Wild at Heart

Wild at Heart crisscrosses southern Africa to examine a world in transition, a world seeking to achieve a balance between the demands of progress and the desire to conserve a natural legacy unique on our planet.
Reporting from the front line of conservation, they explain how war, poachers, and economic instability threaten such magnificent species as elephants, rhinos, and cheetahs, and how well-meaning but misguided conservation projects have altered migratory patterns and upset the ecological balance. They look at such controversial measures as the culling of elephant herds and discuss the difficulties of developing policies that encourage local peoples to see wildlife as a profitable resource worthy of preservation rather than an obstacle to human development.

Chris Johns, Editor-in-Chief of National Geographic magazine, was named Newspaper Photographer of the Year in 1979 while a staff photographer for the Topeka Capital-Journal. Before joining National Geographic magazine in 1995 and becoming senior editor of illustrations in 2001, Johns worked as a freelance photographer for Life, Time, and National Geographic. The author of Valley of Life: Africa's Great Rift, he lives with his family on a farm in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains.

Peter Godwin grew up in the Zimbabwe bush and attended university in England before becoming an award-winning foreign correspondent for the London Sunday Times and the BBC. He is the author of four books, including Rhodesians Never Die and Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa. He lives in New York.