The Last Place You'd Look for a Wallaby

Download or read book The Last Place You'd Look for a Wallaby written by Glen Chilton and published by Univ. of Queensland Press. This book was released on 2013-04 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Glen Chilton returns with another scientific 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 WWII, contributed to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans; dives with turtles in North Queensland; and dodges both crocodiles and big guns in the eucalyptus forests of Ethiopia. Along the way, 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.