Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird by Br The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw. The world’s #1 eTextbook reader for students. VitalSource is the leading provider of online textbooks and course materials. More than 15 million users have used our Bookshelf platform over the past year to improve their learning experience and outcomes. With anytime, anywhere access and built-in tools like highlighters, flashcards, and study groups, it’s easy to see why so many students are going digital with Bookshelf. titles available from more than 1,000 publishers. customer reviews with an average rating of 9.5. digital pages viewed over the past 12 months. institutions using Bookshelf across 241 countries. The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird by Bruce Barcott and Publisher Random House. Save up to 80% by choosing the eTextbook option for ISBN: 9781588368003, 1588368009. The print version of this textbook is ISBN: 9780812973136, 0812973135. The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird by Bruce Barcott and Publisher Random House. Save up to 80% by choosing the eTextbook option for ISBN: 9781588368003, 1588368009. The print version of this textbook is ISBN: 9780812973136, 0812973135. Sharon Matola obituary. In 1983, after a wildlife film-making project she was working on fell apart, Sharon Matola found herself in Belize, Central America, with a menagerie of homeless native creatures. She scrounged some land, wrote a sign on a piece of wood, and the Belize Zoo was open for business. Suddenly, she became “the zoo lady”, responsible for housing, feeding, cleaning and maintaining the health of the 20 animals. The “office cat” was a jaguar, and there was a baby tapir in the bedroom on several occasions. It looked chaotic, but Matola, who has died aged 66 of a heart attack, was scrupulous about animal husbandry and determined that Belizeans would have a chance to learn about their tiny nation’s biodiversity. People started showing up to help and eventually there was a team of dedicated, paid staff including Celso Poot, now a senior leader at the zoo, who recalled how Matola encouraged local youngsters like him to study for a degree and undertake postgraduate work. Her friend and fellow conservationist Lee Durrell, widow of the naturalist and author Gerald, Matola’s childhood hero, often hosted young researchers from Belize Zoo at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust’s academy in Jersey. Sharon Matola, from Baltimore, Maryland, settled in Belize when a wildlife film-making project fell apart. Photograph: EP Mallory/The Belize Zoo. Matola threw herself into fundraising. She could pack a cocktail dress and a pair of heels into a knapsack, ride her Kawasaki motorbike to a soiree in the capital, Belmopan, or Belize City, schmooze some donors and be back in time for the night round at the enclosures she individually designed for each animal, many of whom were dumped, injured, at the zoo’s front door. Today there are more than 170 animals in the Belize Zoo and Tropical Education Centre, including coatis, ocelots and Harpy eagles. April the tapir, who arrived after hunters had killed her mother, was so popular that she ended up on the country’s banknotes and stamps. For many visitors, meeting April was the first time they had seen the country’s official national animal. A special party takes place at the zoo every year on 27 April, which is designated National Tapir Day in Belize and World Tapir Day globally. Matola told me she owed a debt of gratitude to British soldiers posted to Belize for jungle training who helped by digging paths and renovating enclosures at the zoo in their time off. She went on to have a DJ slot on British Forces radio. The animals enjoyed much better conditions than Matola, who lived in a modest, small wooden dwelling with an outside toilet. Her only luxury was a pool she had dug, which she shared with a small crocodile. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Sharon was the second of three children of Janice (nee Schatoff), an executive assistant, and Edward Matola, sales manager for the National Brewing Company. After school, she went into the US airforce, which gave her an early introduction to Latin America when she was sent to Panama for jungle training. She then studied at New College of Florida, graduating in 1981 with a degree in biology and environmental sciences, with a focus on mycology and animal behaviour. She was looking for an escape from studying mushrooms, and a brief early marriage to a dentist, when she saw an ad: “Girls wanted to dance in Mexican circus. Good pay. Much travel.” When the ringmaster found out she had studied big cat behaviour, she was given her own act with the tigers. Sharon Matola with a tapir, a creature celebrated with an annual party at Belize Zoo. One of its tapirs went on to feature on the country’s banknotes and stamps. Photograph: Abdon Tzib/Saasil Photos. Later, when the call came to help out on a wildlife documentary in the newly independent former British colony of Belize, she upped sticks and went to work for the film-makers Richard and Carol Foster, who were to become firm friends. She remained in Belize, taking nationality in 1990, and was still training animals and birds at the zoo until two weeks before her death. A consequence of her work in which she took pride was changing the mindset of a generation of Belizeans who once would have thought nothing of hunting and killing animals such as jaguars and snakes. She also acted as animal consultant on films made in Belize, including The Mosquito Coast (1986), starring Harrison Ford, and National Geographic’s Tales From Belize: Paradise on the Edge (2000). Matola was internationally recognised for her research on the scarlet