The Circle of Life

These extraordinary photographs by two brothers, Anup and Manoj Shah, take the reader on a spectacular journey into the heart of the African savannah, concentrating on the Serengeti-Maasai Mara and Ngorongoro Crater regions in Kenya and Tanzania. The Shah brothers' breathtaking images chronicle life and death in one of the most fascinating and complex eco-systems in the world, a place left largely untouched by man. Here lions, giraffes, elephants, zebras, cheetahs, hippos, hyenas, baboons, wildebeests, and thousands of other species give birth, play, hunt, feed, groom, sleep, mate, migrate, and die in the dramatic scenes played out on these pages.

Anup Shah's text complements the images, starting with the most basic elements necessary for life on the savannah and gradually building up to the intricate, dynamic interactions between the plants and animals in the food chain and their environment. Every aspect of daily life is touched on: evolution and natural selection, sex and mating rituals, birth and motherhood, staying alive and getting along, predators and prey, herds and social groups. In the final chapters the reader discovers that in death all living things return to the soil, where it all began, thus completing the circle of life.

Anup and Manoj Shah, sons of Indian parents, were born and raised in Kenya. They were educated at universities in England, but they soon returned to Kenya, where they turned their love for its land and wildlife into successful careers as photographers. Their award-winning photographs have appeared in numerous magazines including National Geographic, National Wildlife, Natural History, and Nature's Best.