Booklist Review

The range maps at the beginning of this evocative alarum about the state of the African lion reveal the gist of the text, that wild lions are now found in less than five percent of their historic distribution, and that area is shrinking daily. Experienced nature and traveler writer Ham asks a poignant question in the prologue, "do we have room in our world for lions?" Starting in 2011, Ham set out on journeys throughout eastern and southern Africa to try to answer that question and to explain why lions are necessary to healthy ecosystems. His book focuses on the lions, local people and their traditions, and the last of Africa's wild lands in five countries. In Kenya's Amboseli region, Ham reports on the Lion Guardians, Maasai warriors and former lion killers who mediate conflicts between lions and Maasai cattle. Zimbabwe delivers the story of Cecil, perhaps the world's most famous lion, and of how continued trophy hunting creates chaos and upheaval in lion society. In Zambia's Liuwa National Park, men with guns basically wiped out the park's wildlife during the 1990s until a single lioness returned to anchor a new pride. Botswana's Kalahari and Tanzania's Hwange round out a most evocative look at the current state of this magnificent, now severely imperiled big cat.