2018 hardcover with dust jacket and 651 pages new and unread.

On the trail of the old elephant bulls.  It is said that the elephant embodies the spirit of the African wilderness, that no tract of country is truly wild if there are no elephants in it. Kai-Uwe Denker is one of Africa's most successful elephant hunters and a former President of the Namibia Professional Hunters' Association. He is also a noted author. About the Spirit of the African Wilderness is not only a fascinating book on hunting the African elephant, but also a story of trophy elephant hunting as a means of conservation. It deals with hunting old elephant bulls and considers them the most awe inspiring animals on the African game fields. Most hunting is in Namibia's northern Kalahari (where the big bulls roam) and where hunting is done in the vastness of a pristine pathless wilderness and on foot. Kai-Uwe talks about the fine art of elephant tracking, equipment, and other issues relevant to elephant hunting. Importantly, these are not hunts from yesteryear. Virtually all hunting in this book has been done within the past 20 years! These engrossing stories take place within our collective recent memory. And the trophy photos, again all from recent hunting sessions, give testimony that Kai-Uwe Denker know how to hunt these big tusked elephants. The book starts with an impressive day amidst the vast African wilds (a great hunting story), covers the game fields of the Dark Continent, talks about the elephant as a game animal, the fine art of tracking (including recognizing tracks of young and old elephant bulls, the spell of Ivory, elephant hunting, equipment, adventurer's paradises and much more. In the not too distant future this book will stand alongside the great elephant hunting classics as one of the best on the subject, albeit from a more recent period. In recent times there is no one who comes close to Denker in describing so many successful hunts for big ivory.