Wade Davis holds degrees in anthropology and biology and received his Ph.D. in ethnobotany from Harvard University. The author of The Serpent and the Rainbow, an international best-seller appearing in 10 languages and later released by Universal as a motion picture, he has written numerous books including One River (1996), nominated for the 1997 Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction. His latest book, The Clouded Leopard (1998), describes Davis’ journeys from the rain forests of Borneo to the mountains of Tibet, and from the ice floes of the Arctic to the sands of the Sahara.

A native of British Columbia, Davis has worked as a park ranger, a forestry engineer, a logger and a big-game hunting guide and has conducted ethnographic fieldwork among several indigenous societies of northern Canada. He has published some ninety scientific and popular articles on subjects ranging from Haitian voodoo and Amazonian myth and religion to the global diversity crisis, the traditional use of psychotropic drugs, and the ethnobotany of South American Indians.