In light of the recent decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lift the ban on importing “sport” hunted trophies of elephants from Zimbabwe and Zambia, it seems that a short overview of some recent worthwhile books about elephants is in order – in case any readers of The Well-read Naturalist should find themselves […]
Every so often, a report is made through one of the better international news agencies of a large, very public destruction of a cache of elephant ivory. These spectacles are generally intended to draw attention to the illegal trade in the substance, as well as to draw attention to the dwindling number of elephants in the world.
Since its original publication, Birds of the Horn of Africa by Nigel Redman, Terry Stevenson, and John Fanshawe has come to be widely regarded as the most authoritative and reliable field guide to the birds of that region. However, like all good natural history field guides, there comes a time when updates, expansions, revisions, and other emendations […]
Just after nightfall, at the edge of the old city in Harar, Ethiopia, a small group of tourists gather in an area near an ancient shrine to wait for Africa’s second largest carnivore – the Spotted Hyena – to appear from the darkness. The tourists are not waiting behind any type of protective barrier. The […]