Extraordinarily similar woodpeckers in South America and Africa? And not only woodpeckers: other bird families across a wide range, as well as quintessentially African trees native across South America, from Ecuador to Paraguay. How could this be?

Hoe bly gemsbokke koel in die woestyn? Waarom moet jy nooit ’n brulpadda optel nie? Watter roofdiere het die slimste jagtaktieke? Waar los wie hul dieremis?

Ontdek die antwoorde tot dié vrae (en baie ander) in hierdie interessante, prettige boek vir jong natuurliefhebbers. Propvol feite, foto’s van Afrika se diverse natuurlewe (van soogdiere en voëls tot reptiele en insekte) en toets-jou-kennis-aktiwiteite.

’n Interessante, lekkerlees-boek wat die jongspan oor en oor kan geniet – by die huis of in die wildtuin.

With its mixed terrain of desert, savanna, salt pan and river delta, Botswana is hometo a wide variety of wildlife, making it a prime destination for nature and wildlifeenthusiasts. Wildlife of Botswana is an easy-to-use, all-in-one guide to the country’smost conspicuous and interesting mammals, birds, reptiles, invertebrates and plants.

The book includes:

• An informative introduction to the country’s geography, climate and vegetation
• Species accounts describing each species’ appearance, habits, conservation status,habitat and best viewing localities
• Full-colour photographs of each species, along with distribution maps

Compact and easy to use, this book will be an invaluable tool in the wild.

This handy guide provides simple tools to help interpret the tracks and signs of some 105 southern African mammals, reptiles, frogs and birds. Photographs and diagnostic spoor illustrations are given for each animal, along with information on behaviour, habits and habitat, and up-to-date distribution maps show where the animals occur.

Special features on insects and scat supplement the text and a detailed introduction offers basic guidelines for learning how to become a tracker.

From the bestselling authors of Saving the Last Rhinos comes a new vivid account of environmental conservation and the ongoing efforts to conserve and restore Africa's iconic wildlife and its wildernesses on a war-ravaged continent.

Conservationist Grant Fowlds lives to save and protect Africa's rhinos, elephants and other iconic wildlife, to preserve their habitats, to increase their range and bring back the animals where they have been decimated by decades of war as in countries like Angola, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This vivid account shares the desperate conservationist efforts to save, preserve and restore Africa’s wildlife, and the tragic losses that sometimes happen along the way. Fowlds describes heart-pumping face-offs with poachers and how impoverished rural people are exploited by rapacious local businessmen. He also highlights the world-threatening illicit trade in ivory and endangered wildlife, some if it sold in ‘wet markets’.

Rewilding Africa goes to the heart of the impact of the Covid-19 on conservation efforts, it describes the importance of wildlife tourism that sustains rural communities; and tells of conservationists' passioned endeavours to support people through the crisis.

Fowlds and Spence take readers on a journey across some of the richest habitats in Africa, teaching the importance of conservation, and the vitalness the survival of wildlife has on humanity’s existence and that of the planet.

Die vyfde uitgawe van Sasol Voëls van Suider-Afrika is tans volledig bygewerk deur die deskundige skrywerspaneel, met bykomende bydraes van twee nuwe voëldeskundiges. Hierdie omvattende topverkopergids is grootliks verbeter en sal beslis sy plek behou as een van die mees betroubare veldgidse in Afrika.

Belangrike kenmerke van die nuwe uitgawe:

• Meer as 800 nuwe illustrasies
• Skandeer en speel voëlroepe deur die gratis aflaaibare toep te gebruik
• Omvattende hersiening (met mees onlangse spesierekords), verspreidingskaarte en plaatbyskrifte
• Nuwe toevoegings van bydraende skrywers
• Omvattende dekking van die streek se voëls

Die vyfde uitgawe van Sasol Voëls van Suider-Afrika is tans volledig bygewerk deur die deskundige skrywerspaneel, met bykomende bydraes van twee nuwe voëldeskundiges. Hierdie omvattende topverkopergids is grootliks verbeter en sal beslis sy plek behou as een van die mees betroubare veldgidse in Afrika.

