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Title: Wildlife of Southern Africa
Author/Photographer: Carol Polich
Editor: Ian Parsons
Designer and Cartographer: Martin Endermann
Publishers: Struik Nature
Year: 2010
Recommended Selling Price: R100.00
ISBN 978 1 77007 846 8


When I hold a little book like this in my hand, I wonder if the people who are most likely to buy it have an inkling of all the hours of painstaking work it takes to get such superb photographs.

These photographs have been arranged into sections, “Family Affairs” which looks at the pack or family bonds while “Up Close” is a series of close-ups, the red eyepatch of a Southern Ground Hornbill, or the face of a cheetah, or face of a warthog which only a warthog mommy can love. A hippo face and the powerful jaws of a crocodile remind one that the rivers are also dangerous territory.

Carol Polich has caught some magnificent images of animals feeding in a section called “Finding Food”, water monitors on a little fish entree, a lioness dragging her kill to her private dining space, an African darter with a fish in beak, a giraffe munching bones or delicately picking leaves off a thorn tree both in close ups. One of the loveliest of these is of a Cape Rock Jumper with a little grasshopper in its beak.

“Off guard” sees frolicking giraffes, a little dwarf mongoose, the largest bird on earth protecting his ostrich territory, some lion cubs mock fighting, a “pronking” springbok, a zebra with bared teeth, and a bateleur preparing to take flight. My favourite is encaptioned thus “Face washing takes on a comical aspect as this young lion appears to hide from the camera”.

“On the Move” sees photographs of blue wildebeest running to catch up with the herd, a pair of cheetahs showing their speed, a bird in flight, impalas leaping, a leopard climbing a tree, hippos in mid splash and a giraffe kicking up his heels.

No book on African wildlife could be complete without some waterhole scenes and they form a calm prelude to the section entitled “Displays and Disputes” which houses various displays of aggression, usually associated with mating rituals, from lions, impala rams, hippos, gemsbokke, zebras , giraffes and a cheetah. My favourite from this section is a Cape Sugarbird and a Cape Weaver both perched on a pincushion protea giving each other the “what for”.

Carol Polich’s photographs are regularly published in Africa Geographic, Outdoor Photographer and in travel catalogues and calendars.

The book is small, light and inexpensive, a perfect souvenir of a trip to South Africa where one has been fortunate enough to see wild animals, or a lovely coffee table book for any home or office.