South African Air­ways is offer­ing a good deal for econ­omy roundtrip travel from U.S. gate­ways to Johan­nes­burg. From now through April 30, 2010, you can fly roundtrip from New York (JFK) or Wash­ing­ton Dulles (IAD) for $950 per per­son. (Of course, you’ll also pay approx­i­mately $140 for the required gov­ern­men­tal taxes, depar­ture fees, and the Sep­tem­ber 11 secu­rity fee.)

Sim­i­lar low fares are also avail­able from other U.S. cities.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

What Else Will You Do Dur­ing the World Cup?

Are you head­ing to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa? You’re going to enjoy a few games and maybe go on safari, but have you thought about doing some ser­vice work while you’re there?

Ele­vate Des­ti­na­tions has put together a few cus­tomized com­mu­nity tours in South Africa that will show trav­el­ers some of the chal­lenges fac­ing com­mu­ni­ties in Johan­nes­burg, Dur­ban, and Cape Town. Spe­cial tours can be orga­nized for a min­i­mum of one to two days.

Sug­gested Tours in South Africa

• Johan­nes­burg—Visit com­mu­nity projects in Soweto with for­mer soc­cer play­ers such as Andre Arendse and Linda Buthelezi.
• Cape Town—Tour three dif­fer­ent city com­mu­nity empow­er­ment projects on a one-day tour.
• Dur­ban—Head to the Indigo Skate Park in the Val­ley of a Thou­sand Hills, a rural area in Dur­ban where skate board­ing has brought hope to this community.

Down­load Ele­vate Destination’s World Cup Com­mu­nity Tour­ing pdf.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit Ele­vated Des­ti­na­tions or call (617) 661‑0203.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

South African Airways

South African Air­ways is run­ning a promo for roundtrip econ­omy air from New York or Wash­ing­ton, D.C., from Novem­ber 1–December 9, 2009 and Jan­u­ary 7–April 30, 2010. The roundtrip price is $930 per per­son. Sim­i­lar fares are avail­able from other U.S. gateways.

Here’s the fine print: Fare is for travel in econ­omy class and inclu­sive of fuel sur­charges. Valid for travel Novem­ber 1 to Decem­ber 9, 2009 and Jan­u­ary 7 to April 30, 2010. Seats are lim­ited and may not be avail­able on all flights. Travel taxes are addi­tional. Can­cel­la­tions before depar­ture are sub­ject to a $250 penalty and no shows are non-refundable. After depar­ture, tick­ets are non-refundable. Changes prior to depar­ture are not per­mit­ted. Changes after depar­ture are sub­ject to a $250 fee. Tick­et­ing must be com­pleted within 48 hours after reser­va­tions are made. Max­i­mum stay is 12 months. Fare does not include (a) Pas­sen­ger Facil­ity Charges of up to $18 USD depend­ing upon the itin­er­ary cho­sen (b) Fed­eral Seg­ment Fee of $3.60 USD per flight seg­ment (flight seg­ment is defined as one take­off and one land­ing) © Sep­tem­ber 11th Secu­rity Fee of $2.50 USD per flight seg­ment that orig­i­nates at a U.S. point (d) inter­na­tional gov­ern­ment taxes and fees of up to $200 vary­ing by des­ti­na­tion and cur­rency exchange rates at the time of pur­chase. Addi­tional bag­gage charges may apply.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of South African Airways

Twenty-nine ani­mal con­ser­va­tion­ists who have ded­i­cated their lives to sav­ing the Earth’s endan­gered species have been nom­i­nated to receive the bien­nial Indi­anapo­lis Prize, the world’s lead­ing award for ani­mal con­ser­va­tion. The nom­i­nees’ work spans the globe, rep­re­sent­ing a range of species from insects to mam­mals, and includes amphib­ians, ele­phants, bats, wolves and sharks, among many oth­ers. The Nom­i­nat­ing Com­mit­tee will review the appli­ca­tions and select the six final­ists, who will be announced in the spring of 2010. The Prize Jury will then deter­mine the win­ner who will be announced in mid-2010 and hon­ored at the next Indi­anapo­lis Prize Gala, to be held Sep­tem­ber 25, 2010, in Indianapolis.

