Why a New Neotropical Companion?
It was first published in 1989 and it soon became known
to travelers, both literal and armchair, as “The Little
Green Book” (plate A). The “it” was the first edition of a
relatively humble book that bore the title A Neotropical
Companion. The subtitle was more explanatory: An
Introduction to the Animals, Plants, and Ecosystems
of the New World Tropics. It was a small book that fit
easily into the pocket of a field jacket or a backpack.
Illustrations were limited in number, comprising only
a few black- and- white line drawings. The text of the
book attempted to capture the ecological allure of the
tropics, and in particular what ecologists were learning
about the complexity and splendor of the uniquely
diverse rain forest biome. At that time most of my field
experience was confined to Middle America, Belize in
particular, plus Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador, to which
I had taken a few research trips, and thus the book
omitted much information about the central Amazon
Basin. Nonetheless the book resonated with travelers to
the American tropics as well as students taking college-
level courses in tropical ecology (many of which
included some brief field time at a tropical location).
I think the real reason the book found success was the
remarkable subject matter it discussed. As I wrote the
book I was continually amazed that so much hard-
earned scientific insight (real “boots on the ground”
ecology) about the tropics was still essentially confined
within scientific circles rather than readily available to
interested lay readers and introductory students. I don’t
mean how to identify this plant or that bird. I mean
how the myriad species of tropical organisms interact
to form a complex web of interdependency. I knew
about this uniquely complex ecology (I described it as
a “Gordian knot”) from firsthand experience as well as
from my extensive reading of the scientific literature.
How could this stuff be any more interesting? It was so
cool! People ought to know about such things.
I wrote at a time when field research in tropical
ecology had really begun to burgeon. More and more
researchers were in the tropics making that region their
lifetime focus, and new field stations were appearing
throughout the tropics, in particular in the New
World, or Neotropics. The research was ongoing, the
data were pouring in, and data analyses were revealing
all manner of fascinating ecological and evolutionary
insights. I just had to tell some of that story, and so I
did.
In the mid- 1990s my editor at Princeton University
Press asked me to consider expanding the Little Green
Book, adding more breadth and detail. In addition to
black- and- white line drawings there would be several
groupings of photographs, all reproduced in color.
By then I had the benefit of many more trips to the
tropics, including several to the Brazilian Amazon. So
the Little Green Book morphed into a bigger book,
both in dimensions and page count, expanding to 451
pages. It contained far more coverage of the region and
lots more basic information and examples. The second
edition of A Neotropical Companion was published in
1997 and has remained useful to students, travelers,
and general readers.Preface
Plate A. The Little Green Book. Photo by John Kricher.
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