Life Above the Jungle Floor

Very Good used hardcover in dust jacket. Donald Perry's work as a field biologist in the Costa Rican rain forest yields the first chronicle of life in the tops of the trees. To explore and report on this particular ecosystem, Perry had to devise a way to enter this "kingdom in the sky". He succeeded with a clever and complicated system of webs, pulleys, and platforms, which enabled him to observe the most botanically diverse ecosystem on our planet. His work gives us a rare glimpse into a rich and complex world. Perry has managed to produce a compelling scientific work and a lively tale of adventure, Suspended in a green, leafy domain hundreds of feet above the forest floor, he faced tropical storms, bizarre insects, and deadly snakes. Perhaps the most compelling episode of all is Perry's descent 50 feet into a hollow, yet living, tree trunk teeming with life-- its own self-sustaining ecosystem.