Twenty-nine ani­mal con­ser­va­tion­ists who have ded­i­cated their lives to sav­ing the Earth’s endan­gered species have been nom­i­nated to receive the bien­nial Indi­anapo­lis Prize. The nom­i­nees’ work spans the globe, rep­re­sent­ing a range of species from insects to mam­mals, and includes amphib­ians, ele­phants, bats, wolves and sharks, among many oth­ers. The Nom­i­nat­ing Com­mit­tee will review the appli­ca­tions and select the six final­ists, who will be announced in the spring of 2010. The Prize Jury will then deter­mine the win­ner who will be announced in mid-2010 and hon­ored at the next Indi­anapo­lis Prize Gala, to be held Sep­tem­ber 25, 2010, in Indianapolis.

In addi­tion to receiv­ing the $100,000 Prize, the recip­i­ent is also awarded the Lilly Medal, an orig­i­nal work of art that sig­ni­fies the winner’s con­tri­bu­tions to con­serv­ing some of the world’s most threat­ened animals.

The 2008 Indi­anapo­lis Prize was awarded to leg­endary field biol­o­gist George Schaller, Ph.D. Schaller’s accom­plish­ments span decades and con­ti­nents, bring­ing fresh focus to the plight of sev­eral endan­gered species—from tigers in India to goril­las in Rwanda—and inspir­ing oth­ers to join the crusade.

“Fol­low­ing in Schaller’s foot­steps will not be easy, but the cur­rent nom­i­nees are excep­tional,” said Michael Crowther, pres­i­dent and CEO of the Indi­anapo­lis Zoo, the orga­ni­za­tion respon­si­ble for ini­ti­at­ing the con­ser­va­tion award. “These con­ser­va­tion­ists are all liv­ing their own unique and fas­ci­nat­ing adven­tures that bat­tle the odds, but achieve great victories.”

The nom­i­nees for the 2010 Indi­anapo­lis Prize include many indi­vid­u­als work­ing to con­serve the diverse wildlife of Africa:

Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Ph.D.: (Save the Ele­phants) Founded Save the Ele­phants; devotes his life to the cause of ele­phant conservation—from tes­ti­fy­ing before Con­gress to lead­ing anti-poaching aid pro­grams in Africa.

Jack Hanna: (Colum­bus Zoo and Aquar­ium) For more than 30 years, Hanna has been the pub­lic face of zoos, bring­ing the con­ser­va­tion mes­sage to mil­lions of peo­ple world­wide; pas­sion­ately ded­i­cated to Rwanda’s endan­gered ani­mals and its people.

Lisa Hywood: (Tikki Hywood Trust) Works tire­lessly to pre­serve Zimbabwe’s wildlife—including cap­tive breed­ing, man­age­ment and mon­i­tored release of endan­gered species and con­ser­va­tion edu­ca­tion in under-privileged, rural areas.

Lau­rie Marker, D.Phil.: (Chee­tah Con­ser­va­tion Fund) Founded the Chee­tah Con­ser­va­tion Fund; led a con­ser­va­tion pro­gram from hum­ble begin­nings in rural Namibia to an unpar­al­leled model for preda­tor conservation.

Gre­gory Ras­mussen, Ph.D.: (Painted Dog Con­ser­va­tion) Dili­gent advo­cate of the crit­i­cally endan­gered African wild dogs; founder of the Painted Dog Con­ser­va­tion, which strives to increase the range and num­bers of wild dogs in Zim­babwe and else­where in Africa.

Lente Lidia Roode: (Hoed­spruit Endan­gered Species Cen­tre) Estab­lished the Hoed­spruit Endan­gered Species Cen­tre, a non­profit orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides a safe haven for orphaned and sick ani­mals, com­plete with an edu­ca­tion cen­ter, res­cue unit and breed­ing program.

Addi­tional nom­i­nees work­ing out­side of Africa:

Karen Eck­ert, Ph.D.: (WIDECAST: Wider Caribbean Sea Tur­tle Con­ser­va­tion Net­work) Ded­i­cated to research, mul­ti­lat­eral marine resource man­age­ment and the inter­na­tional con­ser­va­tion poli­cies for sea tur­tles for more than three decades.

Ger­ardo Cebal­los, Ph.D.: (Insti­tuto de Ecolo­gia, Uni­ver­si­dad Nacional Autonoma de Mex­ico) Leader in design­ing con­ser­va­tion strate­gies for endan­gered species and threat­ened ecosys­tems; con­ducted the first geo­graph­i­cally explicit analy­sis of pat­terns of pop­u­la­tion and species extinc­tion in a major tax­o­nomic group (mammals).

Nigel Col­lar, Ph.D.: (BirdLife Inter­na­tional) Researched and com­piled a unique and com­pre­hen­sive dataset on glob­ally threat­ened bird species that was pub­lished in ground­break­ing regional Red Data Books worldwide.

