A safari trip to Kenya leads to a search for one of the rarest animals on Earth, in a book where the reader determines the path and ending of the story.

The black rhino is nature's tank, feared by all animals. Even lions will break off a hunt to detour around one. And yet the black rhino is on the edge of extinction, its numbers dwindling from 100,000 at the turn of the century, to less than 2,500 today. The reason is that in places like Yemen, China, Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, the rhino's horn is more valuable than gold, so valuable that people will risk their lives to harvest it. To deter rhino poachers, African governments have spent millions--on helicopters, paramilitary operations, fences and guard dogs, even relocation to protected areas. Finally, Namibia decided to de-horn its rhino population, in a last ditch effort to stop the slaughter. In 1991, Carol Cunningham and Joel Berger, and their eighteen-month-old daughter Sonja, went to Namibia to weigh the effects of de-horning on rhinos. In Horn of Darkness, they tell the story of three years in the Namib Desert, studying Africa's last sizable population of free-roaming black rhinos. This is the closest most readers will come to experiencing life in the remaining wilds of Africa. Cunningham and Berger, writing nate chapters, capture what it is like to leave the comforts of civilization, to camp for months at a time in a land filled with deadly predators, to study an animal that is reclusive, unpredictable, and highly dangerous. The authors describe staking out water holes in the dead of the night, creeping to within twenty-seven meters of rhinos to photograph them, all the while keeping a lookout for hyenas, elephants, and lions. They recount many heart-pounding escapes--one rhino forces Carol Cunningham up a tree, an unseen lion in hot pursuit of hyenas races right past a frozen Joel Berger--and capture the adrenaline rush of inching closer to a rhino that might flee--or charge--at any moment. They also give readers a clear sense of the careful, patient work involved in studying animals, the frustration of long days without finding rhinos or seeing other people, coping with heat and thirst (the Namib desert is one of the driest on Earth), with dirt and insects, driving hundreds of kilometers in a Land Rover packed to capacity, slowing amassing records on one hundred individual rhinos over the course of several years. And perhaps most important, the authors reveal that the data they collected suggests that the de-horning project might backfire--that in the four years after de-horning began, calf survival was down (the evidence suggests that hyenas might be preying on calves and the horn less mothers couldn't defend their offspring). They also describe the dark side of scientific work, from the petty jealousy of other scientists--outside researchers were often seen as ecological imperialists--to the controversy that erupted after the authors published their findings, as furious officials of the Namibian conservation program denounced their findings and through delays and other tactics effectively withheld a permit to allow the couple to continue their study. Weaving together the historical accounts of other naturalists, a vividly detailed look at life in the wild, and a behind-the-scenes glimpse of scientific work and the dark side of the conservation movement, Horn of Darkness is destined to be a classic work on the natural world.

Acclaimed nature writer Rick Bass takes us on a journey into the Namib Desert to follow a group of poachers-turned-conservationists as they track the endangered black rhinos through their ancient and harsh African homeland.

An orphaned baby black rhino is taken in by the manager of the local national park, who names him Chizi and raised him along with his own children. As Chizi grows, he becomes a big part of the family. Chizi's Tale teaches that all of us can, and should, show mercy and compassion.

Following a lifetime of animal rescue and African wildlife conservation efforts, Beverly and Dereck Joubert raise the alarm to the plight of the rhino. This oversize volume is both a celebration of these magnificent animals and a call to action to save them from vanishing forever. Blood Moon tells the tale of the extraordinary efforts to rescue rhinos from high-poaching zones in South Africa and save the species in secret locations in Botswana. Involving the help of military personnel, planes, helicopters, and private-sector gunboats, this is an action-packed story. The breathtaking images and riveting prose not only capture the never-before-seen rescue of rhinos, but also transcend wildlife publishing to celebrate the life of these elusive animals and the vanishing habitats of Africa. This book takes wildlife imagery to a new level. Here, the striking black-and-white photography is paired with the use of red, which has always been symbolic of wealth in the East, the largest market for rhino horns. Blood Moon is an inspiring demonstration of what humanity can do if we try to turn back extinction. Proceeds from this book benefit the Great Plains Foundation, with a mission to conserve and expand natural habitats in Africa through education programs, community initiatives, and wildlife and environmental stewardship in Botswana, Kenya, and Zimbabwe. Great Plains Conservation and its Foundation manage over 1,000,000 acres of land in sub-Saharan Africa with plans to expand to 5,000,000 acres across a variety of critically important and fragile landscapes throughout Africa.

Hunters in Nairobi are threatening more than a few animals.

The #1 English-language bestseller in China--the book that is shaping China's planning and policy for the future. A "gray rhino" is a highly probable, high impact yet neglected threat: kin to both the elephant in the room and the improbable and unforeseeable black swan. Gray rhinos are not random surprises, but occur after a series of warnings and visible evidence. The bursting of the housing bubble in 2008, the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, the new digital technologies that upended the media world, the fall of the Soviet Union...all were evident well in advance. Why do leaders and decision makers keep failing to address obvious dangers before they spiral out of control? Drawing on her extensive background in policy formation and crisis management, as well as in-depth interviews with leaders from around the world, Michele Wucker shows in The Gray Rhino how to recognize and strategically counter looming high impact threats. Filled with persuasive stories, real-world examples, and practical advice, The Gray Rhino is essential reading for managers, investors, planners, policy makers, and anyone who wants to understand how to profit by avoiding getting trampled.