Wild Ways – A Field Guide To The Behaviour Of Southern African Mammals
By Peter Apps,
Random Struik, R190
Wild Ways was first published in 1992 and has been updated from time to time.
It has been a handy reference book for game rangers and all interested in animal behaviour and a companion for wildlife students.
Apps has included many photos and introduced hand-drawn illustrations by Penny Meakin.
Information on any subject needs to be updated as we acquire knowledge, but these days, things have speeded up somewhat with the information available from new studies and that made available on the internet and through other media.
The subject of mammal behaviour is no exception and this book brings us all the wisdom of past books, as well as updated information now known to us.
From elephant shrews to elephants and from bats to whales, you can learn about the fascinating lives of all our mammals of southern Africa. Each animal has descriptions of its typical life cycle, eating habits and mating activities.
Mammals communicate in various ways which generally go unnoticed by us. By understanding subtle movements and sounds, we can get a whole new picture of what is going on in the animal world.
The book is set up in three parts – ethnology: the science of animal behaviour; mammal behaviour and behaviour accounts.
The interaction of various species is also covered and describes how they react to each other.
Every day there are many documented accounts of animal behaviour coming to light. You may have seen documentaries of carnivores, such as the lioness “cuddling” and trying to protect a young buck, or some banded mongooses feasting on ticks on a sleeping warthog.
There is still much to be learnt about our animal kingdom. This book starts us on the road to enquiry and, in time, we may acquire an understanding of them, which will give us a window into their interesting and complex lives.
Pretoria News