Ruth M. Elsey, M.D.: (Louisiana Depart­ment of Wildlife and Fish­eries) Fos­tered pro­grams to enhance the sur­viv­abil­ity and sus­tain­abil­ity of the Amer­i­can alli­ga­tor, in addi­tion to par­al­lel efforts for other crocodilians.

George Fen­wick, Ph.D.: (Amer­i­can Bird Con­ser­vancy) Founded Amer­i­can Bird Con­ser­vancy; ded­i­cated to cre­at­ing and sus­tain­ing glob­ally sig­nif­i­cant bio­di­ver­sity reserves, tack­ling policy-based threats to birds and gen­er­at­ing fund­ing resources for the bio­di­ver­sity community.

Rod­ney Fox: (Rod­ney Fox Shark Expeditions/Fox Shark Research Foun­da­tion) Mir­a­cle sur­vivor of one of the world’s worst shark attacks; regarded as a world author­ity on Great White Shark research, obser­va­tion and conservation.

Birute Mary Galdikas, Ph.D.: (Orang­utan Foun­da­tion Inter­na­tional) More than 35 years of advanc­ing research on wild orang­utan ecol­ogy and behav­ior; estab­lished reha­bil­i­ta­tion and release pro­grams and saved mil­lions of acres of trop­i­cal rain for­est in Kalimantan.

Paul Gar­ber, Ph.D.: (Uni­ver­sity of Illi­nois Urbana-Champaign) More than 30 years of ded­i­ca­tion and com­mit­ment to research, con­ser­va­tion and edu­ca­tional pro­grams involv­ing the mon­keys of Latin America.

Mau­rice Hornocker, Ph.D.: (Sel­way Insti­tute; Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus, Uni­ver­sity of Idaho) Devoted his career to under­stand­ing the eco­log­i­cal role of wild cats and advo­cat­ing for the con­ser­va­tion of large car­ni­vores, includ­ing the first-ever field inves­ti­ga­tion of cougars.

Rick Hud­son: (Fort Worth Zoo; Inter­na­tional Iguana Foun­da­tion; IUCN Tur­tle Sur­vival Alliance) Ded­i­cated advo­cate for rep­tile con­ser­va­tion, includ­ing ground­break­ing work with the Jamaican iguana and the coor­di­na­tion of the largest tur­tle res­cue event in history.

Rod­ney Jack­son, Ph.D.: (Snow Leop­ard Con­ser­vancy) Con­ducted an in-depth radio-tracking study of snow leop­ards in the 1980s; ded­i­cated to build­ing local com­mu­ni­ties’ capac­ity as key play­ers in con­serv­ing the species.

Jana John­son, M.S., Ph.D.: (Moor­park Col­lege, The But­ter­fly Project) Founded The But­ter­fly Project, a cen­ter for endan­gered but­ter­fly prop­a­ga­tion and research; helped the Palos Verdes blue but­ter­fly pop­u­la­tion, once pre­sumed extinct, grow from 200 to 10,000.

James Earl Ken­namer, Ph.D.: (National Wild Turkey Fed­er­a­tion) Devoted leader in wild turkey research, sci­en­tific wildlife man­age­ment and forg­ing coop­er­a­tive con­ser­va­tion part­ner­ships to grow the wild turkey pop­u­la­tion from 1.3 mil­lion to 7 mil­lion in less than 30 years.

Thomas H. Kunz, Ph.D.: (Boston Uni­ver­sity) For more than 50 years, has sig­nif­i­cantly and instru­men­tally con­tributed to the con­ser­va­tion and teach­ing of bat ecol­ogy, phys­i­ol­ogy and behavior.

Amanda Lol­lar: (Bat World Sanc­tu­ary) Estab­lished Bat World Sanc­tu­ary, the largest reha­bil­i­ta­tion facil­ity in the world ded­i­cated exclu­sively to bats; cre­ated the first nutri­tion­ally sound diet for debil­i­tated bats.

Edward Louis Jr., Ph.D., DVM: (Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo) Tire­less con­ser­va­tion advo­cate of island bio­geog­ra­phy, includ­ing the dis­cov­ery of 30 per­cent of known lemurs to date.

Stephen McCul­loch: (Har­bor Branch Oceano­graphic Insti­tu­tion) Cre­ated leg­is­la­tion to fund sev­eral ongo­ing marine mam­mal research and con­ser­va­tion pro­grams while work­ing to con­struct the first teach­ing marine mam­mal hos­pi­tal, sci­ence and edu­ca­tion center.

