9781422276310

I N T R O D U C T I O N

African buffalo sometimes congregate in huge numbers, especially when food or water sources become limited.

F rom a thousand feet, a Ruppell’s vulture spiraled downward on stiff wings, dropping its legs like the landing gear of a strange aircraft as it swept into its final descent. A squabble of over 500 vultures had preceded it, swarming frantically like feathered mag- gots over the fresh carcass of a giraffe. The lions that had made the kill had left only an hour earlier, frightened into the brush by the distant sound of Maasai cow bells, and the hyenas that would later dominate the carcass had not yet arrived. The vultures fed feverishly, hissing, creaking, and clacking in a hellish witch’s brew of noisy, wild clatter. In decreasing density the vultures fanned out in a rough circle, thick- est at the center where scores hopped in and out, sometimes piling on one another’s backs as they fought their way into the carcass, thinnest at the edges where the sated, weak, or timid waited their turn. Further out another circle of watchers quietly observed: the tourists, secure in their land rovers and vans. Life anddeath, births andkillings, triumphs and tragedies, these ancient, timeless, primordial scenes are played out each day in Africa, often within meters of van loads of fascinated tourists viewing nature, up close, for the very first time. From the vast plains of East Africa to the forested moun- taintops of Uganda and Rwanda, from the waterless red sand deserts of Namibia and the Kalahari to the swamps and marshes of Botswana or the mopani woodlands of Zimbabwe and South Africa, this diverse continent is home to the most exciting assemblage of animals on Earth.

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