East African Carnivores

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32542, 27 February 1971, Page 10

East African Carnivores

Innocent Killers. By Hugo and Jane van Lawfck-Goodall. Coffins. 222 pp. Jane Goodall, who became famous with her behaviour studies of wild chimpanzees in Kenya, has joined forces with her photographer husband Hugo van Lewick to produce a really excellent wild life study. The wild dogs, golden jackals and spotted hyenas of the Serengetai National Park and the Ngorongpro Crater in Tanzania are the animals under study. The couple’s patience and persistence in the field of animal behaviour study is almost unmatched and they present a mass of wholly new information with a series of truly magnificent photographs of each species. This book is offered as a delectable hors d’oeuvre for the lay reader—-full reports will follow for scientists in due course. An introductory chapter setting the scene for the studies does not try to gloss over the gory aspects of the animal’s behaviour. Readers might possibly feel a little squeamish about reading a book devoted to animals that kill their prey by disembowelling them. But the authors carefully remind us that they kill in order to eat and to live in the only way for which evolution has fitted them. Usually their victims are dead within a couple of minutes whereas lions, leopards and cheetahs often take ten minutes or more to suffocate their victims. In fact only man kills with complete awareness of the suffering he may inflict Despite occasional excitements such as a lion in the lavatoiy, life on safari is apparently very rarely spiced with high drama. In fact the hazards are no greater than those encountered in driving along busy highways. To prove this, the couple had no hesitation in taking along their infant' son with them, although the arrival of a grandmother did help to solve the baby-sitting problem.

Helped by several students, the couple put in hundreds of hours of observation but unexpected floods, poor photographic conditions and elusive packs of wild dogs with pups were only some of the frustrations encountered.

The team got to know well the creatures they were studying and gave them names like Lady Astor, Mrs Stink, Nelson and Countess Dracula. Lach of the animals studied reveals its own individual character, quite different from that of its brother or father or neighbour. There are interesting comments on hunting techniques, social hierarchy and the day-to-day pattern of social life. One of the authors* aims has been to try to show that an animal has as much character when it is wild and free as when it is tamed and brought up by humans. The couple’s respect and affection for their “innocent killers” is infectious and the results of their studies present a worth while and accurate picture of species that tend to be dismissed as foul and disreputable. The present book is planned as one of two describing the larger East African carnivores and it is good to learn that the publishers are already thinking in terms of a second volume on lions, leopards and cheetahs. Hugo and Jane van Lawick-Goodall in partnership have

made a promising debut into popular and yet authentic wildlife literature.