Profession: adventurer, zoologist, geographer Famous for: the Kon-Tiki expedition Born: October 6, 1914, Larvik, Norway Died: April 18, 2002, Colla Micheri, Italy Married: Liv Coucheron-Torp, Yvonne Dedekam-Simonsen, Jacqueline Beer
Back to nature
Find words that mean: local, isolated, the study of animal life in a particular region, lived in, no longer believed something was perfect
Thor Heyerdahl's father was a brewer. But the young Heyerdahl was not interested in following his father's profession. From a very young age, he was interested in zoology. As a boy, he even set up a small museum in his home town.
Heyerdahl went to the University of Oslo. He studied zoology and geography. In his spare time, he read about Polynesia, a cluster of around 1,000 islands in the central and southern Pacific Ocean. He became interested in the culture of the people who inhabited these islands. After graduating, he made his first journey to Polynesia. He went to the remote Marquesas Islands.
Heyerdahl went to the island of Fatu Hiva. He wanted to research how the indigenous animals had got there. He and his wife wanted to get back to nature. They settled in a remote valley and built a thatched house for themselves.