Belangrike kenmerke van die nuwe uitgawe:

• Meer as 800 nuwe illustrasies
• Skandeer en speel voëlroepe deur die gratis aflaaibare toep te gebruik
• Omvattende hersiening (met mees onlangse spesierekords), verspreidingskaarte en plaatbyskrifte
• Nuwe toevoegings van bydraende skrywers
• Omvattende dekking van die streek se voëls

In this fascinating and entertaining memoir, the legendary White Bushman, Peter Stark, writes about his experiences in the former German South West Africa: first as a farm manager and lion hunter, and later as nature conservationist.

Stark's fearless personality and phenomenal knowledge of the veld, combined with an intimate knowledge of the San people and their culture make for stories and experiences that most people can only dream of. Whether it's about lions chasing San trackers, elephants trampling a campsite or the spearing of 32 scorpions with a kebab-skewer - Stark's stories are bound to awe and entertain.

With Peter Stark's unique and genial narrative voice, The White Bushman presents an important cultural-historical perspective on the country that became Namibia. The photographs, taken either by Stark himself or his fellow game wardens, contribute greatly to enhancing the images conjured up by these captivating adventures and anecdotes.

A powerful, gripping story about an extraordinary herd of elephants, and the woman dedicated to keeping them safe.

Thula Thula game reserve in South Africa is home to a herd of elephants who have 4,000 hectares to roam. So owner Françoise was taken aback to find the herd’s matriarch Frankie – a feisty character – roaming her garden and eating her daisies. Was Frankie pointing out who was really in charge, or was there another reason for her presence?

The Elephants of Thula Thula is a heart-warming, sometimes funny, often moving account of life on a game reserve dedicated to saving endangered species. As Françoise struggles with bureaucracy and with the ever-present threat from poachers she is determined to keep Thula Thula going. The search is on to get a girlfriend for rhino Thabo – and then, as his behaviour becomes increasingly aggressive, a big brother to teach him manners. She realizes a dream with the arrival of Savannah the cheetah – an endangered species not seen in the area since the 1940s. But will Thula Thula survive the pandemic, and the threat from a mining company wanting access to its land?

As tragedy strikes the herd, Françoise mourns the loss of Frankie and watches as a new matriarch steps up to lead the family. She realizes once again that with their wisdom, resilience and communal bonds, the elephants have much to teach us.

The Pocket Guide to Mammals of Southern Africa is a handy and compact guide to over a 100 mammal species – from big cats to mice and bats.

Each entry contains a detailed description with:

• Clear, full-color photographs
• Information on identification, subspecies, mass, shoulder height, vocalization, age, habitat, habits, food, breeding, and male and female differences
• Details of other species with which the mammal could be confused, and their differences
• An illustration of typical tracks and their size
• A Southern Africa distribution map
• Listed where appropriate are the most recent standards set for trophy hunters by Safari Club International and Rowland Ward

• A vegetation map and habitat keys for essential, summarised information at a glance on distribution and preferred habitats
• A photographic section on dung
• An illustrated section on spoor and tracking

This book showcases the very best of the photography as judged in the Sustainable Seas Trust 2013/14 competition. The extraordinary, prize-winning photographs are accompanied by illuminating essays from leading scientists, sports people and others whose lives are intimately connected with the seas.

It also serves as a call to create a South African network of Hope Spots, which are special, people-orientated marine conservation areas.

The hope is that, with the close involvement of the communities that live near and depend on the seas, we can safeguard our natural resources.

This remarkable collection of birding stories, written by some of our most intrepid bird observers, will convert a new generation of South African ornithologists and watchers of wilderness.

