Hey, good lookin’...
Beauty, as we know, is in the eye of the beholder. Our cover star this month may have a wound disfiguring his features, but I’m sure most of us would agree that Scarface is one beautiful beast, who wears his history on his face for all to see. But, Jonathan and Angela Scott explain, as this lion king’s reign comes to an end, so is the modern world changing the face of the Maasai Mara. The story starts on p66. It’s been something of a recurring theme this issue, beauty. Our feature on India’s greater adjutant (p52), for example, tells of a bird pushed almost to the edge of extinction simply because many people think it’s an ugly brute. And surely there are few things as ugly as markets selling wild animals for human consumption. Could their role in spreading diseases such as COVID-19, SARS, HIV and Ebola mean that wildlife markets are to become a thing of the past? We investigate on page 38. Enjoy the issue – we like to think it’s a beauty!