Zambezia (1979), VII (i).ESSAY REVIEWIS OUR WILDLIFE LITERATURE COMING OF AGE?WILDLIFE IS AN all-embracing term to many people, yet to others it conjuresup a very special image. Can we accept it as a subject which is all things toall men? It has been said that wildlife management, of all natural historydisciplines, is the most subject to opinion by the layman. Nearly everyonethinks he knows a lot about it. In America there are hunter groups who passinfluential resolutions which inhibit freedom of action by wildlife pro-fessionals. Many game departments are afraid to make management decisionswhich have been shown to be biological necessities for fear of publicity andcriticism. In many countries there is direct control of departmental purse-strings by the public, and public relations becomes an exercise in survival.Yet even in other places without such direct control, the public alwayshas a finger in the pie. Everyone seems to hold opinions, even withouthaving first-hand experience, and in almost every walk of life there arepeople who feel their experience gives them a right to enter the arena. Afarmer can always claim intimate knowledge of the ways of nature and hefrequently suffers some indignity at the hands of wayward wildlife. Bears orlions eat his livestock, deer or quelea invade his crops, and even little beaveror mighty elephant work to destroy his water supply. Hunters and fishermenform a vast army that periodically invades the wild countryside or peacefulwaterways. Their experiences range from concentrated slaughter of specificcreatures to countless hours of patient waiting and contemplating theirenvironment. Others who stalk wildlife go armed only with binoculars andcamera and often express great abhorrence of killing, even when it is anatural event. Meanwhile some of their bedfellows, jaded by the excitementof television, are disappointed in any visit to a game park where they arenot witness to the dying struggles of the buffalo, his throat gripped in thejaws of a black-maned lion.Even the townsman is a wildlife expert. Schoolchildren, raised on theglory and farce of Disney nature films, are quick to post their views alongsidethose of the collector of butterflies and the breeder of tropical fish. Everyonewho contacts living things seems to establish some bond of emotion thatinfluences his thoughts on wildlife. The vast majority of people have pets ofsome kind, usually personable family members which are much loved. Thedog has surely reached the pinnacle of human - animal relationship by pervad-ing the cultures of men throughout the world. Working relationships withhunters and herdsmen have strengthened the bond far beyond the reaches ofthe family or city and brought the dog to be the most universal symbol oflove and faithfulness between man and animals.Strange, in view of this, that it is so difficult for man to accept that thewolf could be endowed with these same psychic qualities. This animal, soclosely related that it interbreeds with dogs, is burdened with traditionalhostility, superstition and fear that has caused its widespread extinction. Sopreconditioned has man been that he has been unable to see these naturalrelationships and only recently has the wolf been presented in the literature99tOO ESSAY REVIEWas the highly social, co-operative and fascinating creature he really is.1 It isnot surprising that man has traditionally shrouded the beasts, particularlyfierce ones, in myth and legend, in almost all societies. But scientific andliving observation of animals has been with us now for hundreds of years.Even in the most civilized and advanced parts of the world the truth hasbeen long in its revelation, and still has a long way to go before it lifts theshrouds of pre-conceived ideas and feelings.Perhaps we have not really wanted to know. Perhaps the demand ofthe public for books which touch on the familiar, which play with theinstinctive fears and loves of wilderness and life have influenced authors andlimited the scope of what has been published. Early wildlife books weremainly impressions of pleasant countryside, as exemplified by Walton,* andlater Thoreau* on the other side of the Atlantic. There were, of course, morespecialized books on the arts of hunting or falconry but they rarely saidmuch of the natural life of the animal Much of the remaining early wildlifeliterature is anthropomorphic or artistic. Sometimes the latter works wereblended with the study of the species present in an area to produce illustratedguidebooks. Audubon,4 for example, shows the early glimmerings ofscientific study of birds and concern for their conversation which was totake nearly another century to mature.Against this background is placed the evolution of conservation, wildlifemanagement, and ecology as legitimate fields of study. These are recentdevelopments, starting from scattered threads less than a century ago. Theirmore scientific and unbiased influence seems to have only crept into thegeneral wildlife literature within the last twenty years and as yet theirinfluence on the African literature is minimal.The early steps