Rodrigo Medellin, Ph.D.: (Uni­ver­sity of Mex­ico) Gal­va­nized bat research through­out Latin Amer­ica by using a mul­ti­pronged approach includ­ing research, edu­ca­tion, pop­u­la­tion biol­ogy, mol­e­c­u­lar ecol­ogy and com­mu­nity involvement.

Patrick T. Redig, DVM, Ph.D.: (The Rap­tor Cen­ter, Col­lege of Vet­eri­nary Med­i­cine, Uni­ver­sity of Min­nesota) Ded­i­cated more than 35 years to pro­tect­ing rap­tor pop­u­la­tions though exten­sive field work, bench research, clin­i­cal work, pro­fes­sional teach­ing and com­mu­nity service.

Patrick Rose: (Save the Man­a­tee Club) Worked to help edu­cate oppo­nents, build coali­tions and focus on spe­cific pro­tec­tion goals for man­a­tees, includ­ing pro­tect­ing the manatee’s habi­tat and advo­cat­ing for strong growth man­age­ment laws.

Carl Safina, Ph.D.: (Blue Ocean Insti­tute) Brought ocean con­ser­va­tion into the envi­ron­men­tal main­stream by using sci­ence, art and lit­er­a­ture to inspire “sea ethic.”

Simon Stu­art, Ph.D.: (IUCN-World Con­ser­va­tion Union) Devel­oped the IUCN Red List Cat­e­gories and Cri­te­ria, which assesses the extinc­tion risk for species.

Amanda Vin­cent, Ph.D.: (The Uni­ver­sity of British Colum­bia) First per­son to study sea­horses under­wa­ter, doc­u­ment exten­sive com­mer­cial trade, and ini­ti­ate a sea­horse con­ser­va­tion project, Project Seahorse.

The bien­nial $100,000 Indi­anapo­lis Prize rep­re­sents the largest indi­vid­ual mon­e­tary award for ani­mal con­ser­va­tion in the world and is given as an unre­stricted gift to the cho­sen honoree.

The Indi­anapo­lis Prize was ini­ti­ated by the Indi­anapo­lis Zoo as a sig­nif­i­cant com­po­nent of its mis­sion to inspire local and global com­mu­ni­ties and to cel­e­brate, pro­tect and pre­serve our nat­ural world through con­ser­va­tion, edu­ca­tion and research. This award brings the world’s atten­tion to the cause of ani­mal con­ser­va­tion and the brave, tal­ented and ded­i­cated men and women who spend their lives sav­ing the Earth’s endan­gered ani­mal species. It was first awarded in 2006 to Dr. George Archibald, the co-founder of the Inter­na­tional Crane Foun­da­tion and one of the world’s great field biologists.

In 2008, the Indi­anapo­lis Prize went to Dr. George Schaller, the world’s pre­em­i­nent field biol­o­gist and vice pres­i­dent of sci­ence and explo­ration for the Wildlife Con­ser­va­tion Soci­ety. The Eli Lilly and Com­pany Foun­da­tion has pro­vided fund­ing for the Indi­anapo­lis Prize since 2006.

A flurry of South Africa travel pack­ages are being announced now that the 2010 World Cup is only eight months away. Here’s a 15-day adven­ture from Africa Adven­ture Con­sul­tants that com­bines 10 nights in Cape Town (or other cities), two soc­cer matches in Cat­e­gory 1 (best) seats, and a four-night game safari at Thorny­bush Pri­vate Game Lodge in Thorny­bush Nature Reserve near Kruger National Park. The land-only price is $7,820 per person.

Africa Adven­ture Consultant’s pres­i­dent Kent Red­ding is see­ing an uptick in book­ings for the period sur­round­ing the World Cup. “Now is cer­tainly the time for soc­cer fans to make World Cup Africa travel plans, as we’re already see­ing lim­ited avail­abil­ity at some hotels through­out South Africa. With the recent news from Lon­don regard­ing bogus tick­ets, it’s also impor­tant to pur­chase your travel pack­ages from rep­utable operators.”

