Through field research and forensic evidence, a scientist reveals his theory on why two Kenyan lions killed humans and then ate their prey.

From the master of adventure behind the classic Death in the Long Grass, former big-game hunter Peter Hathaway Capstick now turns from his own exploits to those of some of the greatest hunters of the past with Death in the Silent Places. With his characteristic color and flair, Capstick recalls the extraordinary careers of men like Colonel J.H. Patterson and Colonel Jim Corbett, who stalked legendary man-eaters through the silent darkness on opposite sides of the world; men like Karamojo Bell, acknowledged as the greatest elephant hunter of all time; men like the valiant Sasha Siemel, who tracked killer jaguars though the Matto Grosso armed only with a spear. With an authenticity gained by having shared the experiences he writes of, Capstick eloquently recreates the acrid taste of terror in the mouth of a man whose gun has jammed as a lion begins his charge, the exhilaration of tracking and finding a long-sought prey, the bravery and even nobility of performing under circumstances of primitive and savage stress, with death all around in the silent places of the wilderness.

As thrilling as any novel, as taut and exciting as any adventure story, Peter Hathaway Capstick’s Death in the Long Grass takes us deep into the heart of darkness to view Africa through the eyes of one of the most renowned professional hunters. Few men can say they have known Africa as Capstick has known it—leading safaris through lion country; tracking man-eating leopards along tangled jungle paths; running for cover as fear-maddened elephants stampede in all directions. And of the few who have known this dangerous way of life, fewer still can recount their adventures with the flair of this former professional hunter-turned-writer. Based on Capstick’s own experiences and the personal accounts of his colleagues, Death in the Long Grassportrays the great killers of the African bush—not only the lion, leopard, and elephant, but the primitive rhino and the crocodile waiting for its unsuspecting prey, the titanic hippo and the Cape buffalo charging like an express train out of control. Capstick was a born raconteur whose colorful descriptions and eye for exciting, authentic detail bring us face to face with some of the most ferocious killers in the world—underrated killers like the surprisingly brave and cunning hyena, silent killers such as the lightning-fast black mamba snake, collective killers like the wild dog. Readers can lean back in a chair, sip a tall, iced drink, and revel in the kinds of hunting stories Hemingway and Ruark used to hear in hotel bars from Nairobi to Johannesburg, as veteran hunters would tell of what they heard beyond the campfire and saw through the sights of an express rifle.

Most of Jim Corbett's books contain collections of stories that recount adventures tracking and shooting man-eaters in the Indian Himalaya. An exciting narrative of a leopard that spread terror through five hundred square miles of the hills of the United Provinces, The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag also takes a detailed look at life in the Garhwal region of India. The Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag is often considered the most exciting of all Corbett's jungle tales. He gives a carefully-detailed account of a notorious leopard that terrorized life in the hills of the colonial United Provinces. This story represents Corbett's most sustained and unique effort. The Man-eating Leopard of Rudraprayag is also an ode to the people who inhabit the hills and the resilience with which they face the hardships that assail them.

A thrilling chronicle of the author's death-defying pursuits of Africa's most dangerous beasts of a time over forty years ago. Taylor describes his adventures when hunting down man-eaters and marauders, whether they be lions, crocodiles, or elephants. It is the accumulation of all the dangerous adventures Taylor met with during his thirty-five years as an ivory hunter. During that time, while living in Nyasaland and Mozambique, Taylor quite often received an SOS from the natives to dispatch a man-eating cat or a rogue pachyderm. In one instance Taylor dispatched, in the time span of a few weeks, a pride of eleven lions that had terrorised an entire district. Some of these man-eating lions were so frightful that the natives gave them specific names, such as the Benga Man-Eaters, the Maiembi Man-eaters, and the Nsungu Man-eaters. As Taylor himself noted, "Those who have not lived among the natives of East and Southern Africa can have no conception of how numerous man-eating lions are in some areas". As if the man-eating cats were not bad enough, there are also stories of bad-actor buffaloes and elephants that raided native crops or trampled a hapless individual or two. John Taylor was a born raconteur, and the colourful descriptions of his hunts of a time long gone will bring you face to face with some of the most ferocious killers of the African bush.

In the Grip of the Nyika : Further Adventures in British East Africa by John Henry Patterson, first published in 1909, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it.