Birds and their names sing from the pages; owls, Shoebills, sandgrouse, Hooded Pittas, Rhinoceros Hornbills, Brown Kiwis, Rock Doves, Cape Eagle Owls, Greater Flameback woodpeckers, Inaccessible Island Rail, Superb and Beautiful Sunbird, Violet Turaco and the African Crowned Eagle.

Contributors include: David Allan, Mark D. Anderson, Mark Brown, Callan Cohen, Susie Cunningham, W. Richard J. Dean, Morne du Plessis, Vernon RL Head, Alan Kemp, David Letsoalo, Rob Little, John Maytham, Adam Riley, Peter Ryan, Claire Spottiswoode, Peter Steyn, Peter Sullivan, Warwick Tarboton, Mel Tripp and Ross Wanless.

All author royalties will be donated to the FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology to support ongoing ornithological research.

François Levaillant was the first and greatest South African birder, the first major figure of modern ornithology, the creator of the first safari, the first anthropologist of the Cape and the first investigative reporter criticising colonial brutality at the Cape. He predicted the rebellion of the frontier Boers and portrayed the dilemmas of coloured identity. He created the most beautiful illustrated bird books of his time, becoming a model for Audubon and others, and inspired a map for King Louis XVI that has become the most valuable African map ever produced. His Travels into the Interior of Africa was a best-seller across Europe and the most widely translated text on South Africa until Nelson Mandela’s autobiography two centuries later.

This book tells how, for a quarter of a century, the author searched for Levaillant’s travel notebooks and the fate of his collection. Glenn’s search took him from the banks of the Orange River to the vaults of the Paris Natural History Museum facing 30 000 dead birds in search of Levaillant’s legacy; from tracing Levaillant’s travels to Theefontein, Pampoenkraal and Kokskraal to showing that the bloubok exhibit in the hall of extinct animals in Paris’s Natural History Museum came from Levaillant; from encounters with billionaires to interactions with French archivists. Glenn’s experiences show that research means searching.

The revised second edition reflects new information and research on Levaillant’s descendants; the provenance of the Paris bloubok; Levaillant’s use of illustrations as a re-viewing of his experiences and his collaboration with Colonel Robert Gordon as a crucial part of his development as an ornithologist.

The book appeals to all natural history lovers, to researchers on colonialism and criticism of it and to people interested in birding who want to know more about Levaillant’s role in establishing ornithology as a new discipline.

Wilderness guide Sicelo Mbatha shares lessons learnt from a lifetime’s intimate association with Africa’s wildest nature.

Black Lion begins in rural South Africa where a deeply traumatic childhood experience – he witnessed his cousin being dragged away by a crocodile – should have turned Sicelo against the surrounding wilderness. Instead, he was irresistibly drawn to it. As a volunteer at Imfolozi Nature Reserve, close encounters with buffalo, lion, elephant and other animals taught him to ‘see’ with his heart and thus began a spiritual awakening.

Drawing from his Zulu culture and his own yearning to better understand human’s relationship to nature, Sicelo has forged a new path, disrupting the conventional approach to nature with an immersive, respectful and transformative way of being in the wilderness. Both memoir and philosophical reflection, Black Lion - co-written with environmentalist Bridget Pitt - is his brilliant and profound account of life as a wilderness spiritual guide.

As humanity hurtles into the anthropogenic 21st century, Black Lion is an urgent reminder of just how much we need wilderness for our emotional and spiritual survival.

Explore the fascinating world of birds in the Kgalagadi Transfron- tier Park with “Kgalagadi Self-Drive Birds.” This book is a com- prehensive guide dedicated to the remarkable adaptation of bird species in one of the most extreme environments on Earth.

The Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, with its expansive blue skies, red dunes, and sparse vegetation, provides a unique back- drop for birdwatching. This guide is meticulously crafted to offer bird enthusiasts and casual observers alike a deeper understand- ing of the diverse avian life that calls this arid savanna home. Inside, you’ll find detailed cutout images of each bird species, making identification easy and engaging. Alongside these imag- es, the book provides in-depth information on the unique adapta- tions that enable these birds to thrive in the harsh conditions of the Kgalagadi. From temperature fluctuations that can swing from -10°C at night to 45°C during the day, to the scarcity of water and the fierce dust storms, the resilience of these birds is truly awe-inspiring.

