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Pooley, Tony : Discoveries of a Crocodile Man

(Johannesburg: Collins, 1982) 000262124X

ISBN 000262124X

8vo; original biscuit-coloured boards, professionally re-cornered in matching cloth; new laminated dustwrapper, retaining the text and picture panels of the original; new endpapers; pp. 213, incl. index; map; plates. Some spotting; trace of rippling to bottom edge. Very good condition: a pleasing restoration. "Through a practical joke played on him by one of his game guards, Tony Pooley as a young game ranger in Zululand became curious about crocodiles. Over the following 20 years he took an absorbing interest in these scaly reptiles as his career with the Natal Parks Game and Fish Preservation Board developed. Tony Pooley tells of the general loathing and mistrust felt towards crocodiles, the myths and superstitions, the fallacies about their behaviour, about attacks on humans and of humans who hunt crocodiles. We share in his daily observations of the complex social behaviour of crocodiles, their courtship and mating, seasonal movement in response to river floods and drought, their basking and hunting techniques and their enemies. From riverbank and lakeside hide we watch them interact with hippos and antelope, birds, terrapins and fish. This is an adventure story, of personal experiences and anecdotes - some of them humorous - about catching crocodiles from a small boat in the dead of night and wading through stinking channels to rescue survivors of a drought; and about the frustrations as well as the successes of pioneering crocodile rearing techniques."

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