An incredible story by an incredible man working hard to save South African wildlife.

I am always a sucker for books about wildlife and this one set in my home country about a issue near and dear to my heart (fighting the scurge of wildlife poaching) made this an unforgettable read.

This was an excellent, fun-to-read book. I requested this one on a lark, but I'm glad I got the opportunity to read it. It was definitely worth my time.

Conraad de Rosner is an anti poaching game ranger who battles against nasty poachers that deal in endangered species like pangolin and rhinos with the most surprising and unorthodox methods . He uses his own animals to help protect other animals and it’s actually brilliant and effective! His beautiful dog Zingela saved his life multiple times, even from crooked rangers working with poachers. Then horrifically, Zingela is killed and Con must move his attentions to Landa, one of Zingela’s pup, who is trained to become the next leader of a team of dogs Con uses to keep the poachers away from the animals he protects. All of this becomes a sweeping and epic story of an endless struggle to save creatures that are being trafficked to extinction due to the greed of Humans. It’s enthralling, well written, and very sad in many places but also hopeful. Excellent book. Great for dog lovers and conservationists.

Wow, just wow!!! This book was Amazing!! I loved learning about these heroic animals and the people fighting with and for them!

What a wonderful book.
The story takes us on a journey through the authors life navigating the South African bush with his trusty dogs by his side.

The relationship between man and dog flows through out and highlights just how amazing dogs are.

The stark reality of the poaching problem that threatens wildlife in SA is documented and we see how often the author has been in danger.

Highly recommend this rollercoaster of a story. I'm getting a copy for my husband to read.

This book piqued my interested because of its subject: dogs and wildlife. I had never given thought to dogs being a part of wildlife protection, though of course it makes sense, and I enjoyed this book very much. It's a good book to share if you know someone who loves to learn new things and loves animals.

Called by the Wild is a wild ride in itself! Conraad de Rosner regales the reader with stories of his life in the varied terrain of South Africa, from boyhood through the time the book was written, at fifty years of age. Living and working mainly in Limpopo province, de Rosner’s reverence and respect for the land and creatures who live on it is palpable. His life’s work is as a game ranger, protecting rhinos, elephants, and all other wildlife from the illegal killing for bushmeat, and body parts sold chiefly for falsely claimed medicinal purposes. It is shocking how bold poachers are, attempting to assassinate rangers and others who protect the animals. He escaped multiple attempts on his life as well as deadly encounters with wildlife. De Rosner relates many tales of close communing with dangerous animals in an almost mystical connection, again showing his respect and love for these creatures.
De Rosner pioneered the use of dogs in anti-poaching in the bush, an effort that has been highly successful. Conservation groups in other countries have used his K9 Conservation to train and provide dogs for their use. The narration of his devotion to his first dog, Zingela, is poignant. He also discovered and documented many newfound sites of San rock art, ancient paintings and carvings found in the caves and rock shelters. After his first sighting, he actively sought out new locations.
This book kept me enthralled from cover to cover, and I was sad that I had reached the end. It is something I will reread, likely quite soon.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ad Lib Publishers for this ARC.

This is an incredible, well written story of a man dedicated to saving wild animals and conservation. Conrad is South African and set up K9 Conservation, using specially trained dogs to track poachers. It's a tough and brutal job with more to fear from humans than from animals. I highly recommend this to animal lovers and anyone interested in the struggle to protect wildlife from the human race. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.

I love wild and crazy and weird stories, which is why I mostly read fiction. Fortunately, I’ve never been the kind of reader whose enjoyment of a story is contingent on the story’s level of believability. Sometimes, for me, the crazier and wackier the story, the better. I get more than enough reality every day in my personal and professional life, hence, my love and fascination with urban-fantasy, sci-fi and the paranormal genres.

Even on those rare occasions that I do pick up a non-fiction book or story, it too is a subject that I love and am fascinated with, at the moment. The last few non-fiction books that I’ve read were on diet, exercise, and dogs. While my interest in maintaining a healthy lifestyle has had a tendency to fluctuate over the years, my love for dogs never has. I was born and raised in a family and a home with dogs and have spent most of my adult life as a dog mama, even married two husbands who were both doggie daddies. I have a lifetime of wonderful memories of all of my fur babies and a knowledge of just how amazing and fascinating dogs truly are.

