Sasol First Field Guide to Mushrooms of Southern Africa is a fascinating guide to the mushrooms of the region. Full-colour photographs and easy-to-read text will help the beginner and budding naturalist to identify the more common mushroom species that occur in southern Africa, discover where they are found, and learn about their unusual features.

Sasol First Field Guide to Mushrooms of Southern Africa is a fascinating guide to the mushrooms of the region. Full-colour photographs and easy-to-read text will help the beginner and budding naturalist to identify the more common mushroom species that occur in southern Africa, discover where they are found, and learn about their unusual features.

The elephants of the Knysna forest have long been the subject of mystery and conjecture. Over the years they have taken on an almost mythical quality, with many doubting whether they existed at all. In 1994 the local forestry department maintained that there was only one surviving Knysna elephant, the seldom seen female known as The Matriarch. The Knysna elephant was thus described as 'functionally extinct'. This was the official stance until September 2000 when forest guard Wilfred Oraai encountered and photographed a young bull from a distance of some thirty metres. The question arose: who was its mother? And, indeed, who was its father? In 2001 Gareth Patterson began an independent study of the Knysna elephant. For the next seven years he covered thousands of kilometres on foot, following ancient elephant paths through the dense Afromontane forest and the surrounding mountain fynbos. He found abundant signs to suggest that, far from dying out, the Knysna elephants are, quietly and secretly, holding their own. Patterson's fieldwork, and his dna research in collaboration with conservation geneticist Lori Eggert, established that at least five young females exist, lending support to Patterson's growing evidence that the Knysna forest and its surroundings are home to a small herd of young elephants. The Secret Elephants is the story of these remarkable animals that fought their way back from the brink of extinction without any help from humankind.

Sasol First Field Guide to Succulents of Southern Africa is a fascinating guide to the succulents of the region. Full-colour photographs, distribution maps and easy-to-read text will help the beginner and budding naturalist to identify the more common succulents found in southern Africa, discover where they occur and learn about their unique features.

Sasol First Field Guide to Insects of Southern Africa provides fascinating insight into the insects of the region. Full-colour photographs and easy-to-read text will help the beginner and budding naturalist to explore the more common insect groups that occur in southern Africa, discover where they are found, and learn about their behaviour and unusual features.

Sasol First Field Guide to Mammals of Southern Africa provides fascinating insight into the wild animals of the region. Through full-colour photographs and distribution maps, and easy-to-read text, the beginner and budding naturalist will be able to identify the more common mammal species found in southern Africa, discover where they live, and learn about their unique feeding and breeding habits.

This first field guide to aloes of southern Africa provides fascinating insight into the aloes of the region. Full-colour photographs, distribution maps and easy-to-read text will help the budding naturalist to identify the more common aloes found in southern African gardens and landscapes, discover where they occur, and learn about their unique features.