As political tension relaxes, wildlife enthusiasts and curious tourists are returning to Zimbabwe.
With some of the finest national parks in Africa, the country is blessed with stunning landscapes and an abundance of wildlife. The mighty Zambezi River offers adventure holidays, and Victoria Falls will leave visitors breathless, while the range of birdlife draws enthusiasts year-round.
Game viewing in some of Africa's greatest national parks is a rewarding experience and this guide offers in-depth information on the facilities, advice on itinerary planning as well as how to select a safari.
Accommodation is covered with up-to-date information on everything from luxury safari camps to budget stays for younger travellers who arrive overland, heading for the fast flowing waters of the Zambezi gorge.

• Explor the intricate stone-walled ruins of Great Zimbabwe, A UNESCO-listed site
• Admire the view from the decks of a houseboat on beautiful Lake Karimba
• Learn the best tips for tracking the "Big Five"
• Escape to the eastern Higlands for spectacular mountain visitas
• Test your wildlife-spotting skills with our ilustrated guide

First published in 1993, Sasol Birds of Southern Africa is one of the best-selling field guides on the African continent.
This fourth edition has been rewritten and greatly improved, ensuring it remains the region’s most comprehensively illustrated and trusted field guide.
In this fourth edition: species accounts have been rewritten and now include group introductions; plates have been newly designed for ease of use and comparison; more than 380 new improved illustrations replace earlier ones; illustrations have simplified labels, pinpointing key differentiating features; distribution maps have been updated, showing the relative abundance of a species in the region, and also indicating resident or migrant status.
Other features include calendar bars that show species’ occurrence and breeding periods, a section on ‘how to use this book’, as well as sonograms depicting the calls of difficult-to-distinguish birds that have distinctive calls.

In this updated and revised edition of Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa authors Chris and Tilde Stuart concentrate on the more visible and easily distinguished larger mammals species, plus some of the more frequently seen smaller mammals.
In all, over 400 colour photographs, combined with concise, pertinent information highlighting the diagnostic features of each species, provide a comprehensive source of data on each mammal. The latest information has been incorporated and the distribution maps have been revised to reflect the most up-to-date habitat and distribution patterns for each species.
A new feature is the inclusion of the mammals'skulls, grouped together at the back of the book. To aid the reader, colour coding and symbols indicating the habitat and activity period serve as a quick reference to the various mammal groups.

Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa is designed for easy, rapid identification of all butterflies likely to be seen in South Africa.
Following a worldwide trend to butterfly watching, readers are encouraged to observe behaviour rather than collect specimens. A detailed introductory section discusses butterfly biology, behaviour and anatomy, and butterfly families and subfamilies.
A comprehensive section on individual butterfly species supplies a wealth of information - scientific and English common names, information on flight periods and numbers of broods, behavioural traits and differentiation from similar species, as well as notes on size, geographical distribution and larval food sources.
Photographs are mostly of live specimens taken in the wild, and include under- and uppersides, and dimorphism where necessary.

Steve Woodhall (b 1957, Rochdale, UK) has been chasing butterflies with a net or camera most of his life.
In 1980 he achieved a life's ambition and emigrated to Africa, and now lives near Durban in South Africa. He's been photographing butterflies almost all that time, and when his old friend Bill Hansford-Steele (author of several books on Fly Fishing in Africa) suggested he should do a book, he decided to have a go!
Soon afterwards he made contact with Bill's publishers Struik Nature. After a lot of hard work and photography, in 2005 Field Guide to Butterflies of South Africa saw the light of day.
It was the first hand held comprehensive field guide to South African butterflies, with text opposite pictures.

Southern Africa is home to a remarkably diverse and rich reptile fauna.
A Guide to the Reptiles of Southern Africa introduces the 517 species currently described in the region, arranged into three main groups - snakes and lizards, crocodiles, and shelled reptiles.
Drawing on the latest scientific research, the authors start with a discussion of reptile identification, diversity, biology, distribution patterns, and where to find and observe them, as well as unravelling the facts and fallacies of snakebite.
Informative panels provide key information at a glance, with a distribution map and clear icons giving typical habitat and period of activity.
The full colour photographs throughout brings the subject matter vividly to life.
This book will appeal to all wildlife enthusiasts, both professional and amateur, and will prove to be a valuable guide in the field.

Amphibians of Central and Southern Africa is the first comprehensive guide to the frogs, toads, and caecilians of the ten sub-equatorial African countries—Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The result is at once a valuable reference tool, a field guide, and a source of ideas for future research.
A source of increasing interest in their own right, amphibians are also benchmark species for biodiversity, and are used as laboratory animals in many of the sciences. In the wild, amphibians, especially frogs, act as natural monitors of water quality and are invaluable in pest control.
Their skins secrete a wide range of pharmacologically active substances, such as antibiotics and painkillers. Yet frog populations are declining worldwide, mainly due to human destruction of their habitats.
Alan Channing synthesizes information published over the last century to provide the first natural history and a portrait of the amphibian fauna of this vast region.

Key features of Amphibians of Central and Southern Africa include

• detailed accounts for 205 species of frogs and toads (and 2 species of caecilian) accompanied by color illustrations, distribution maps, details of breeding and tadpole behavior, and call descriptionsmaps
• llustrations and tadpole identification keys for each genus
• special sections for some species with topics such as "skin toxins"
• an overview of fossil frogs, a discussion of humankind and frogs in Africa, and a bibliography of African frog biology

South Africa, together with Lesotho and Swaziland, has a diverse landscape and equally varied flora, which encompasses some 19,000 shrubs and herbs, a large proportion of which bear flowers of intricate and often stunning beauty.
Field Guide to Wild Flowers of South Africa describes more than 1,100 of these, highlighting the most conspicuous species and those most likely to be encountered across the country.
A novel identification aid and easy-to-use keys guide users to the correct family and genus, while individual species descriptions, clear photographs, distribution maps and flowering seasons help pinpoint the plant.
With this guide, wildflower enthusiasts at all levels will now be able to identify plants accurately in any part of South Africa.

Dr JOHN MANNING is a Specialist Scientist at the South African National Botanical Institute in Cape Town.
He is a world specialist on the bulbs of Southern Africa but has wide-ranging interests in all aspects of South Africa's flora. He has published widely in scientific journals and is also committed to popularizing the indigenous flora.
He is the author or co-author of several popular wildflower guides.