"Shaping Kruger" provides fascinating insight into the lives, habits and behavior of the larger animals that significantly affect the workings of the park. It expertly synthesizes decades of ground-breaking research into the animals and their environment, examining along the way individual species; predator-prey relationships; mammal distribution, and browsing and grazing interactions.This detailed look at how Park management has had to interpret, monitor and adapt the processes that allow species to survive even thrive in an ever-changing environment makes for an intriguing and enlightening read.
Mitch Reardon worked as a ranger in South Africa and Namibia before becoming a wildlife photographer and writer. He is the author and photographer of five books, including the best-selling Etosha: Life and Death on an African Plain and has also written dozens of articles for Australian Geographic.
"Shaping Kruger: The Dynamics of Managing Wildlife in Africa's Premier National Park" by Mitch Reardon is most interesting to read, with tales of incidents that have occurred over the last century as wildlife in Kruger has been observed, managed, mismanaged, and protected. This island of safety for the natural inhabitants of the African continent is surrounded by a sea of humanity, which would have encroached long ago and completely eliminated many of these treasured and unusual species from the earth if unprotected. But often the wrong kinds of management for protection have been used, such as killing the spotted jackals in the 1920's because they were preying on larger mammals and threatening their population, but then the jackals almost became extinct. Now that population of necessary scavengers has returned to thrive and help keep the correct balance of nature. Learning from observing the various species and looking back on past successes and failures in park management of natural habitat is teaching those in charge how to best manage this huge responsibility in the best way for all. The book's discussions of this is a quality read. The author lived in and was a ranger in the National Parks of South Africa and Namibia before becoming the wildlife writer/photographer as he is known now. The full color images throughout the book are ones only a photographer who knows animal habits well could possibly succeed in getting.--Bonnie Neely "Real Travel Adventures"
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