Books by Dale Peterson

All of us will face trials in our lives. Every one of us will experience trouble-physical and spiritual-and the reality of the pain will seem more than we can bear. It is not what happens in your life that measures who you are, but how you respond to what happens to you. God prepares deep valleys for some of us to walk through in order to touch many lives with His love and grace. My dearest and best friend of nearly forty years, Dale Peterson, has endured more trouble and walked through deeper valleys than anyone I know. Instead of allowing his troubles to destroy him, he dug wells in his valleys that would not only refresh him but also water the lives of those his life touches. This book will encourage you and show you how it is possible for a man to live through difficult times with great integrity and to use the lessons that God taught him to refresh the lives of others. I recommend this book not only because Dale is my friend, but because of what I have seen in his life, I want in my own. Dave Brown-Pastor, First Baptist Church East Longmeadow, MA

A lifelong fascination with primates led Dale Peterson to Africa, which he criss-crossed in hope of sighting chimpanzees in the wild. With the good-natured fatalism of the tested traveller, Peterson tells of trains and riverboats, opportunities and ecotourists, rain forests and shanty towns.

The most comprehensive book on giraffes to appear in the last fifty years, this volume presents a magnificent portrait of a group of animals who, in spite of their legendary elegance and astonishing gentleness, may not entirely survive this century.Dale Peterson's text provides a natural and cultural history of the world's tallest and second-biggest land animals, describing in detail their biology and behavior. He offers a new perspective on the giraffes' place in our world, and argues for the stronger protection of these imposing yet endangered creatures and their elusive forest relatives, the okapis.Some 120 stunning photographs by award-winning wildlife photographer Karl Ammann capture the grace and elegance of Giraffa camelopardalis. Both beautiful and informative, the images document giraffes' complex interactions with each other and their environment.

Eating Apes is an eloquent book about a disturbing secret: the looming extinction of humanity's closest relatives, the African great apes-chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. Dale Peterson's impassioned expose details how, with the unprecedented opening of African forests by European and Asian logging companies, the traditional consumption of wild animal meat in Central Africa has suddenly exploded in scope and impact, moving from what was recently a subsistence activity to an enormous and completely unsustainable commercial enterprise. Although the three African great apes account for only about one percent of the commercial bush meat trade, today's rate of slaughter could bring about their extinction in the next few decades. Supported by compelling color photographs by award-winning photographer Karl Ammann, Eating Apes documents the when, where, how, and why of this rapidly accelerating disaster. Eating Apes persuasively argues that the American conservation media have failed to report the ongoing collapse of the ape population. In bringing the facts of this crisis and these impending extinctions into a single, accessible book, Peterson takes us one step closer to averting one of the most disturbing threats to our closest relatives.