For some reason, Africa's endless expanses of wilderness and fantastic array of wildlife have come to symbolize "nature" and "the wild" to a great many people. As a result, a lot of books have been written about African wildlife. Some I've filed elsewhere in my library -- for example, several books about Africa's big cats can be found on my page about cats. Here I've listed a few of the more general books I have about African wildlife:
AFRICAN NATURE NOTES AND REMINISCENCES
Selous, Frederick Courtney
c.1993, St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 0-312-09241-5
AMONG THE ELEPHANTS
Douglas-Hamilton, Iain and Oria
c.1975, Bantam
ISBN: 0-553-02667-4
ANIMALS OF EAST AFRICA
Leakey, Louis S. B.
c.1969, National Geographic Society
ISBN:
AT THE HAND OF MAN: PERIL AND HOPE FOR AFRICA'S WILDLIFE
Bonner, Raymond
c.1993, Alfred A. Knopf
ISBN: 0-679-40008-7
ELEPHANTS
Carrington, Richard
c.1958, Basic Books
ISBN:
INTO AFRICA
Packer, Craig
c.1996, Univ of Chicago
ISBN: 0-226-64430-8
KILLERS IN AFRICA
Lake, Alexander
c.1953, Alexander Books
ISBN: 0-57090-013-2
Alexander Lake was one of the last of the "white hunters" from the great era of African hunting safaris. This book is a sort of memoir of his hunting days, focusing on the animals he and his clients hunted. The book is subtitled "The Truth about Animals Lying in Wait and Hunters Lying in Print," so you can make a good guess at Lake's own opinion: he felt the animals were not nearly as dangerous as many hunters claimed they were. This is a superb book for several reasons: its portrayal of Africa in the age of safaris, its information on African wildlife, its examples of what to do and what not to do when hunting, and its information about the best ways and weapons to use when hunting.
LAST OF THE IVORY HUNTERS: The Saga of Wally Johnson
Capstick, Peter Hathaway
c.1988, St. Martin's
ISBN: 0-312-00048-0
SERENGETI: NATURAL ORDER ON THE AFRICAN PLAIN
Iwago, Mitsuaki
c.1986, Chronicle Books
ISBN: 0-87701-432-9
A collection of photo-essays about animal life on East Africa's famous Serengeti plain.
VALLEY OF LIFE: AFRICA'S GREAT RIFT
Johns, Chris
c.1991, Thomasson-Grant
ISBN: 0-934738-79-3
The Great Rift Valley runs some two-thirds of the length of Africa, from the Red Sea in the north to Lake Turkana in the south. It's a developing rift or split in Earth's crust; if the process continues, someday there will be an ocean where the Rift Valley is now. The valley is long, wide, and deep, with a lot of volcanic activity all along its length. That's a great recipe for rich shows of wildlife, and sure enough the Rift Valley includes many of East Africa's great wildlife displays: the shortgrass plains of the Serengeti, the rainforests of the Virunga Mountains, the Ngorongoro Crater, and so on.