Each section of the book focuses on different bird species, highlighting their behaviors, habitats, and survival strategies. Learn how raptors soar majestically over the dunes, how songbirds find sustenance in the sparse vegetation, and how each species has evolved to make the most of the challenging environment. “Kgalagadi Self-Drive Birds” is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in understanding the intricate balance of life in the Kgalagadi. Whether you’re planning a self-drive safari or simply intrigued by bird adapta- tion, this book offers a wealth of knowledge and visual delight.

Embark on a journey through the Kgalagadi and discover the incredible stories of its avian inhabitants.

Ek hoop jy's reg vir 'n lewe vol avontuur! Indien nie, moet jy asseblief nie hierdie boek koop nie.

Hierdie boek sal jou help om elke voel in Suider Afrika te identifiseer. Maklik!

Jy sal ook snaakse en interessante feite leer oor alles van sterre tot superhelde, plus so ietsie oor voels ook.

On a lonely stretch of road a nameless man commits a murder.

The victim is a religious minister on his way to take up a post in a nearby town. When the murderer decides to steal the dead man’s identity, his first official duty is to bury the body, which has just been found near a disused quarry. But the head of the local police takes a close interest in the new minister’s work – watching, listening, slowly circling his prey.

In The Quarry, Damon Galgut brings the power of myth to his tender prose to create a devastating drama that builds to a climax that is almost too much to bear.

Is a zebra black with white stripes or white with black stripes? And why do flamingos stand on one leg while bats hang upside down? Did you know that a chameleon’s tongue can shoot out at five times the acceleration of a fighter jet?

In The Buck That Buries its Poo, naturalist Quinton Coetzee answers these and many other intriguing wildlife questions. He also dispels countless myths and elucidates some of the legends that surround creatures in the South African bush we thought we knew all about.

For example, bats do not get tangled in people’s hair (because they are far too adept at flying) and elephants are not afraid of mice (but they do fear bees!). Other tall tales you might hear around the campfire are that lions roll in animal dung, entrails or carcasses to disguise their scent, and that rhinos have a predilection for stamping out fires. What is true, though, is that hyenas are more closely related to cats than to dogs.

This handy guide is based on Coetzee’s own research and that of others, and his experience gleaned over decades living close to nature and wildlife. It seeks to unravel the mysteries of nature in Africa – from mammals and birds to arthropods and plants – with fascinating information and fun trivia. It is a book that will enlighten and entertain. PS: Zebras are black with white stripes!

Lions are the stuff of legends. Revered and feared in equal measure, both majestic and terrifying, they once reigned supreme over an extensive domain. But this once-dominant beast’s original range has contracted by some 85%, and the world population is thought to have dropped to just over 20,000 individuals. The IUCN Red Data List now classifies lions as Vulnerable, and the West African subpopulation as Critically Endangered.

Not only are lion numbers crashing, but the remaining populations cling to their existence on ever smaller, more fragmented pockets of land. Feared and despised by farmers trying to eke out a living on marginal land, lions are increasingly being exterminated or repurposed for commercial gain. Trophy hunters pay extortionate sums to bag specimens in their prime, and lion bones are being sold for the roaring Eastern trade in ‘tiger wine’.

This landmark book aims to halt the downward spiral. It takes you on a journey across the continent and into the lives of rangers, scientists and communities, and the majestic creatures they work to conserve. Along with the bad news about today’s lions, it offers a message of hope, showing how innovative conservationists are rethinking our approach to human-lion coexistence.

This book, with its searing, inspiring images and vivid accounts from the experts and foot-soldiers of conservation, brings the plight of lions to the attention of the world and is an urgent plea for the actions that need to be taken before it’s too late.

