Overview

This book opens up a wonderland of natural history for all ages to enjoy, and will spark interest in the intricate web of Africa's natural history, one that is bursting with exuberance, a great variety of life. It covers a vast range of topics that are often neglected, and reveals untold mysteries hidden in this remarkable continent. It is written in a readable and clear style that allows the reader to gain an appreciation of its continent-wide approach, which is based upon half a century or more of knowledge. Delving into the intricate fossil history found in Africa, The Wonder of Africa's Natural History describes some of the largest dinosaurs that walked this earth and extraordinary giant mammals of the Pleistocene, to the largest mammal that still survives to this day. It also encompasses the tiny mites that reside inside animals' ears and the remarkable maggot that finds a home in the sole of the elephant's foot. This book discusses creatures great and small. The remarkable variety of animals described explores their colours, behaviours, displays of weapons and the meanings behind the differences. The book explains the animals' everyday lives, co-habitations, and how the large carnivores live alongside their prey. The reader is transported into their world from birth, through growing up to their social interactions. Fantastic migrations showing the exuberance of life are described from butterflies to wildebeest and elephants and the once huge increases in number of the springbok in South Africa. The Wonder of Africa's Natural History unfolds a great diversity of life from swamp to forest, rivers and lakes, each with their particular creatures. It shows how an antelope or the bizarre naked mole rat can survive in arid environments. It transports us across the vast panorama of the beautiful plains of Africa, revealing how they are exploited and how the real battles in Nature are fought among the small species, the myriad of insect forms. The co-evolution of the whole community is an astonishingly amazing tangled web of life, having its origin over 300 million years ago. This book is a natural history to be enjoyed by all.

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9781849955348

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Dr. Spinage is the author of Animals of East Africa, The Book of the Giraffe, Antelopes, Elephants, African Ecology and African Animal Lore and has written numerous articles and papers on African wildlife. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, the British Naturalists' Association and a Scientific Fellow of the Zoological Society of London.

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