Anup and Manoj Shah, who grew up in Kenya, have made their lives' work photographing the wildlife of the Serengeti-Maasai Mara and the Ngorongoro Crater regions in Kenya and Tanzania. The photos gathered in this generous coffee-table book have appeared in National Geographic
and National History
, among other magazines. Nature is frozen in its most dramatic moments here: a hyena carries off a dismembered giraffe leg in a light so vivid that one can almost feel the grizzled, torn tendons; lions roar in the act of copulation in a blur that captures the fleeting moment; a martial eagle crouches over a bloody bit of fawn in a photo with startlingly beautiful, painterly colors. The landscape is alive in a photo of two lions watching a coming storm; a spotted hyena, face soaked in blood, pauses and we see the depths of its eyes. Readers get anthropomorphized wildlife ("Females, it seems, are the shoppers, and males are the sellers") on a regular basis thanks to Animal Planet—not exactly original commentary, but the pictures are awe-inspiring nonetheless. Organized by chapters like "Herds and Social Groups," "Grazers and Browsers" and "Light and Energy" with brief text introductions, the book emphasizes the seasonality and intricate diversity of the Savannah. The authors highlight the delicate interdependence of life forms, with a chapter called "Scavengers and Decomposers," and the images themselves argue for the preservation of this vital wilderness. 235 full-color illustrations. (Dec.)