In addi­tion to World Cup Africa travel, Denver-based African safari expert Africa Adven­ture Con­sul­tants orga­nizes safari adven­tures through­out East and South­ern Africa, with des­ti­na­tions includ­ing Tan­za­nia, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Namibia, Botswana, Malawi, South Africa, Rwanda, Zam­bia, Vic­to­ria Falls and Ethiopia.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit Africa Aven­ture Con­sul­tants or call 1-(866) 778‑1089.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of Thorny­bush Pri­vate Game Lodge

Today is the first day guests will check in to the new sole-use safari villa, The Home­stead, at &Beyond Phinda Pri­vate Game Reserve in KswaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

If you’ve got a fam­ily of eight or a group of friends, this four suite villa—with its ded­i­cated staff, includ­ing a pri­vate ranger, tracker, but­ler, and pri­vate chef—may be the per­fect spot to mix ele­gant accom­mo­da­tions and high-quality game drives.

You’ll have exclu­sive use of an open 4x4 safari vehi­cle and that means you can go on game dri­ves when­ever you wish—day or night. When you’re not out in the bush, you’ll enjoy loung­ing by the infin­ity pool, exer­cis­ing in the gym, or relax­ing in the beau­ti­ful pub­lic areas of The Homestead.

Rates dur­ing low sea­son are approx­i­mately $3,300 per night for up to four guests or $4,700 per night for five to eight guests. Rates rise in high season.

&Beyond, for­merly CC Africa, owns and oper­ates 46 lux­ury lodges and camps and cre­ates per­son­al­ized travel expe­ri­ences in South Africa, Namibia, Zim­babwe, Botswana, Tan­za­nia, Kenya, and India.

For more infor­ma­tion, visit &Beyond or call 1-(888) 882‑3742.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of &Beyond

South African Air­ways Busi­ness Class Seats

If you were already plan­ning on pur­chas­ing busi­ness class seats for an upcom­ing South African Air­ways flight, this is a deal that will save you a bun­dle. Through SAA’s “Treat Your­self and Your Sweetie” pro­mo­tion, you’ll receive a free com­pan­ion busi­ness class ticket (plus taxes and fuel sur­charges) with the pur­chase one busi­ness class ticket for $9,750 from New York or Wash­ing­ton, D.C. to Johan­nes­burg, Cape Town, East Lon­don, or Port Eliz­a­beth. Slightly higher fares are avail­able to other parts of Africa.

Seats are lim­ited. Com­pan­ion must travel with ticket pur­chaser on the same dates and flights. Min­i­mum stay of five days. Travel must be com­pleted by June 15, 2009.

Call 1-(800) 722‑9675 to book tickets.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo cour­tesy of South African Airways

1. Lay­ers, Lay­ers, Lay­ers: Even though tem­per­a­tures can eas­ily hit over 90 degrees dur­ing the sum­mer and 80 degrees in the win­ter, they can drop sig­nif­i­cantly to the 40s and 50s in the morn­ing and evenings. Lay­er­ing a warm jacket or sweater over t-shirts and tanks can help in keep­ing warm for those morn­ing and evening night safaris.

2. Con­sult with Your Fam­ily Doc­tor: Immu­niza­tion shots such as tetanus and malaria pills are highly insisted upon par­tic­u­larly if your lodge is in a malaria area. Guests trav­el­ing to a game reserve like Shamwari on the East­ern Cape of South Africa are in a malaria free zone.

3. Check Your Pass­port: Vis­it­ing to South Africa requires two com­pletely empty pages in your pass­port along­side each other. For avid glo­be­trot­ters, you can add addi­tional pages to your pass­port for a nom­i­nal fee.

4. Extra Bat­tery with Inter­na­tional Adap­tors for Cam­eras: For all those pic­tures that you will take while on your safari excur­sion to see the “Big Five”—lion, ele­phant, rhino, buf­fa­los, leop­ard, and other fauna make sure you pack adapters for volt­age 220v round three pin plug. You don’t want to have your cam­era die on you with no way to recharge.

5. Com­fort­able Shoes: For those bush walks or even rid­ing on ele­phants for your safari excur­sion, com­fort­able shoes are a must! Many of the pri­vate lodges offer a vast array of activ­i­ties to view the flora and fauna. Canoe­ing, gyro­copters, rid­ing ATV’s, golf, shoot­ing ranges, and more require you to be able to move com­fort­ably and safely! Camp Jab­u­lani and Sham­bala Game Reserve offers ele­phant back safaris as well as walk­ing safaris.

6. Bring a Swim­suit: Most lodges in South Africa boast a cool swim­ming pool to help keep the heat at bay dur­ing a hot after­noon. Make sure you bring that two-piece out while loung­ing at the main pool or at your own pri­vate plunge pool.

7. Books, Music While Fly­ing: The flight to South Africa tends to be a jour­ney itself but is worth it for this once in a life­time expe­ri­ence to see the wild bush in Africa. Make sure you have some­thing to enter­tain you while on the flight over. Most air­lines head­ing to South Africa offer the lat­est movies to help ease the time in the air.