in wildlife management were almost invariably theprotection of certain species from hunting or poaching, whether the localitywas Europe, America or Africa. The best reserves in Asia and Europe, todayarose from a much earlier trend: the privileges of royalty The private huntingestates of kings and rajahs in India and Nepal, for example, provided refugesfor tiger and Indian rhino until their declaration as game reserves in theinternational sense within the last twenty years.In America, and South Africa for that matter, laws restricting hunting,setting limits on kill, and establishing public reserves were all on the booksby the turn of the century. The National Park concept was born and thefirst preservation of whole wild environments, not merely incidental to thepreservation of certain wildlife, was begun. To the south of us, the KrugerNational Park set an early example to the whole continent in the face ofstrong traditional use of wildlife for sport hunting and commercial sale.More elaborate management, for protection of declining species as wellas for developing a hunting resource, was soon being practised in Americaand slowly spreading elsewhere. The reduction of any deaths not desired bythe manager was a primary object. In the wild situation, not only was huntingprohibited and poachers pursued, but any natural predator was persecutediL. Crisler, Arctic Wild ("New York, Harper, 1958); D. Merh. The Wolf : Ecologyand Behaviour of an Endangered Species (New York, Natural History Press, 1970).«I. Walton, The Compleat Angler (London, R. Marriott, 1653 and numerousreprinls).*H. D. Thoreau, Walden, or Life in the Woods (Boston, Ticknor & Fields, 1854).*]. J. Audubon, Birds of America (London, privately, 4 vols, 1827-38).T. S. CHOATE 101sometimes to extinction. Food was sometimes provided, but it was mainly alater development along with other practices of improving the habitat for themanaged species. These more ecological aspects first occur in the text byAldo Leopold5 who first put wildlife management on a scientific basis andsuggested that predators did not necessarily do harm, especially if their preyhad adequate cover. It took another thirty years for these ideas to becomegenerally accepted and evolved into modern ecological notions of a balancedecosystem and protection or management for the optimum habitat for awildlife species, as opposed to managing that species itself.This slow percolation of modern management ideas into wild places likeRhodesia was partly complicated by the lack of literature suggesting thisapproach and partly by the political power of the pioneer farmer. Oneimportant influence on African wildlife management had its origins in therinderpest epidemics just before the turn of the century which wiped outvast amounts of both domestic livestock and wildlife. On the one hand, itmade wildlife relatively scarce and encouraged the development of theprotective phase of game conservation. On the other hand it emphasized therelationship of domestic and wild animals with respect to diseases. For thenext seventy years there was a major force in Africa dedicated to wiping outthe chance of disease spreading to domestic animals from wildlife. Theeasiest and most persistent of methods used was to wipe out the wildlife inan area which would then result in the dying out of insect transmitters ofdisease such as tsetse fly.Obviously the hunter and the lover of wildlife were both bound to feelopposed to this. Their rarely-combined thrust resulted in the designation ofcertain areas for game and others for agriculture, often with a fence andgame-free area in between. It was this situation that put Rhodesia's firstgame reserve on the map fifty years ago, an event that is followed through inone of the books under review here.6 In many ways this book illustrates theevolution of thinking about wildlife and thus it forms a major prop for thisessay. Ted Davison himself was a tsetse fly ranger before becoming the firstWarden of Wankie Game Reserve. His book, though to a large extent achronicle of the establishment of the Park and its early management problems,provides a clear picture of the change in attitude he made. Although heloved the bush and being with big game, there is obvious reluctance to joinin the wholesale killing that the tsetse people desired. Yet where killing wasnecessary he accomplishes it with professional efficiency, having exhaustedthe options of driving the animals or capturing them by the methods of theperiod.Throughout the early chapters we see the dominant themes of earlywildlife management which persisted relatively late in Africa: the protectionof animals from poaching and the slaughter of predators for daring to reducethe stocks of herbivorous game. Very soon these themes are joined by thedominant theme of Wankie, the provision of water supplies: a process ofdambuilding, borehole drilling and pumping that continued for forty years.Just as in the history of wildlife management itself, more and more wesee that Davison is using his time with the game to objectively gather informa-tion. In the book we find whole sections of measurements and other factual=A. Leopold, Game Management (New York, Scribners, 1932).