Ivory Apes & Peacocks

Alan Root is one of Africas most bitten. In the course of his adventures he has been mauled by a leopard a silverback gorilla and a hippo and almost lost his life to a deadly puff-adder which claimed one of his fingers. Roots unmatched experience of East African wildlife and his appetite for risk have made him a world-class naturalist and film-maker. Hes one of the great wildlife pioneers. In Ivory Apes & Peacocks" Alan tells the story of his lifes work from his arrival in Kenya as a young boy (furious at having to leave behind Britains birds) to the making of his game-changing films. Instead of sticking to the Big Five animals these looked up close at whole ecosystems - baobab trees termite mounds natural springs - and involved firsts such as tracking the wildebeest migration
from a balloon then flying it over Kilimanjaro filming inside a hornbills nest and diving with hippos and crocodiles. Along the way we meet Sally the pet hippo and Emily the house-proud chimp watch as Dian Fossey catches sight of her first mountain gorilla and have sundowners with George and Joy Adamson. And here too is Joan Root Alans wife and collaborator for over thirty years who was brutally murdered in retaliation for her environmental campaigning. In this extraordinary memoir we look at Africas wonders through the eyes of a visionary live through hair-raising adventure and personal sorrow and also bear witness to a natural world now largely lost from view."