macaw, and her concern for its riverside nesting sites led her to spearhead the attempt to reverse a controversial decision to build the Chalillo Dam on the Macal river. Bacongo, an alliance of NGOs, eco-tourism pioneers from the nearby Chaa Creek Resort, and others, including Ford, believed the dam would harm the macaw and put other animals and communities downstream at risk, and Matola embarked on a gruelling five-year campaign. It was the first environmental case to come before the UK privy council, the appeal court for Belize. The Belizean government and the multinational company Fortis went to great lengths, even trying to remove the matter from the jurisdiction of the privy council midway through the hearing. Losing the case in 2004 was probably Matola’s greatest disappointment. Her battle on behalf of the wildlife of Belize was the subject of Bruce Barcott’s book The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman’s Fight to Save the World’s Most Beautiful Bird (2009). The zoo is now in the hands of a capable board, which has pledged to ensure its survival. She is survived by her sister, Marlene, and brother, Stephen. Sharon Matola, conservationist and zookeeper, born 3 June 1954; died 21 March 2021. Texas Talking Book Program. Talking about talking books and providing program information for readers and friends. Staff Pick — Shannon: The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw. Hubby and I are starting to daydream about our next vacation. While looking over travel books, and talking to friends about their recent travels, a friend gushed about his recent trip to Belize. I’m not sure if timing, a toddler or finances will allow it, but I picked up the book The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman’s fight to Save the World’s Most Beautiful Bird anyway. The woman in question fighting to save the scarlet macaws is Sharon Matola, owner and director of the Belize Zoo. “The zoo exhibits 125 individual animals and hosts more than seventy thousand visitors every year – more than one-quarter of Belize’s entire population.” In the book, there is an ongoing fight between Sharon and owners of an electric company and some government officials regarding the building of a dam in an area known to be populated by species of animals that can’t be found anywhere else in the world, notably the scarlet macaws. ‘To Sharon, the question of the macaw’s survival was a no brainer. “If we keep destroying habitat like this, that bird is a goner,” she told me one of the first times we met. “it’s not that tough to understand. Once it’s got no place to eat and no place to breed, it will go extinct.”’ Sharon received threats while opposing the dam –threats to her safety and to her business. The government sent notice to Sharon that they were going to build a landfill one mile away from the zoo. By showing the amount of flooding at the proposed dump site during hurricane season, the amount of drainage from the flooding into a local water source, and gaining support from Princess Anne of England during her visit to the former colony, Sharon was able to defeat the government’s plan. There were some definite examples of hidden reports from the company building the dam, including the report that showed how much electricity would be produced. The company claimed that some of the reports about the project contained proprietary information. There were also some serious questions about whether the cost of the dam would be passed on to the electricity buyers and if it would really mean lower electricity rates for Belizeans. When reports by the scientists hired by the owners of the electric company agreed with the dam protesters (and said much worse than what the dam protesters feared), their reports were re-worded and released to the public in such a way as to make it sound like minimal impact. I found the combination of the balance between politics and the environment interesting. The Canadian company building the dam and officials in the government were painting Sharon as an outsider, white person telling Belize what to do rather than acknowledging that she’s lived in Belize for 20 + years and loves the country. The building of the dam passed with a vote of 11- 1. Then came multiple appeals and court battles still fighting the building of the dam. The dam was a go-ahead in the appeals court. The Chalillo Dam opened in November of 2005. The cost of power for the people of Belize went up in costs after the building of the dam. Sharon went on to continue her work with the zoo and take on projects such as building an art gallery in the zoo and working with the Peregrine Fund to rehabilitate harpy eagles in the region. If you ask Sharon why she thinks people are fascinated with birds, she answers, “They fly. We don’t. We’re jealous… They’re up there in the air, where we can’t go. They’re like sea creatures that way. We can’t see most sea creatures, though. We can look up and see birds in the sky. They go into a world we can see and yet can’t access. They go through that glass window keeping us out. They’re so fragile, yet we can’t grasp the. All those things.” For more information about the current state of the macaws in Belize, here is the director’s message on the Belize Zoo’s website: The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman’s Fight to Save the World’s Most Beautiful Bird. Barcott, Bruce. Reading time: 11 hours, 20 minutes. Read by Jack Fox. Chronicles the crusade of Sharon Matola, an expatriate American who directs the Belize Zoo, to stop construction of a dam that would flood the nesting grounds of the country’s last scarlet macaws. Illuminates the economic struggles of developing nations and the conflict between environmental conservation and industrial development. 