African Wildlife & Environment Issue 78

GOOD READS

the Whytes bought a house in the little town of Graskop, from where Ian continued to work for the organisation. It was probably a very sensible move, because many of the employees who spent most of their lives in Skukuza, for example, found the transition from those tranquil surroundings to the wider world rather traumatic. The book has an Appendix entitled 'The elephant management dilemma' which is especially important in the light of Ian's experience. He makes the point that real stakeholders in the management of the KNP should be the ones to take important decisions about elephant management, and not the self-appointed activists who think they have a right to interfere in such matters. The last sentence in this wonderful book is a chilling one for those who value all the biodiversity of this very special part of the world: "I remain convinced that a smaller elephant population would allow other ecological processes to function more normally, while losses of biodiversity induced by an over-abundance of elephants would result in impoverished ecosystems whose functionality would be drastically and perhaps forever compromised."

Kruger Park where Ian had his adventures, and we have both been on the ground in the Tembe and Maputo Elephant parks. I cannot imagine that any reader of this magazine would not love reading this book as much as I have, and I guess the fact that it was reprinted twice in 2020 provides a clue to its popularity. Ian has a wonderful writing style and a sense of humour that shines through on every page. His experience of working in the KNP provides a rich historical context during an era when wildlife research grew from infancy to maturity. It was a time when 'hands-on' management was implemented to deal with the challenging and fickle nature of the relationship between the weather, the plants and the animals. Should the veld be managed by regular burning? If lions were killing too many rare antelopes, should you control the number of lions? And what about elephants, for goodness' sake? Ian was personally involved in these conundrums, and generously shares them with his readers. It makes for fascinating reading. Before reaching retirement age, Ian encountered some upheavals in the Kruger National Park around a change of leadership, and

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