ŁT. Davison, Wankie : The St«y of a Great Game Reserve (Salisbury, Regal,1977), 211 pp., Rh$4,50. V102 ESSAY REVIEWdata on animals he observed, despite his lack of research training. In fromthe sidelines come the tourists and the scientists, the roads and facilities,and the complexities of modern management. The evolution and moderniza-tion of approach is clearly given, though it lies unobtrusively within theunembellished prose. This book is more than one man's story, or even onegame reserve's story. It is the background for the coming of age of that mostuniversal of scientific fields, wildlife management.A remarkably similar pattern is unfolded in the picture Viv Wilsongives of his early years7 despite the fact that he had not even been bornwhen Davison began work in Wankie. Early years in the Zambian TsetseDepartment resulted in love of the wild bush and a revulsion, not reallyr.gainst the killing itself, but against the loss of information on unknownspecies and against drastic management based on so little understanding.Before long he was raising orphaned animals and becoming a self-maderesearcher, lines that were to guide his later life.Thus he transfers to the Rhodesian Game Department and furtherdevelopes his love of the bush and then later he joins the National Museumand furthers his scientific interests in wild mammals. Meanwhile he is stilllooking after orphaned animals, a vocation that he eventually undertakesfull-time in the development of the Chipangali Wildlife Orphanage. Thestories read well and the well illustrated hardbound book proved so popularthat it has now been reprinted. Rayner has also written a small paperboundbook" on Chipangali which contrasts in its small print and few illustrations.Nevertheless it is a charming narration of the main characters of theorphanage, and it will appeal to the many people who identify with theanimal pet side of literature on wildlife.What might be called a classical wildlife pet story is told by WilsonMacArthur9 who raises a duiker. Many people must have tried to raise babyduikers, as they are such a widespread antelope and often the main speciesremaining on farmlands. Thus many readers will identify with the narrativein this well-written little book whose only fault is its excessively small print.A much less typical pet is Cousin, and Alan Weaving's story'" hasa different flavour. It is the story of a photographer and bird watcher whofinds himself unable to countenance the killing of a young Augur Buzzardby its nest-mate and takes it home. The natural behaviour of the species andthe efforts of the Weaving family to raise the chick and return it to thewild are the two main themes.The lengths that the Weavings went to in returning their buzzard tothe wild pale into insignificance next to the extraordinary tale of returningTommy the lion to wild Africa from life as a home pet in Germany." Thelong journey of the Forster family with their unusual pet through wars ofofficialdom and real guerillas to eventually reach Rhodesia is entertaininglywritten by Peter Stiff. This true story with its evidence of the modern poli-tical chaos of Africa is packed with real people, places and adventure.?V. J. Wilson, Orphans erf the Wild : The Story behind Chipangali (Bulawayo,Books of Rhodesia, 1977), 254 pp., Rh$l,57.aR. Rayner, Who Cares? Chipangali Wildlife Orphanage (Salisbury, Regal 1977),88 pp., Rh$2,40. x»W. MacArthur, We Knew a Duiker (Salisbury, Regal, 1977), 52 pp., Rh$2,25.IOA. Weaving, A Bird Called Cousin (Salisbury, Regal, 1977), 72 pp., Rh$2,25.nP. Stiff, Tommy Goes Home (Salisbury, Jacaranda Press, 1977), 230pp., RhS7,98.T. S. CHOATE 1O3For a modern adventure with wildlife in Africa one must surely turn tothe live capture of dangerous animals. To stalk close enough to fire a tran-quilizing dart and then to wait for more than five minutes with the angrybeast before the drug takes effect is clearly a more heroic act than to killit with a modern firearm. Such is the tale of a black rhinoceros told byBryan O'Donoghue.12 This adventure story also involves real people andevents in Rhodesia, but is thickly embellished with popular dialogue andmishaps surrounding a boy hero which will certainly appeal to the youngerreader.Also purporting to be true stories, but at times seeming rather hard tobelieve, are the short stories of bushlore collected under the title ofZambezi Trails.13 They contain numerous nuggets of wildlife informationand hunters' skills, and a good deal of nostalgia for the safari man in thewilderness of Rhodesia's earlier years. Most, however, are too brief andchoppy to provide good images, written as they were as a series of newspaperarticles.Another hunter's tale, this time fully blown into a smoothly readablepiece of fiction set in the Zambezi wilderness, is The Old Man's Lion.