2008. The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw Summary and Reviews. Award-winning author Bruce Barcott chronicles Sharon Matola’s inspiring crusade to stop a multinational corporation in its tracks. Ferocious in her passion, she and her confederates – a ragtag army of courageous locals and eccentric expatriates – endure slander and reprisals and take the fight to the courtroom and the boardroom, from local village streets to protests around the world. As the dramatic story unfolds, Barcott addresses the realities of economic survival in Third World countries, explores the tension between environmental conservation and human development, and puts a human face on the battle over globalization. In this marvelous and spirited book, Barcott shows us how one unwavering woman risked her life to save the most beautiful bird in the world. Reviews "Beyond the Book" articles Free books to read and review (US only) Find books by time period, setting & theme Read-alike suggestions by book and author Book club discussions and much more! Just $12 for 3 months or $39 for a year. Reviews. Media Reviews. "An engrossing but sad account of a brave and quirky champion of nature." - Kirkus Reviews. "Barcott's compelling narrative is suspenseful right up to the last moment." - Publishers Weekly. This information about The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw shown above was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. In most cases, the reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that the reviews shown do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, please send us a message with the mainstream media reviews that you would like to see added. Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published. "Macaw" One woman's fight to save the world's most beautiful bird. Sharon Matola, the "Zoo Lady" of Belize, is an unlikely environmental hero. A one-time Iowa housewife, she trained in jungle survival with the Air Force, rode freights to Florida to study animal behavior and apprenticed to a Romanian tiger tamer. Later she worked as a circus dancer (with tigers) in Mexico. In the early 1980s, she helped film a nature documentary in Belize. At the end of the shoot, she inherited 20 exotic jungle animals, and the Belize Zoo was born. A quarter-century later, Matola is a widely respected authority on the scarlet macaw and other tropical species. Her zoo is among the most popular tourist attractions in Belize. And she is successfully restoring harpy eagles and other threatened species to the Belize jungle. Matola is also known among conservationists for her remarkable effort to save the scarlet macaw's only known habitat in Belize from inundation behind a large hydroelectric dam. In "The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw," Seattle writer Bruce Barcott ("The Measure of a Mountain") has written a gripping account of a single woman's dogged campaign — one that took on a government, an international energy conglomerate and the power structure of her adopted country — to save a rare and beautiful bird. The scarlet macaw, in Barcott's words, "looks like a creature dreamed up by Dr. Seuss." It is a social, intelligent, wildly multicolored parrot "the size of a housecat." The bird is somewhat plentiful in the jungles of South America, but the northern subspecies that inhabits Central America is becoming increasingly rare due to habitat destruction. Scarlet macaws have disappeared entirely from El Salvador. Mexico has fewer than 100. Belize and neighboring Guatemala each have about 200. All the Belize birds nest along the Macal River, the place Canada's Fortis Inc. targeted for flooding behind its Chalillo Dam. A seasoned journalist, Barcott ably handles this wide-ranging, multifaceted story. Employing novelistic scene-setting, pithy detail and crisp dialogue, he covers cumbersome legal hurdles, arcane international legalities and raucous public hearings with the graceful ease of a long-distance runner. From the start, Matola's plight is a mission improbable. She's an American, for one thing. Her opposition to the dam is framed by proponents as another example of colonial oppression. She is condemned by government officials, excoriated in the press. Even with the help of the Natural Resources Defense Council, she is heavily outgunned financially, legally and politically. In the midst of her campaign, she has to fight the vindictive placement of a municipal dump next door to her zoo. Barcott recounts every skirmish, backroom deal and falsified report. He introduces a rogues' gallery of political and corporate players. He brings this poor, postcolonial country, "a black hole for odd foundations, little religious sects, and strange people," vividly to life. His investigation into the financial shenanigans, blatant profiteering and corruption behind the dam project is dizzying in its detail. On one level, this project dramatizes the social costs resulting from the 1990s rash of privatizing public resources in developing countries. Energy, water and transportation costs spiral upward for populations least able to afford them. Even more vivid is the light this story casts on other third-world development projects that destroy biodiversity, do little to benefit mostly poor populations and line the pockets of government officials and Enron-like multinationals. Through tough reporting, colorful travel writing and a touch of natural history, Barcott has elevated an obscure environmental struggle to epic status. In doing so, he dramatizes the signal issue of species diversity in a rapidly globalizing world. And he celebrates the heroic and unsung efforts of those "rare and strange and sometimes aggravating" people who work tirelessly to preserve it. Tim McNulty is an Olympic Peninsula-based poet and nature writer.