THE BLACK RHINOS OF NAMIBIA, by Rick Bass

Prolific nature and outdoors author Bass has written a marvelous story of the arid, sun-blasted country of Namibia, southwestern Africa, where even a coastline along the Atlantic offers no respite from the deadly, waterless desert. In this completely inhospitable place, nature has crafted the rhinoceros, up to two tons of myopic, thick-skinned, short-tempered animal with horns up to a yard long and no disinclination to use them. Once plentiful, once the "white man" arrived, they were decimated, by war and poaching and hunters. Bass's musings on the way rhinos came to be gets a tad repetitive, but the tale is mesmerizing, particularly when he's on foot and a female with calf heads directly towards him. If you enjoy reading of the natural world and the odd creatures therein, this could be your book. A 4.

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