ŽAnyone who has pioneered in the bush, farmed in game country or had 10deal with stock-raiding animals will identify with this story.Stock-raiding animals, the control of predators, the elimination ofdisease-bearing game, the ranching of game, the pursuit of poachers and thepure joy of observing a great population of free wildlife all pervade thecomplex little book by Alan Wright.13 All short little stories, this collectionsweeps the whole field from historical game elimination, to control andprotection and eventually to modern management and use. This is accom-plished through eyes sometimes in conflict with nature, sometimes scientific,sometimes emotional and loving, and yet sometimes administrative andpolitical. This rather mixed up collection puts in a nutshell much of theevolution of thinking and complexity of approach to the world of wildlife.So we have come full circle and verified in part that this subject canalmost be all things to all men. Yet there is this great picture of evolvingattitudes and values both in the scientific and in the emotional approach. Thegreat blending of these two things that can be seen in a few books, startingin Africa perhaps with Eugene Marais,16 is still not fully matured in thiscountry, although the trend is visible in the wildlife literature as a whole._ The ecological and aesthetic pioneering in the American literature hasinvaded Africa in recent years, and the wildlife scientists are producingeminently readable material about the real life of beasts like elephant17 orthe widely despised wild dog.15 Even the whole Serengeti ecosystem has beenbeautifully given to the public.'9 Yet neither this ecological-scientific aspect'2B. O'Donoghue, Black Rhino Rescue (Johannesburg, Perskor, 1976), 115 pp.,Rh$4,50.>3"U. G. de Woronin, Zambezi Trails (Salisbury, Regal, 1977), 96 pp., Rh$l,93.»"A. S. Coetsee, The Old Man's Lion (Salisbury, Mimosa Publishers, 1976), 120pp., Rh$l,50.'=A. Wright, Grey Ghosts at Buffalo Bend (Salisbury, Galaxie Press, 1976), 136pp., Rh$13,90.16E. Marais, My Friends the Baboons (London, Methuen, 1939)."I. and O. Douglas-Hamilton, Among the Elephants (London, Collins, 1975).isj. van Lawick-Goodall, Innocent Killers (London, Collins, 1970).>sG. Schaller, Golden Shadows, Flying Hooves (London, Collins, 1974).104 ESSAY REVIEWnor the aesthetic-philosophical aspect of the wildlife literature has reallyreached any heights in this country yet. Admittedly there is something of theecological-scientific approach in the Wankie handbook by Child and Reese,20but the different parts of the book do not form a literary unity. Instead theyfill the genuine need for more complete understanding by the visitor to ourgreat wildlife reserves. Their book also joins the already excellent collectionof identification books available to the nature lover, as it contains a majorsectoin of the mammmals.of the Park. The identification drawings are in penand ink, unlike the lavish colour photos in the earlier bird manual for thePark by Peter Steyn.21Also lavishly illustrated, but this time with both black and white andcolour photos, and line drawings as well, is the substantial guide to insectsof Rhodesia by Alan Weaving.22 Since insects form over half of all livinganimal species, a book about them must be at once intimidating and yetincomplete. This book remains remarkably readable and useful, whilecovering most of the orders and families of this huge group.Another valuable contribution to the Rhodesian literature by the wildlifescientists, but this time with a great deal of help from the practical managers,is the booklet edited by Pat Macartney.23 It covers the spectrum of desirablewildlife from fish through gamebirds and waterfowl to the large antelope,and specifies the techniques for encouraging, capturing, breeding and feedingthese animals. The final chapter is a brief analysis of the economics of gamefarming in Rhodesia. Thus we see a further broadening of the wildlifeliterature on the practical management side, partially compensating for thelack of depth in the two areas mentioned earlier.So in concluding our final examination of the question, 'Is our wildlifeliterature coming of age?', we find that there are certain important aspectswhich are still immature, but there is no doubt we have progressed along thepath. It is now up to a new generation of writers to add those importantpieces which, like the science of wildlife itself, have reached new horizons inrecent years. Perhaps it is inevitable that the science should remain ahead ofthe public, and by the time the public demand its present offerings there willhave been further evolution. Who is prepared to look in the crystal ball andbegin writing a book that will not only broaden our outlook on wildlife, butwhich will appeal to the all-important new audience of a new kind ofRhodesia?University of Rhodesia T. S. CHOATEa°G. Child and B. Reese, Wankie National Park (Salisbury, Department oiNational Parks, 1977), 88 pp. RhJ3,00.*iP. Sieyn, Wanfcle Birds (Salisbury, Longman Rhodesia, 1974), 57 pp., Rh$2 50.**A. Weaving, Insects : A Review of Insect life in Rhodesia (Salisbury, Regal,1977), 179 pp.j ivh$ll,25-23P. Macartney (ed.), Wildlife on Yonr Farm (Salisbury, Longman Rhodesia forRhodesia Game Association, 1975), 60 pp., Rh$l,4G.