First thanks, emphatic and enduring, go to Bill Robichaud. He didn’t know what he was getting into when he allowed a writer to join him on a trip into NNT, and this writer didn’t know, either. Bill’s leadership in the field and his dedication to saola conservation remain an inspiration. I am honored to know him.
Thanks also to Soukphavanh Sawathvong (Touy), Chamthasome Phommachanh (Olay), and Simeuang Phitsanoukan for fellowship and helpful kindness on the trail. May our paths cross again often. I am also indebted to Khamdy, Thii, Mok Keo, Bone, Meet, Phaivanh, Sone, and all the guides who labored with us in the forest. Khop chay as well to Kong Chan, Chan Si, and the many people of NNT who allowed us into their homes and extended their hospitality.
Other help in Laos came from Akchousanh Rasphone, Steve Duthy, Roland Eve, Mark Hedemark, Michelle Smith, Lee Talbot, Phoukhaokham Luangoudom, and Thong Eth Payvanh.
Latsamay Sylavong, Chris Muziol, and their colleagues at IUCN–Laos in Vientiane gave immeasurable assistance, and Jim Chamberlain was a patient and generous teacher.
In Hanoi, Jonathan Eames of BirdLife International could not have been more helpful or hospitable, and I am also very grateful to the personnel of the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) who were based there, including Pham Thi Bich Hai, Long Nguyen Hoang, and particularly Huong Tran Thanh, who, in spite of a heavy workload and pressing family priorities, guided me to and from multiple interviews, which she interpreted as well. Thanks also to those who granted the interviews: Vu Van Dung, Pham Mong Giao, Le Van Cham, Le Trong Trai, and Nguyen Cu. Le Duc Minh also kindly guided me through a number of difficult issues. In Vinh, Cao Tien Trung was a gracious, entertaining, and knowledgeable host who shared his intimate understanding of saola.
My thanks also to correspondents who generously answered my queries: Nick Enfield, Bob Dobias, David Hulse, Sulma Warne, Mike Baltzer, Chng Soh Koon, Ingo Wiederhofer, and John MacKinnon. Will Duckworth’s assistance, although provided at a distance, went far beyond correspondence, and the book is much better for his close attention. Rob Timmins, Eleanor Sterling, Joe Walston, Barney Long, and Nicholas Wilkinson generously consented to be interviewed. So did the incomparable George Schaller, who provided key files and documents, encouragement, and advice. William Conway also lent a hand when one was needed, and the support of Messrs. Schaller and Conway, together with that of other colleagues at the Liz Claiborne Art Ortenberg Foundation, has been immensely important in multiple ways. I am especially grateful to Art Ortenberg, to whose memory The Last Unicorn is dedicated.
Jack Tordoff, a grant director at CEPF, launched this project by sending me to a meeting of the Saola Working Group in Vientiane in 2009 and followed up with a small grant that allowed me to accompany Bill Robichaud to Nakai–Nam Theun NPA in 2011. Jack’s help extended to several other areas and has been invaluable.
CEPF, incidentally, likes its grantees to acknowledge formally the partnership’s sources and purpose, and I am happy to do so: CEPF is a “joint initiative of l’Agence Française de Développement, Conservation International, the European Union, the Global Environment Facility, the Government of Japan, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the World Bank. A fundamental goal is to ensure civil society is engaged in biodiversity conservation.”
My old pal Jack Loeffler, along with Suzanne Jamison, kindly made available the not-for-profit Lore of the Land for grant administration. Catherine Baca, ally of many years, transcribed the scrawl of my field notes, a task I could not imagine confiding to anyone else. Yvonne Bond did likewise for many hours of recorded interviews, and Deborah Reade, in our fourth collaboration, produced the wonderful maps. Another longtime pal, Don Usner, reworked the photographs to bring out all they could offer.
Don Lamm, friend and agent, believed in the project from early on and, together with the wonderful Melissa Chinchillo of Fletcher & Company, found a home for it at Little, Brown and Company, where John Parsley greatly improved the manuscript and deftly guided it into print. His colleagues, Malin von Euler-Hogan, Barbara Clark, and Karen Landry, as well as others, also lent their talents to the improvement of this work. My thanks to all.
It should go without saying that any errors in these pages are my responsibility, and mine alone.
And finally, from start to finish Joanna Hurley was rock-steady in her support of the project and of me, acts for which I remain both profoundly grateful and amazed at my good luck.