African Wildlife & Environment Issue 83

GOOD READS

the ministry responsible for looking after our biodiversity, and certain NGOs who put on their green blinkers when it suits their rhetoric. Ian Michler is adamantly opposed to hunting, yet when properly managed, it can be a valuable tool to ensure the sustainability of biodiversity and human livelihoods. The authors travelled through conservancies in Namibia where the inhabitants embrace hunting as part of their diverse rural economy, yet the Ians apparently did not speak to any locals to get their views on this particular topic! The chapter on conservation success stories is quite uplifting, but some of the details provided are inadequate and light on facts. The success achieved in Cheetah and Wild Dog conservation is based on the scientific principles of metapopulation management of otherwise unviable small groups. This has been done by collaboration between diverse people, hard work in the field, and not by reading poetry. The planet we inhabit does not consist of just two worlds. Our real world is often ugly, grey and

his father was a high school teacher. Dad was appointed as information officer for the National Parks Board, and the family moved to the Kruger National Park when Willie was eight. Here he was in his element in the midst of abundant wild creatures. But for good fortune, his young life could have ended in the crocodile-infested pools of the Sand River, where a certain Dr Nel took his two sons and Willie swimming after work.This ceased abruptly when a horrified Labuschagne Senior learned about it! Willie’s natural progression was to study Zoology at the University of Pretoria. When he was 21 he landed a ‘holiday job’ on the bleak diamond mining operations on the coast of Namibia (then South West Africa) and when he was 23 he got another ‘holiday job’ in the Etosha National Park where he worked with the legendary ecologist Ken Tinley and Hymie Ebedes, the veterinarian doing pioneering research on anthrax. During his Honours year he got yet another ‘holiday job’ (how lucky can you get?) building the Otter Trail in the Tsitsikamma Coastal

mottled, not just black and white. The human challenge is a ‘wicked problem’ that requires many more answers than may be found in this book. A Wild and Wonderful Tale Labuschagne,Willie (2022). The Soul of a Lion. Reflections on a Life Lived Bryanston, South Africa. Soft cover, 15 x 23 cm, 258 pp, colour photos in a section, B&W photos in text. ISBN 978-1 99895 -853-5. RRP: R338. Willie was born on a farm near the rural town of Volksrust on the then Natal/ Transvaal boundary where With Animals. Tracey McDonald Publishers,

National Park under the watchful eyes of Dr Robbie Robinson. What wonderful experiences for a young fellow still a university undergraduate! After completing their Wildlife Management Honours degrees, Willie, Jeremy David and Anthony Hall-Martin did an epic trip in Jeremy’s clapped-out old Willys Jeep to Gorongosa National Park In Mozambique. Willie describes in graphic detail how the three of them went out into the bush with the great Mozambican conservationist, Jose Tello, who had to put an injured bull elephant out of its misery, while Ken Tinley backed him up with a second rifle. The elephant dropped dead one metre from Jose –

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