Save Me From The Lion's Mouth

People are daily and stressfully aware of their vulnerability, whether from predators that eat their stock, or from marauders that trash their crops: elephants, hippos, bushpigs, baboons, cane rats, dense sun-blocking swarms of locusts and quelea finches that can wipe out an entire season's crop and leave a community starving. And a startling number of people in Africa are killed by wildlife each year.

This reality is rarely conveyed to investors in wildlife conservation or to visitors to wildlife sanctuaries. But the battle lines are drawn between communities directly impacted by the remnant wildlife of an increasingly congested Africa, and the paymasters of a first-world population of voyeurs. Can all the players co-exist?

This controversial exposé of the conflict between humans and wildlife lifts the lid on the battle for turf: the future of conservation will depend on the relationship established between wildlife authorities and those bearing the brunt along the front line.

James Clarke has been writing for newspapers since the age of 16, first in Birmingham, then in Johannesburg. He developed an early interest in environmental affairs, urban and rural, and writes about science and African wildlife, as well as humour. His first book, Man is the Prey (1969), was a US best seller. He has written some 30 titles since, and was one of the three founders of South Africa's major wildlife conservation group, the Endangered Wildlife Trust.

ISBN: 9781920544751| RRP: R160.00

For an interview with James, cover images, and / or author photographs, contact Kim Peters at / 011 484-3538. For more information, visit www.randomstruik.co.za