CC Africa - Ecological Journal Volume 5

Softcover, 288 pages. Very good condition. A neat and clean copy.

This fifth edition of the Ecological Journal follows the same format as its predecessors. Observations of interesting or unusual animal behaviour and reports of field projects are arranged in a lodge-by-lodge sequence. The information herein represents the observational skills of guides working and living in natural ecosystems in some of Africa's most magnificent wildlife regions. These guides - engaged in the interpretation of the natural world for their guests - spend up to eight hours in the bush every day, three hundred and sixty five days a year. The original concept of this publication was to provide a forum for the documentation of observations of animal activity that would otherwise go unrecorded. In so doing, a valuable record is kept not only for successive guides working in these areas, but also for other interested individuals and organisations. In selecting material for final publication, emphasis has been placed on wildlife records that convey something of the excitement and drama in African ecosystems, or which add to the knowledge of particular species. The longer field project reports document information specific to certain properties on which the guides traverse. These reports are diverse in their approach, with many focusing on the activities of individually-known animals, which the guides can readily identify due to repeated observations. Some of these studies are now in their fourth year, and the findings are becoming ever more interesting. A major advantage of operating in the same area on a day-to-day basis is that various animals - and particularly the larger predators - become oblivious to the presence of game-viewing vehicles (which they soon come to regard as non-threatening) and allow for intimate observation. Extreme sensitivity towards wildlife is a fundamental operating principle among all CC Africa guides, and an astonishing degree of trust is evident at those properties where the company has been operating for several years.