Frank Buck

Frank Buck is certainly the most famous of the world's wild animal collectors, and if you get down to it, he's probably the only animal collector anyone really knows about. Of course, nowadays animal collecting is a career far less esteemed than in Frank's day, and captive breeding is the preferred method for replenishing the stock of the world's zoological gardens.

In our conservation minded era, Frank has been the butt of some criticism for his methods. He himself told of times that some of his prize catches died in transit. Being a business man, he emphasized that enough of these sad incidents could send a collector into bankruptcy (which ultimately happened to Frank). So some of his more severe critics say his first book should not have been titled Bring 'Em Back Alive but instead Kill Half of 'Em Along the Way.

On the other hand, we really can be a bit more charitable. After all, we really can't blame Frank for being born in a time when there were no climate controlled shipping environments or veterinary antibiotics. From the standards and capabilities of his time, Frank did the best he could.

So for a little more about the man who in the end did bring most of 'em back alive, just click here.