To research books, films and articles, Sy Montgomery has been chased by an angry silverback gorilla in Zaire and bitten by a vampire bat in Costa Rica. She has worked in a pit crawling with 18,000 snakes in Manitoba and handled a wild tarantula in French Guiana. She has been deftly undressed by an orangutan in Borneo, hunted by a tiger in India, and swum with piranhas, electric eels and dolphins in the Amazon.

But her newest, nationally-bestselling book for adult readers is a love story-a true one-about home, about family, and particularly, about a pig.

The Good Good Pig: The Extraordinary Life of Christopher Hogwood is a memoir of 14 years of comfort and joy shared with a 750-pound Buddha Master, who happened to have a flexible nose disk and a curly tail. Since his adoption as a piglet deemed too small and sickly to live, Christopher's is a runt-to-riches story: in his new home, Christopher gains not weight, fans and fame. Local children flock to brush and wash him at "Pig Spa"; he commands a vast slops empire; he even gets write-in-votes in local elections. "It took a village to keep Christopher fed and entertained, and Montgomery's description of Christopher's amazing adventures and celebrity status are hilarious, enchanting, and deeply affecting," writes Donna Seaman for American Library Association's Booklist advance review. The book made summer reading lists across the country and was featured in People magazine, O magazine, and on Good Morning America. It was named one of the top books of 2006 by The Christian Science Monitor, the Houston Chronicle and the American Library Association's Booklist, among others. The paperback will be published in April.

Montgomery's newest children's book, in October '06, is set on the opposite side of the Earth. Quest for the Tree Kangaroo: An Expedition to the Cloud Forest of New Guinea chronicles the previous year's three-week expedition with tree kangaroo expert Dr. Lisa Dabek and her multinational team of scientists, artists and teachers. From the remote village of Yawan, 44 people trekked for three days to 10,000 feet, up into the moss-clad cloud forest realm of one of the world's most beautiful and mysterious creatures: the Matchie's tree kangaroo. Illuminated by Dr. Nic Bishop's stunning photos, it's the story of how love, strength, science, partnership and willpower combine to protect a habitat unlike any other on Earth and uncover the secrets of a little-known animal. Houghton Mifflin publishes this book as part of its acclaimed Scientists in the Field Series, for children in grades 4-8. It was honored with the prestigious Orbis Pictus award for nonfiction from the National Council of Teachers of English and selected as a Robert F. Sibert Honor Book by the American Library Association.

Montgomery writes for adults and children, for print and broadcast, in America and overseas in an effort to reach as wide an audience as possible at what she considers a critical turning point in human history. "We are on the cusp of either destroying this sweet, green Earth-or revolutionizing the way we understand the rest of animate creation," she says. "It's an important time to be writing about the connections we share with our fellow creatures. It's a great time to be alive."

Montgomery's previous children's book, Search for the Golden Moon Bear was a kid's version of the adult book of the same title. For these books, Montgomery traveled through the sometimes land-mined forest of Southeast Asia with Field Museum evolutionary biologist Dr. Gary Galbreath to report on the discovery of a beautiful golden bear previously unknown to science. Amid a roller-coaster of hope and humor, beauty and horror, she writes of astonishing new opportunities for conserving endangered species at a crucial crossroads in the area's often-tragic history. The adult version of Search for the Golden Moon Bear was named one of the top five nonfiction books of the year by Book Magazine, honored as one of the Top Ten Science Books of the Year by Booklist and picked as an Editor's Choice by American Library Association. It won the Outstanding Work of Nonfiction prize at the 2003 New Hampshire Literary Awards. The children's title was selected as an Outstanding Science Trade Book for students k-12 by the National Science Teachers Association and the Children's Book Council, among other honors.

Montgomery met Dr. Galbreath while researching Journey of the Pink Dolphins: An Amazon Quest. Published by Simon and Schuster in 2000 it was a finalist for the Thomas Cook Travel Writing Award; an Amazon.com Editor's Pick for the Top Outdoor and Nature Books of 2000; and one of Belief.net's Top 10 Books of the Year 2000. It is the true story of the author's quest to follow an enigmatic, little-studied species of freshwater dolphin into the heart of the Amazon. Each of her four research expeditions was a journey not only into the world's greatest jungle, but also a trip back into time, and a foray into a mythical, enchanted world where people say the dolphins can turn into people and dance with the men and women on land.

