Host Dave Schlom visits with one of his favorite authors, Nathalia Holt, to talk about her new book The Beast in the Clouds: The Roosevelt Brothers Deadly Quest to Find the Mythical Giant Panda.
Holt details the 1928-29 expedition by the sons of President Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Jr. and Kermit, to find and kill a Giant Panda to bring back as a specimen for the Field Museum in Chicago.
It was a perilous journey in the Himalayas with cultural clashes and brushes with severe weather that could have led to a disastrous outcome. The Giant Panda was virtually unknown in the West, and most believed it was a mythical creature. Hunting a bear, the Roosevelts were expecting an encounter with a fierce creature akin to the Grizzly or Polar Bear.
When they killed a Giant Panda, they were shocked to learn it was a gentle and beautiful creature. For the rest of their brief lives (both brothers died in World War 2, Theodore Jr, of heart failure following the D-Day invasion, and Kermit of suicide while stationed in Alaska), the brothers' relationship splintered.
Kermit, in particular, felt terrible remorse for the killing of the Panda and worked to shape conservation efforts that echo today. It's a fascinating tale of adventure, loss and reckoning!
