1982 first edition very large format hardcover with dust jacket and 319 pages in good condition. This book tells the story of wildlife in Southern Africa and the struggle between the conservationists and the killers to decide the fate of a beautiful environment and a flora and fauna of unparalleled richness. To the first men who evolved, migrated or settled in Africa, the continent seemed boundless and its natural resources unlimited. They killed, burned, slashed and destroyed without thought of the consequences. Why conserve or domesticate if the numbers were inexhaustible? Only the ostrich was domesticated in Southern Africa. All other wild creatures were slaughtered without mercy, some to extinction, others to the brink of annihilation. The last quagga, a female, died on 12 August 1883.