Wild South Africa - Hardcover

Alan Mountain

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1868721957 ISBN 13: 9781868721955

Publisher: Struik Publishers, 1998

Synopsis

This guide forms part of a series comprising natural history studies of biologically rich countries with a diverse natural heritage. The series also looks at natural environments under pressure from the encroachments of industry and agriculture, and considers the conservation and ecological issues involved. "Wild South Africa" celebrates the beauty and diversity of this country's unspoilt and less-developed areas, at the same time highlighting some of the more renowned wild places. Around 340 photographs illustrate all aspects of natures cycles in each region, from tiny insects and birds to the larger mammals, as well as fruits, flowers and sweeping landscapes. Indigenous peoples of the various regions are also portrayed at work and play in their natural environment. After an introduction, which covers aspects ranging from geology, plant and animal life to conservation and the future of a truly wild South Africa, each chapter focuses on a specific region. The Eastern Coastal Plain, a wetland area of extraordinary natural diversity; the Eastern and Western Coast zones; the Bushveld, encompassing some of South Africa's richest wildlife areas; the Deserts of the Karoo and Kalahari; and the Mountains from the jagged and spectacular Drakensberg massif to the Cape's dramatic fold mountains. The emphasis is on the untouched natural beauty of the land, with each section highlighting its unique vegetation, animal and bird life, and landscapes.

About this title

Review:

South Africa can be divided into three major geographic regions: a nearly mile-high interior plateau, a series of tall mountain chains encircling it, and coastal plains and marshes that in turn ring the mountains. In these three regions exist very different biogeographic features, among them deserts, upland forests, grasslands, inland seas, and broad rivers. The South African team of writer Alan Mountain and photographer Lex Hes capture some of the beauty of their homeland in this oversize, heavily illustrated book, which treats these biogeographic features in turn; they also provide ample notes on the region's highly specialized flora and fauna, from sugarbirds to cheetahs to towering succulents. (Wary readers will be interested to know, for instance, that South Africa contains some 130 species of snakes--of which, the authors helpfully note, only 14 have been known to cause death in humans.) Hes and Mountain are especially attentive to conservation issues, which are becoming ever more pressing in South Africa, owing to development and population growth. They note, for example, that where large tracts of forest used to exist along the coastal plains, only a section of about 125 miles of forested land now stands on the southern Cape, the last of the indigenous hardwoods. And they note that any meaningful conservation measures will depend on the active involvement and good will of the rural poor, whose numbers are rapidly growing. --Gregory McNamee

About the Author:

Alan G. Mountain has long been involved in issues of rural community development and nature conservation. The former director of the Nature Foundation in South Africa, he is the author of Paradise Under Pressure, which explores the natural history, ecology, and development of Maputaland. Lex Hes is a renowned South African wildlife photographer and natural history guide. He is the author of The Leopards of Londolozi.

About this edition

• Publisher: Struik Publishers
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1868721957
• ISBN 13: 9781868721955
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 208