Anyway, it’s not much of a stretch that someone like me would be fascinated by the story of training dogs to catch animal poachers in the wilds of Africa. The book summary isn’t more than just an introduction to the prologue (written by de Rosner’s mother) of this book on the life of Conraad de Rosner, wildlife conservationist, dog trainer, artist, writer, son and husband. Conraad grew up in a conservationist family on both sides of his parents. Growing up in Africa is a tough life and it certainly prepared him, as well as led him to, the life he has now. The first chapter described a scene where he and his dog Zingela came up on poachers who were tracking Conraad in order to kill him for reporting them and their poaching crimes to the authorities. Zingela saved Conraad’s life that day and that was when Conraad decided to start training dogs to track poachers.

The next seven chapters (about 30% mark) go back to Conraad’s childhood (70’s) and into his early 30’s (early 2000’s). This section is filled with stories about growing up in the wilds of Africa and his time spent working on many of Africa’s wildlife reserves and ecotourist destinations as well as his time on anti-poaching units (APU). There are stories of being stalked by leopards and lions and charged at by buffalo and wildebeests. There was a really amazing story of sharing a beautiful and scenic view of the horizon with a leopard who walked up beside Conraad as he was sitting on a boulder meditating. There was another story of sharing a peaceful moment in a cave with another wild animal who let Conraad walk away unscathed. The story of coming up to a kill site where two lionesses and their cubs were feasting on their kill was a really intense and scary story too!

The rest of the first half catches up to when Conraad gets a Weimaraner puppy and names him Zingela. Conraad and Zingela spent seven wonderful years together working and training to not only track poachers, but Conraad also trained Zingela to track by scent. Zingela not only could track all the wild animals in their territories by their scent, but he could also track specific animals by their blood. This was absolutely essential when going on veterinarian runs to find and treat sick and injured animals.

It's into the second half that Conraad’s plan to start a K9 conservation team of his own gets sidelined. He is devasted by Zingela’s death and even having Zingela’s son Landa doesn’t help – at first. Eventually, he gets back on track and starts to train Landa to follow in his fathers footsteps. Conraad also starts his K9 conservation APU security team with just Landa and a couple of other dogs. It’s not long before he starts adding more handlers/APU trackers and their dogs and their successes begin to become legendary among not only the wildlife reserves and local farmers, but the poaching gangs and syndicates take notice.

Life in the wilds of Africa running a conservation APU security team is a dangerous life – EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! It’s important work too, because the battle between conservationists and APU security teams and their tracking dogs and the poaching syndicates and gangs still rages as much as ever. These APU of trackers and their dogs are making a difference. Conraad’s K9 Conservation organization’s success become so well known, APU organizations from other countries employ K9 Conservation for training and dogs to combat their own poaching syndicates.

While it’s not necessary to repeat the GR warning of violence, I will confirm that there are a lot of descriptive scenes of what poachers do to animals. There are also what I call the “circle of life” scenes of predatory animals tracking and stalking other animals in order to survive and to feed their young and their packs. There are also descriptive scenes of poachers who are killed by wildlife rangers in self-defense. In the world of wildlife conservation, survival can come down to kill or be killed.

I want to thank NetGalley and Ad Lib Publishers for sending me this eARC of an absolutely fascinating story in exchange for my honest review about an incredible man with a vision and the amazing dogs he has had the honor of working with.

#NetGalley #AdLibPublishers #CalledbytheWild

Don't judge a book by its cover! When I looked at the title of this book and the cover photo I was expecting something like a modern day Old Yeller. Called by the Wild is about Mr. de Rosner's life as a game ranger to protect wildlife from poachers. I learned a lot in this book about how awful the poaching industry is and what a threat this industry is to biodiversity.

Mr. de Rosner started an organization that trained dogs to protect wildlife utilizing a variety of skills including the ability to identify scents. I was not prepared for the extreme violence that is inherent to game ranging that is described in detail throughout the book. I also struggled a bit to understand how game rangers collaborate with law enforcement. Nonetheless, this is a unique book to learn about an important issue.

Thank you to NetGalley and Ad Lib Publishers for an advanced reader copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.