Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Viking (1975), 285 pages
Description
A series of graded readers covering a wide range of styles and kinds of English, both fiction and non-fiction, with comprehension exercises, questions and crosswords. Level 5 has a vocabulary of 2000 words.
User reviews
LibraryThing member shireling
This book was written in the mid seventies, but the subject is still very much alive!
I've been reading it over and over again during the last decades.
The need to preserve species that are threatened by extinction is even more pressing now as it was before, so Mr. Douglas- Hamilton fascinating book
I've been reading it over and over again during the last decades.
The need to preserve species that are threatened by extinction is even more pressing now as it was before, so Mr. Douglas- Hamilton fascinating book
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really deserves a reprint. Show Less
LibraryThing member nandadevi
This is one of the pivotal books, as indeed the author was one of the pivotal researchers, in the evolution of thinking about the sustainability of elephant populations on reserves in Africa. This makes it sound perhaps a little dry, but it is quite the opposite. It is a very intimate account of
The book is in fact a joint effort, between Iain and Oria Douglas-Hamilton, written in 3 separate parts. The perspective of Oria, partner, photographer and mother is equally interesting as Iain's, and provides a nice roundness to the story of their existence deep in the bush, amongst the elephants. The story of the elephants is told sympathetically, but without losing sight of the science, and it is an object lesson in the effort and dedication involved in field work with animals. It is perhaps surprising how little was known about such large animals up until the late 20th Century, and sobering to realize how our knowledge was only advanced by a great many small steps, of which the Douglas-Hamilton's can lay claim to quite a few.
The argument about the sustainability of elephant (and by inference other African species) populations on the limited space in African wildlife reserves was central to the Douglas-Hamilton's research. Advancement towards an answer comes only slowly through that work, and at the end there is no great revelation, just an emerging feeling that there is no universal answer. Which is not discouraging but instead suggests that there is still work to do, and opportunities for people to follow in the footsteps of the Douglas-Hamilton's and the Grzimek's. This book is one of a great arc of stories about African elephants, including Grzimek's 'Serengeti Shall Not Die', Sheldrick's Tsavo stories, Moss's Amboseli stories, and the summing up by Chadwick and Bonner in the 'Fate of the Elephant', and 'At the Hand of Man' respectively. Highly recommended in its own right, and an absolute essential read in the company of these other books.
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the family life of elephants, and of elephant watchers, on a remote reserve in Africa in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Iain Douglas-Hamilton is the natural successor to the Michael Grzimek, and there is a thread of imminent disaster that runs through the book. The sense that death is only a step away, for elephants and man, in heightened by a chance encounter with the remains of Grzimek's crashed aircraft, decaying like some animal that has died in the bush. But the response is characteristically Grzimek, and Douglas-Hamilton. Live life to the full because we are only here a short time.The book is in fact a joint effort, between Iain and Oria Douglas-Hamilton, written in 3 separate parts. The perspective of Oria, partner, photographer and mother is equally interesting as Iain's, and provides a nice roundness to the story of their existence deep in the bush, amongst the elephants. The story of the elephants is told sympathetically, but without losing sight of the science, and it is an object lesson in the effort and dedication involved in field work with animals. It is perhaps surprising how little was known about such large animals up until the late 20th Century, and sobering to realize how our knowledge was only advanced by a great many small steps, of which the Douglas-Hamilton's can lay claim to quite a few.
The argument about the sustainability of elephant (and by inference other African species) populations on the limited space in African wildlife reserves was central to the Douglas-Hamilton's research. Advancement towards an answer comes only slowly through that work, and at the end there is no great revelation, just an emerging feeling that there is no universal answer. Which is not discouraging but instead suggests that there is still work to do, and opportunities for people to follow in the footsteps of the Douglas-Hamilton's and the Grzimek's. This book is one of a great arc of stories about African elephants, including Grzimek's 'Serengeti Shall Not Die', Sheldrick's Tsavo stories, Moss's Amboseli stories, and the summing up by Chadwick and Bonner in the 'Fate of the Elephant', and 'At the Hand of Man' respectively. Highly recommended in its own right, and an absolute essential read in the company of these other books.
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Yorkshire Post Book Award (1975)
Language
Original language
English
ISBN
0670122084 / 9780670122080