I love the Africa wildlife so I was very excited to read this book. Pat is a humorous writer and some of the things he encountered while there were just comical. I thought it was a really interesting take on life in that part of the world and it depicted the culture well.

I really enjoyed this one, and I'm adding the author's other books to my TBR list.
Thank you very much to John Hunt Publishing Ltd. and NetGalley for the ARC!

⭐⭐⭐ -- Great cover on this one.

I honestly don't have a ton to say about this one. I enjoyed it. It was relatively short, and the author has an engaging "voice". There were funny parts. There were boring parts. There were interesting parts (the hunt for the Mokele M'Bembe). It didn't blow me away, but it was a solid read. 👍🏻

**ARC Via NetGalley**

Thank you Netgally and John Hunt Publishing for access to this arc.

The cover caught my eye but it was really the subheading “or, How I Avoided Prison but was Outsmarted by a Snail” that told me I wanted to know more about this book. Outsmarted by a snail? In reality, it was even worse but we’ll get to that.

No, I’d never heard of the National Geographic TV show that took the author to various places around the world to investigate cryptozoological beasts but I might have to remedy that now. In this book, the hunt was on for Mokele M’Bembe – the “living dinosaur” that supposedly lives in western equatorial Africa.

The travel bag taken was amazing but I did have to wonder how on earth he thought that carrying a selection of knives in it to Paris and back to the UK before taking off for Cameroon was ever going to pass muster with security. I also have to be honest and say that some of his statements and descriptions about initially landing in Cameroon and his first thoughts are a bit cringe inducing. At least he acknowledge that he's going to sound like an ignorant, wide eyed, naïve American who is very much enjoying his first view of a new country and continent.

“I do realize what an American I sound like when I say this.”


Then the fun part of the book started as the crew got down to the business of traveling and filming in sometimes challenging conditions and around animals that can kill you such as elephants that rampaged through the camp one night and a group of gorillas lead by a serious badass Silverback.

Going on a hunt with Baka tribesmen led to a first world moral crisis of whether or not to participate if an endangered species ended up being flushed from the bush before realizing that this was a first world moral crisis and these men were trying to bring food back for their families. Luckily for said moral crisis, crew noise scared off most prey except for some Giant African snails – which managed to escape the crew while they were shooting b-film. Yes, I did think about that. Snails managed to escape.

Car issues, roadblocks with armed militias – official and otherwise, the crushing heat and humidity, and the toilet facilities convince me that I’m not cut out to be an intrepid around-the-world traveler. No, I’d rather watch from the comfort of home though the plethora of butterflies sounds amazing.

I agree that exploring things that might sound ridiculous at first or using some “sexy facts” to grab peoples’ attention and get them to listen is a great way to get people interested in science, animals, the outdoors, and places that need saving.

Now, does Mokele M’Bemba actually exist? I think he laid out his argument well against it but also the need for MM to exist for those who live in the area. The travelogue sections were hilarious to read about, the way that traveling through these countries changed the crew’s view of what really counts (it ain’t heated kitchen floors in a London flat) was a bit awkward but also necessary, and the scientific discussion of the “beast” in question were interesting. I’d give this a B and will look into some of the other upcoming books in the series.

It's was a fast read: entertaining and informative. I had fun, learn something new, and laughed a lot.
It was an interesting book about a cryptozoology expedition.
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm not familiar with Beast Hunters or Pat Spain, but found this to be an interesting read.

Following Spain as he filmed his show Beast Hunters and search for a maybe dinosaur called MM. The first roughly two thirds of the book are about Spain's travel experiences. From cars breaking down to trying to take knives on planes the book catalogs the ups and downs of Spain's travel. While there are anecdotes that are meant to be endearing (like about the snails), others come off as rather privileged American or short sighted, like being surprised that knives aren't allowed on planes even if they're meant for camping. There's clearly a lot that didn't cross Spain's mind despite doing this for a living.

I think where this book is strongest is the search for the MM. While I enjoyed some of the travel stories and it paints a picture of the experience, the search for this dinosaur is laid out in a scientific and approachable way. Spain shares his doubts, sources, and information provided to him on this trip in a way that's transparent and interesting. I enjoyed reading the theories and breakdown of each with the explanation of which is the most plausible given everything found in this book.

Overall an interesting read.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley.

A Living Dinosaur - On the Hunt in West Africa is a lovely, short little memoir about TV’s Pat Spain hunt for Mokele Membe, a sauropod, believed to exist in West Africa. It is written in a very humorous style and anyone who enjoys the dry wit and wry observations of a traveller, will thoroughly enjoy this book. There’s toilet humour, a killer bee that lands on a certain exposed body part and even a charging silverback gorilla, guaranteed to scare anyone.

This book was entertaining and such a Quick read, I’d thoroughly recommend!

I never saw National Geographic’s Beast Hunter (which ran for five episodes in 2011), but that isn’t a necessary precursor to enjoying host Pat Spain’s account of filming the series. A Living Dinosaur: On the Hunt in West Africa: Or, How I Avoided Prison But Was Outsmarted by a Snail is one of six short books that Spain wrote about his time filming with Nat Geo — as he travelled the world looking for monsters and cryptids — and the result in this volume is charming, funny, and thoughtful. As a wildlife biologist, Spain is fascinated by the critters he encounters in the West African rainforest — from millipede to silverback — and as a wide-eyed fish-out-of-water traveller, he has plenty of you-couldn’t-make-this-stuff-up stories about his madcap adventures. Personally, I might have preferred an opportunity to read all six volumes together — or, at any rate, for this book to be longer or deeper — but if my only complaint is that I wanted more, that’s not much of a complaint at all.