African Wildlife & Environment Issue 78

GOOD READS

Services in Skukuza. During this time with the vets, he was involved with researching diseases and the use and effect of commercially available veterinary drugs on wild animals. In 1974 he was appointed in the post of Technician in the Research Department of South African National Parks (now SANParks). In 1977 he gained the ‘Certificate in Field Ecology’ at the University of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) for studies on the ecological aspects of foot-and-mouth disease transmission in impala. In 1986 he was awarded a Master’s degree (Cum laude) at the University of Natal for studies on lions and wildebeest, and a Doctorate in 2001 at the University of Pretoria for studies on elephants. He also conducted other studies on buffalo, hippopotamus and baobab trees. In 1991 he acquired a private pilot’s licence to facilitate tracking of radio- collared animals, and he was given responsibility for aerial censuses of large herbivores in Kruger and some other national parks using both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. In total he was engaged in full-time wildlife research in the Kruger National Park for 37 years up until his retirement in 2007. He has been a Member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission's African Elephant Specialist Group since 1992, and a Professional Member of the Game Rangers Association of Africa since 1988. He has travelled and worked in a number of African countries. But this is not a book about science. Though some of the results of the author’s research are necessarily given, he has done this in an easy reading style for the layman. The book is mainly a compilation of stories from Ian Whyte's adventurous life during an earlier time when research was more ‘hands-on’, which resulted in many of the amazing close-up and personal interactions with animals like lions, elephants, rhinos, buffaloes, snakes and birds. He reveals that he sometimes wonders how he survived it all! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and could hardly put it down. In correspondence with Ian, I learnt that we both shared some very similar experiences and had walked over the same ground in a number of places. Our fathers were both architects (Ian's father designed the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg), we are both interested in aviation (although Ian learnt to fly and I did not) and guitars, and I know many of Ian's friends and colleagues who are featured in the book. I have been to some of the places in the

This concise booklet is packed with information that introduces the reader to the bat families of Africa, and describes the typical characteristics that will help the reader to identify specimens to family. Opening headings deal with evolution, flight, anatomy, echolocation and reproduction. There are three pages of skull photos, and then follow the descriptions of fruit-bats, and the various families of insectivorous bats. There are many excellent photographs. The final chapter is about conservation and research, with a text box on 'Bats and Disease', very appropriate in view of the Covid-19 pandemic which is believed to have originated in bats. They may also carry rabies. I was disappointed that no mention is made about the threats of wind turbines to bat conservation. In the USA, wind turbines are now the second highest cause of unnatural mortality in bats, after a fungal disease that has caused the most deaths. In South Africa there are plans to build many new 'wind-farms', which spells big trouble for our bats. The national government department responsible for biodiversity conservation seems indifferent to these threats.

Kruger Park Adventures Whyte, Ian (2019). Living the Wild Life. Thoughts and stories from a researcher's life in the Kruger National Park. Masthulele Publishing, Box 814, Graskop, 1270 South Africa. Soft cover, 15x21 cm, 432 pp, Colour B&W section in centre, endpaper maps. ISBN 978-0-62083-366-0. Order from merle.m.whyte@gmail.com R345 plus delivery; also available from Amazon as a Kindle Book. The blurb on the back cover tells us that Ian Whyte was born in 1947, and spent his entire school career at King Edward VII School in Johannesburg. In 1970, he started his career with the Government’s Department of Veterinary

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