For her book Spell of the Tiger, Montgomery avoided being eaten by her study subjects while living in a mud hut among the most deadly man-eaters in the world. Her work with the tigers and people was the subject of a National Geographic "Explorer" TV documentary filmed in West Bengal, which she scripted and narrated.

Montgomery also developed and scripted the Chris-award winning documentary "Mother Bear Man" for National Geographic, a film profiling the lives of three orphaned bear cubs and their unlikely mother-gunsmith Ben Kilham, who raised the cubs as a mother bear would: by spending nine hours a day in the woods with them.

Writing about science, natural history and conservation for children has become an increasingly important priority. Montgomery's first children's book, The Snake Scientist, was honored with a dozen national awards, including an International Reading Association prize. Her second children's book, The Man-Eating Tigers of Sundarbans, was also honored with national recognition, including a Booklist 2001 Editor's Choice, and an Oppenheim Gold Award featured on The Today Show. Her third book for children, Encantado: Pink Dolphin of the Amazon, was published by Houghton Mifflin in March, 2002 and named to the Outstanding Science Trade Books List by the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) and the Children's Book Council, among other honors. The Tarantula Scientist, researched in the field in the jungle of French Guiana, was published by Houghton Mifflin in March 2004. It was the recipient of one of the American Library Association's prestigious Robert F. Sibert Honor Awards in 2005, a rare honor for a science book. It was also named a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, a National Science Teachers Association Selector's Choice, and a 2005 Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts by the National Council of Teachers of English.

Montgomery's popular nature column for The Boston Globe has been collected into several books, including The Wild Out Your Window: Exploring Nature Near At Hand (published summer 2002 by Down East Books) and The Curious Naturalist. The author also contributes reports and commentaries for National Public Radio's "Living on Earth" and writes for magazines in the US and abroad as well as for Encyclopedia Britannica. Drawing on the six months she spent living in a tent on a wombat preserve studying emus in South Australia, she contributed a chapter to The Nature of Nature: New Essays by America's Finest Writers on Nature. (Published by Harcourt Brace in 1994, the book was a fundraiser for Share Our Strength, an anti-poverty organization.) Her work has also been featured in anthologies including The Best Spiritual Writing 1999, Adrenaline 2000: The Year's Best Stories of Adventure and Survival, Sierra Club/UC Books' 2003 anthology, Between Species: Celebrating the Dolphin-Human Bond, and in 2004, in Face to Face: Women Writers on Faith Mysticism and Awakening as well as Milkweed Editions' forthcoming children's anthology from its "Stories from Where We Live" series, The South Atlantic Coast and Piedmont.

Montgomery lectures widely on conservation topics at zoos, museums, universities and schools, for both adults and children. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Rainforest Conservation Fund, an Advisor to the Center for Tropical Ecology and Conservation at Antioch/New England Institute, and on the Advisory Board of the New England conservation group, RESTORE! The North Woods. In 2003 she was honored with the Edward Hyde Cox Medal for work which "advances the well-being of animals and acknowledges the power and beauty of the relationship that humans share with them" by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Montgomery is a 1979 graduate of Syracuse University, a triple major with dual degrees in Magazine Journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and in French Language and Literature and in Psychology from the College of Arts and Sciences. She was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University System of New Hampshire Board of Trustees, conferred at the commencement ceremonies at Keene State College in Keene, N.H. in May, 2004.

Current projects include:

• Publication of new, updated editions of JOURNEY OF THE PINK DOLPHINS and SPELL OF THE TIGER in February 2009, by Chelsea Green. New editions will feature new covers, color photos, new forewords and afterwords, and updates thoughout.
• SAVING THE GHOST OF THE MOUNTAIN: An Expedition to Snow Leopard Country in Mongolia's Gobi will be published by Houghton Mifflin in Spring 2009. For kids in grades 4-8 with wonderful photos by Nic Bishop.
• New, updated editions of SEARCH FOR THE GOLDEN MOON BEAR and WALKING WITH THE GREAT APES will be published in fall, 2009 from Chelsea Green. Watch for all-new color photos, updates and new covers.
• SAVING THE KAKAPO, featuring the world's heaviest parrot—a cuddly, giant, night-loving flightless parrot from New Zealand, will be published by Houghton Mifflin in 2010. For kids in grades 4-8 with more great Nic Bishop photos.
• A new book for adults on birds — featuring baby hummingbirds, parrots, pigeons, Sy's famous Ladies and Sy's encounters with 150-pound flightless dino-birds from Down Under (among others) will be published by Free Press in 2010.