogs, but also to ￯﾿ﾽtweak her world￯﾿ﾽ￯﾿ﾽto gain some perspective on life on the other side of the world. What she delivers here, aside from unexpectedly fascinating material on the sexual selection that goes on in the world of poisonous frogs, is a sense of what it￯﾿ﾽs like to live and work daily in a place so fundamentally different from her university life back in Ann Arbor. It proves to be laden with incident, whether it￯﾿ﾽs simply observing a woman carrying a basket of ducks on her head, caring for injuries received from lemurs, rectifying the theft of her property at camp, or dealing with the naked sailors who come to bathe in the fresh water of the island where she￯﾿ﾽs conducting her research. Heying￯﾿ﾽs curiosity and openness allow her to gain a new sense of time￯﾿ﾽthere￯﾿ﾽs an abundance of it in Madagascar, and her homegrown standards don￯﾿ﾽt apply￯﾿ﾽas well as a new diet: ￯﾿ﾽIt would be an absurd understatement to suggest that rice is the staple of the Malagasy diet.￯﾿ﾽ The author brings a neat-fingered writing to her scientific findings and the same to stories of fashioning a toilet seat or whipping up a forest risotto. Without walking on tiptoe, she also tries to avoid being the ham-handed foreigner foisting her cultural biases on Malagasy ways. A skillful example of notes from the field: lively, discerning, and full of an ingrained enthusiasm for science. (8-page color photo insert, not seen)

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