Language English Media type Print (Hardback) Preceded by Bring 'Em Back Alive Originally published 1932 Genre Non-fiction Country United States of America | Publication date 1932 Pages 244 Followed by Fang and Claw Page count 244 Publisher Simon & Schuster | |
 | ||
Similar Frank Buck books, Other books | ||
Wild Cargo was Frank Buck’s second book, a best seller. Buck continued his tales of his adventures capturing exotic animals. Writing with Edward Anthony, Buck related many of his experiences working with jungle creatures.
Contents
Chapters
Buck was a keen observer and student of animal psychology and includes occasional bits of shocking realism, for example in "Killer of Killers" he relates the story of a man-eating tiger that could be trapped by only one kind of bait: human flesh. In "Coiled Lightning" he describes an encounter with a hungry python. In "Spitting Cobra" he tells of a painful meeting with one of the most unpleasant snakes in the world. In "The Patsy" Buck tells the story of a young female elephant who had nothing but bad luck; in "Black Fury" of a leopard who escaped from his cage on shipboard; and in "Terrible Tusks" of a tremendous conflict, witnessed by his native assistant, between two bull elephants contending for the mastery of a herd of females. "A Bear in Time" is the story of a destructive honey bear that Buck used to rid himself of a bore, who had threatened to move into his house. “Animal Magic” describes native medicines: tigers' gall bladders, hairs from elephants' tails and leopards' shoulder bones. “Striped Demon,” the final chapter, is the thrilling story of an attack on Buck by a tiger he is trying to film.
Critical reception
"Enough legitimate action and suspense to make a dozen average jungle motion picture films"