Books & Music
Husband-and-wife team Chris and Mathilde Stuart have published more than 20 guidebooks over the years. Their latest, Stuarts’ Field Guide to National Parks & Nature Reserves of South Africa, is a thoroughly revised and updated edition of the 2012 original. It’s an essential guide to the natural history, geology, vegetation and wildlife of 43 local wilderness destinations. Chris Stuart tells us more.
Where does your passion for nature come from? It began when I was about four years old, living in northern England, and later developed into a hobby and a career as a researcher. Since 1984 I’ve been a consultant, writer, photographer and wanderer. I did an MSc degree at the University of Natal, as it was called back then, and Mathilde qualified as a doctor at Innsbruck University in Austria. We met in Grahamstown in 1983 and after we travelled to Namibia together, the die was cast.
What are the most significant updates in this new book? We focused mainly on updating and replacing a number of maps where park boundaries or roads had changed, adding new facts relating to infrastructure and including new fauna, either because of new discoveries or because of reintroductions. An online checklist was available with the first edition and although the publishers decided not to continue with this, we continue to expand and update it on our website ( stuartonnature.com) as new information becomes available.
Did you visit all 43 parks and reserves? Yes, we’ve done multiple trips to all the parks and reserves featured. For this update, we once again visited all the conservation areas.
Which aspect of the research do you enjoy most? We thoroughly enjoy being away from the office. The wilder, the better! Before embarking on any new book or app project, we do our “desktop research”: checking the latest information available in both popular and scientific literature. Then we head into the field for as long as possible. In these days of modern technology, the office is fully mobile, which means we can spend longer periods away from our Karoo and Austrian bases.
Any new findings during your recent park visits? There’s always something new to discover, but sadly one also discovers negative changes. In Skukuza in the Kruger, there was a colony of Wahlberg’s fruit bats in the vicinity of the restaurant and shop. But when we visited last, we saw that the roost structures had been torn down. An opportunity has certainly been lost to educate the public about the crucial role of bats in an ecosystem. People first, animals last?
What are the rewards of working together? Brainstorming picnics on a Friday evening in the Karoo; sundowners somewhere wild while discussing new plans and projects…
If you had to choose one park for a holiday, which would be it? We enjoy the quieter parks, or the isolated cottages within the busier parks. The ones we visit most are the Karoo National Park (Afsaal cottage), Mokala National Park (Haak-en-Steek cottage) and the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. Mathilde and I like peace and quiet, lots of thinking time and we have little interest in access to shops and restaurants. Main camps generally hold no appeal for us.
What makes your book unique? It’s the only guide currently available that covers the natural history of all the parks and reserves in South Africa. Most others focus on one park in particular, or they emphasize facilities and infrastructure.
Your South African base is Loxton in the Karoo. Why? It is small, quiet, central within South Africa, and we have a special love of arid and semi-arid areas. We first established a base here in January 1995, but we’re often away – sometimes for two weeks or six months; once for three years!
Next project in the pipeline? We recently ventured into the world of apps for phones and smart devices. We’ve just completed three: Stuarts’ Southern African Mammals, Stuarts’ African Mammals (both available for iOS and Android) and Stuarts’ Mammals of North America (so far only available for iOS; Android coming soon). We’re busy working on similar apps for Europe and South America. The beauty of digital is that you can update your product on a regular basis. The downside of course is it means we have to work harder!
Stuarts’ Field Guide to National Parks & Nature Reserves of South Africa is published by Struik Nature and costs R300 in bookstores. Visit stuartonnature.com