A born naturalist and a fearless traveler, Vladimir Dinets wrote travel guides, conducted field research, and lived a couple of lives before he was accepted into the PhD program in zoology at the University of Miami. He thought crocodiles were a dead-end research topic—survivors from the age of the dinosaurs but not much else—until he witnessed groups of up to seventy alligators performing mating choruses that included infrasound vibrations—a form of communication extremely rare in nature—and a “dance” unknown in the scientific literature but that resembled a scene from Jurassic Park . To prove his thesis about the language of crocodiles, he spent the next six years traveling around the world on shoestring budgets and in extreme circumstances, studying almost every living species. At the same time, as a man desiring companionship in life, he sought love. With adventures on five continents, Dragon Songs is his account of this quest. It includes an escape from a boiling lava lake in the Afar Desert, being chased up a tree by a tiger in India, hitching a ride with a cocaine smuggler in Bolivia, and diving with giant Greenland sharks—all in the name of studying crocodiles, among which he routinely paddled in his inflatable kayak. Of course, not everything went according to plan. But, in the end, his ground-breaking research helped change the field. And during the course of his adventures, he met and courted his future wife. Shortlisted for Russia's Prestigious Big Book and Enlightener Prizes With his artist's eye, scientist precision, and explorer's free spirit, Dinets, a Russian immmigrant and Louisana State University professor, is no ordinary zoologist. Here, he leads readers on an intense and joyous global pursuit of the mating customs of crocodiles ( as well as his own), chroniciling the adventures in fieldwork that would inform his graduate thesis. Along the way, he notes how he prefers assistants "pathologoically prone to risk taking behavior," and on sveral occasions persuaded bush pilots to let him fly their planes -sans license. Dinets is smuggled through Somalia along with "rap music tapes and cases of Coca Cola," and avoids the bandits of Chambal, India (who live near a river filled with hundreds of singing "mugger" crocs); he offers opinions on the politics of science ("negative results are virtually impossible to publish") and seeks out scientific art, like an ancient Chinese "magic bowl" that produces infrasounds- souds at frequencies of less than 20 Hz, the low end of the normal human hearing range - as crocodiles do. Throughout gators and crocs sing, slither, and dance, providing fascinating glimpses of the dinosaurs from which they evolved (the discovery that Siamese crocs feed their yearlings indicates even the earliest dinos may have had "complex parental care"). Dinets offers an exuberant, intelligent take on the adventure of science that has the power to inspire aries of starry-eyed, flack-jacketed Ph.D.'s Photos & maps. -Publishers Weekly Vladimir Dinets grew up in Russia and moved to USA in the late 90's. He received PhD in Zoology at the University of Miami, studying songs and dances of crocodiles and alligators. Dinets continues to study animal behavior and rare, little-known animals. He has traveled in more than a hundred countries, mostly for research, but also because he loves travel. His books about nature and travel diaries have been popular in Russia for the past twenty years, mostly in online versions, but also in print. Dinets is now making them available as Kindle editions. Dragon Songs, his first popular book in English, is now available on Amazon. Dragon SONGS Love and Adventure Among Crocodiles, Alligators, and Other Dinosaur Relations By VLADIMIR DINETS Arcade Publishing Copyright © 2013 Vladimir Dinets All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-61145-893-0 Contents List of Photographs........................................................xiList of Maps and Charts....................................................xiiiAcknowledgments............................................................xvPrologue...................................................................1Chapter 1 The Morning Chorus Alligator mississippiensis...................5Chapter 2 The Night Dance Alligator mississippiensis......................10Chapter 3 Learning the Basics Alligator mississippiensis..................18Chapter 4 Dragon Reborn Alligator sinensis................................24Chapter 5 Missing a Shot Caiman yacare....................................32Chapter 6 Honest Courtship Crocodylus palustris...........................43Chapter 7 Hunting on Shore Crocodylus acutus..............................55Chapter 8 Companions of the River Gavialis gangeticus.....................64Chapter 9 The Numbers Game Alligator mississippiensis.....................69Chapter 10 Crocodiles in Permafrost Tagarosuchus kulemzini................76Chapter 11 River World Caiman niger...............