Africa Imagery - A New Book on Lions

Africa Imagery - Photographs of Africa, it's People and its Wildlife

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In Search of the African Lion

Lioness. MalaMala Game Reserve. Mpumalanga. South Africa

Lion (Panthera leo). Madikwe Game Reserve. North West Province. South Africa

Reserve yourself a copy of our book on the African Lion: Contact Us.

Project Objectives:

We've started a new book project - on the African lion. These magnificent cats are in a spot of trouble. Their estimated number varies depending on what documentation you read, but there could be as few as 19 000 lions left in Africa's protected areas and some 43% of these populations are declining. To put this into perspective there are today only about 18 000 white rhinos on the African continent and their tenuous state has attracted huge concern, especially after the recent spate of rhino poaching. Lions are dismally close to the same predicament, a fact which is not generally as well known, but which deserves our immediate attention.

After discussions with the Endangered Wildlife Trust about the plight of lions in South Africa (and indeed Africa as a whole) our “Lion Project” hopes to:

Increase public awareness and knowledge of the African lion.

Raise funds to help researchers and conservation managers find sustainable solutions to current lion conservation problems.

Public Awareness:

To produce a large format book approximately 28cm square, with 200 pages and about 250 full colour photographs. It will include a readable and accessible text of about 35 000 words, targeted at anyone with an interest in lions and their ecology.

To publish a soft cover children’s book approximately 24 cm square with approximately 30 pages and 30 full colour photographs, similar to the above but obviously targeted at children. It is envisaged that there will be several editions – in English, Afrikaans, seTswana, isiZulu and isiXhosa.

For the most part, the coffee table style books that we produce are only available to a select few. The reasons for this are, inter alia, awareness of the book, cost, geographical location and language. Usually only a very small percentage of South Africa’s population has access to the conservation and cultural information contained in them and with our lion book we intend to change this. We aim to get as many books as we can into school libraries and a children’s edition of the book, in the relevant language, to individual children.

Fund Raising:

Our book on the African Wild Dog (In Search of the African Wild Dog), which almost sold out within a year of being published, helped raise awareness of the plight of the wild dog. As a direct result of this, Roger’s cousin, Vaughan de la Harpe, along with several other experienced mountaineers, climbed Mt Everest in aid of these endangered animals. They took Frikkie along with them. Frikkie? A fluffy wild dog toy, similar to the one that was given to us by friends when we began work on the wild dog book and that still lives in the back of our 4X4. When the team returned from Everest, Vaughan, with the help of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, organised a fund raising dinner in Johannesburg and raised just under R700 000-00 for wild dog conservation. Frikkie, himself sold for the staggering sum of R125 000-00! We would like to do the same thing for lions at a similar event when we launch our lion book.

We will be utilising social media extensively and to this end have created Mandla le Lion. Mandla is a fluffy toy lion who is the mascot of the creative team and a representative of the lion population. He has his own blog and Facebook page and faces a very interesting couple of years. Mandla’s roving ambassadorial role started in late 2010 with a brief trip to Swaziland on a photo safari, which was followed by his first really challenging expedition - a trip down the Amazon River in the company of friends John Louw and AB Viljoen. During 2011 he will spend time with us in the field while we tackle the photography and research of lions and will also keep an eye on things during strategy meetings. Indeed his schedule is already so demanding that he has enlisted the help of fellow pride members, Koos Ngonyama and Basil Tau, who have displayed equal dedication to the project and have already represented him in the Timbavati, Tswalu and Phinda game reserves.

Reserve yourself a copy of our book on the African Lion: Contact Us.

Lion (Panthera leo) pride drinking. MalaMala Game Reserve. Mpumalanga. South Africa.

Lion (Panthera leo) pride drinking. MalaMala Game Reserve. Mpumalanga. South Africa.

Creative Team:

Roger de la Harpe of Africa Imagery (photography, lighting).

Pat de la Harpe of Africa Imagery (author, photography, lighting).

Sarah Caithness of Africa Imagery (social media, production secretary).

Partners:

The following organisations are supporting this project:

Nikon South Africa

Endangered Wild Life Trust

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife

Tswalu Kalahari Reserve
Phinda Private Game Reserve
Ngala Private Game Reserve

Please Support our Project Partners

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