Verken die wonderlike wêreld van Suider-Afrika se spinnekoppe – hulle kom in hordes verskillende vorms en groottes, en is veel slimmer as wat jy dink! Hierdie stampvol kinderboek verduidelik waar spinnekoppe woon, wat hulle eet, hoe hulle jag, watter gif hulle het, en hoe hulle hul kleintjies beskerm. Treffende makrofotografie verken die wêreld van spinnekoppe soos nooit tevore nie. Ontmoet ’n spinnekop wat spoeg om sy prooi te vang, een wat in seeskulpe wegkruip, nog een wat as ’n mier vermon is . . . en meer as vyftig ander – van die welbekende Langbeenspinnekop tot die pragtige Blomkrapspinnekop, stekelrige Krimpvarkiespinnekop en goedgekamoufleerde Basspinnekop.

Besides being a world-famous game-viewing destination, the Kruger National Park also boasts a remarkable diversity of reptiles. This beginner-friendly guide features over 60 species of snake, lizard, terrapin, tortoise and crocodile, with basic identification pointers, interesting facts and notes on best viewing.
 
Learn more about the black mamba, puff adder, boomslang and other dangerously venomous snakes, as well as harmless creatures such as egg-eaters and blind snakes. Find out how to the identify the geckos, agamas and skinks that dart around camp, and discover the habits of the Nile crocodiles and water monitors, which bask along the waterways.
 
A richly illustrated, beginner-friendly guide – ideal for visitors keen to identify and learn more about the park’s reptiles.

Newman se Voëls volgens Kleur bied vir die beginnervoëlkyker ’n vinnige, eenvoudige manier om Suider-Afrika se algemeenste voëls volgens hul kleur te identifiseer. Die vierde uitgawe van dié nuttige geïllustreerde gids is bygewerk met die nuutste gewone voëlname, uitgebreide habitatinligting en die mees onlangse verspreidingkaarte. Die leersame inleiding bevat praktiese wenke oor die uitken van voëls, inligting oor voëlanatomie en -klassifikasie, en raad oor waar om vir voëls te soek en wat jy op só ’n uitstappie moet inpak.

Fun fact: Author Charles Griffiths has named marine species after his two children: Mathamelia and Leminda millecra.

Did you know that limpets grow their own seaweed gardens? Or that sea anemones fight one another to defend territories? What’s up with whelks surfing the waves in search of food? How does a starfish move? Does the paper nautilus really have a shell?

All this – and much more – about South African marine life is explained in Explore the shore. Written in an engaging and conversational style, the book encourages curious but novice naturalists of all ages to head to the shore to explore for themselves.

Readers will learn not only about general life on the shore but also about some weird and interesting aspects of creatures’ behaviour. Armed with the information in this book, a beach walk can be more exciting than any safari!

Pop-up features like personal anecdotes from the authors, interesting fact boxes and tongue-in-cheek comments from their adorable labradoodle Ben, who accompanies them on their beach visits, will make for personal, inviting content that readers will love.

PLAY AND LEARN: learn about bees and biodiversity as you play this family strategy game for age 6+, based on traditional Mancala

SCREEN-FREE FUN for two players aged 6 and up

SOMETHING TO TREASURE: this is a quality product made to last, with bespoke illustration and sleek and stylish packaging

EXPLORE THE ENTIRE SERIES: this game is one of our nature games, others include Bird Bingo, I Saw It First! Ocean, Match a Leaf, Under the Sea

LAURENCE KING PUBLISHING has been capturing imaginations and inspiring creativity in new and unexpected ways for over 30 years, with playful and eye-catching games, gifts and books

Buzz the bees to the flowers to collect pollen and then back to the hive to make honey for feeding and growing your very own bee colony. The player with the largest colony wins! Based on the ancient gameplay of mancala, Beehive Mancala is a fun strategy game for adults and children aged 6+. Includes facts about the bees and flowers featured, plus details on the honey-making process and the importance of bees from the beekeeper at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew