My friends the baboons

Marais, journalist, poet, scholar and scientist, spent over three years studying the chacma baboons in the wild. At the time he began his work he was able to study a troop of baboons who had never known man. The four-year Boer War removed the settlers, and the tribe led a life undisturbed, with no fear of their modern and most devastating predators, the farmers. Marais was indeed fortunate to watch this animal society in an absolutely natural environment. What they did and how they organised their lives together, how they expressed themselves, and above all, their 'instinctive' reactions, made Marais draw conclusions on the development of animal and human psyche which caused debate in scientific circles. The keenness of his observations is magnificently matched by his compassionate prose. Even the weight of his conclusions is expressed in language so eloquently moving that the very style of the book makes it a treasure to read and possess.