Author Dan Drollette chronicles researchers’ effort to discover and defend the animals of Vietnam — including some of the rarest mammal species in the world, found only in the past decade. Unexpectedly, wildlife biologists have learned that the 20th century’s series of constant, low-level wars in Vietnam (against the Japanese, French, Americans, Chinese, Cambodians, and Laotians) may have actually protected the region’s wildlife. Gold Rush in the Jungle will be published in April, in time for the 38th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Unfortunately, even in this post-war era, discovering rare new animals such as the Barking Deer, the Flying Frog, the Saola, and the legendary ox-like Kouprey comes at great risk. Scientists and others must dodge leftover bombs, monsoon rains, and stray bands of Khmer Rouge rebels in order to do their work. In this region, the phrase “publish or perish” is taken quite literally: One war correspondent/wildlife seeker in Indochina contracted malaria 16 times, had eight of his personal bodyguards killed, survived three assassination attempts, was taken hostage twice, and was once blown up by a land mine. But they say that the lure of doing fieldwork in Indochina is like catching malaria: Once it gets in your blood, you keep coming back.