Game Drive Mammals of southern Africa

  • Philip, Ingrid, and Heinrich van den Berg
  • Published by HPH Publishing
  • Price: R360

This gorgeous coffee table book, first published in in September 2013, and now just reprinted in a slick soft cover edition, deals with the larger mammals in the southern African sub-region, south of the Kunene and Zambezi Rivers that includes South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and part of Mozambique.

Game Drive, Mammals of Southern Africa, is published by HTH Publishing

The main emphasis is on the superb images so the species info is bite-sized, brief, and features a few interesting snippets. For example, did you know that mongooses all emerge from their warren to sunbathe, groom, and socialise before leaving to forage for insects, spiders, scorpions and smaller vertebrates while non-breeding members of the group help with the babysitting?

A nocturnal civet

Or that zebras often rest in pairs with their heads on the other’s back facing in opposite directions to watch for danger and brush the flies off each other’s face?

The Van den Berg family team bring their multi-faceted expertise as photographers, zoologists, writers and artists to this work with its superb images and concise readable text.

A leopard slakes his thirst

Having spent many years photographing mammals in their natural environment, the authors’ life-long passion for wildlife shines though.

An adorable bat-eared fox

The text provides key information on each species, facts, species distribution and relationships within and between species. A comparative table with more information and distribution maps of the various species is included at the end of the book. Biomes, major parks and game reserves are listed and their locations shown on maps.

An African wild dog

Game Drive, Mammals of southern Africa, is perfect for taking on safari or simply paging through from your armchair. The book is on special at R360 down from the normal price of R400

  • Buy Game Drive Mammals of southern Africa,  online here