8. Dona­tions: Many of the game reserves do an incred­i­ble amount of com­mu­nity work at under priv­i­leged schools, thus any dona­tion of old clothes, sta­tion­ary, pens, pen­cils, etc. would be well appre­ci­ated. Sabi Sabi Pri­vate Game Reserve and the Bush­man Com­pany have many ongo­ing com­mu­nity projects that help sup­port the local school communities.

9. Dri­ving: It is highly rec­om­mended to hire dri­vers while vis­it­ing South Africa as they drive on the other side of the road as in the United King­dom. Please keep in mind the min­i­mum age is 21 to hire vehicle.

10. Cur­rency: In South Africa, the cur­rency is the South African Rand. Make sure to exchange your dol­lars for the rand to bring home a souvenir.

11. Sun­block & Insect Repel­lant: A must when out in the African bush.

12. If Time Isn’t an Issue: You can avoid jet­lag and stretch your legs by break­ing up the 19 hour flight by fly­ing to Lon­don for a one night stay. From there you may take a direct flight to South Africa where you will arrive feel­ing refresh and well adjusted to the time difference.

—Mont­gomery Com­mu­ni­ca­tions for LuxurySafariExperts.com

Photo of white lion cour­tesy of Sabona/Montgomery Com­mu­ni­ca­tions

Read travel writer Michael Wines’ sug­ges­tions for spend­ing 36 hours in Cape Town, South Africa. This story was pub­lished in today’s New York Times.

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com

With South Africa trip plan­ning on my mind these days, it’s no won­der I’ve become much more inter­ested in the ani­mals and habi­tats of the areas we’ll be vis­it­ing: specif­i­cally, Tim­ba­vati and Sabi Sands. When I came across Chris McBride’s book, The White Lions of Tim­ba­vati, I couldn’t wait to read it. Even though this book was pub­lished in the mid-1970s, it will be of inter­est to any­one who’s grap­pled with wildlife con­ser­va­tion issues.

I read this book a few days ago and, to be hon­est, I haven’t stopped think­ing about the white lions since. Here’s the gist of the book: In the 1970s, Chris McBride was pur­su­ing his degree in con­ser­va­tion man­age­ment. For his the­sis, he decided to doc­u­ment the daily life of a lion pride in the Tim­ba­vati Pri­vate Game Reserve. Dur­ing his first few weeks in the bush near Kruger National Park, he tracked the pride’s move­ments, doc­u­mented its kills, noted how the lions inter­acted with each other, etc.

A few weeks into the study, McBride dis­cov­ered some­thing shock­ing: two white lions were born to a pride lioness. These cubs were not albino lions, but true white lions. Through­out the ages, African lore has talked about white lions but very few have been doc­u­mented. In fact, it has been decades since the last sight­ing. So, this dis­cov­ery was some­thing spe­cial. While sci­ence long ago unrav­eled the rea­son for the white coat—a reces­sive gene car­ried by one parent—seeing a white lion in the wild is no less mys­ti­cal today than it was a hun­dred years ago.

As the cubs grew, McBride became increas­ingly con­cerned for their safety: Would they be able to hunt with­out the cam­ou­flage of a tawny-colored coat? Would poach­ers invade Tim­ba­vati to kill these white lions for their dis­tinc­tive and unusual coats?

The book ends when the cubs are still quite young and McBride is still strug­gling with the idea that he may need to cap­ture and relo­cate the white lions for their own safety.

Of course, I was curi­ous to find out what hap­pened to the lions so I Googled to learn more and, among other things, found that McBride fol­lowed up The White Lions of Tim­ba­vati with a sec­ond book, Oper­a­tion White Lion. I tracked down a used copy and it should arrive any day. I look for­ward to read­ing McBride’s account of the events that tran­spired dur­ing this time period. I’ve since read many view­points on the Inter­net; some agree with McBride’s deci­sions while oth­ers couldn’t oppose more strongly.

Some of what I learned is heart­break­ing. I won’t share it here in case you want the oppor­tu­nity to read these books for your­self first. How­ever, I will write more about these mag­nif­i­cent white lions once I read Oper­a­tion White Lion.

In the mean­time, if you’re inter­ested in learn­ing more, you can pur­chase McBride’s two books from any used book retailer (Ama­zon, Powells.com, AbeBooks.com, etc.).

—Andrea M. Rotondo for LuxurySafariExperts.com