{"title":"Travel--Africa--Central","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"venomous-river-changing-climate-imperiled-forests-and-a-scientists-race-to-find-new-species-in-the-congo","title":"Venomous River: Changing Climate, Imperiled Forests, and a Scientist's Race to Find New Species in the Congo","description":"\u003cb\u003eJoin herpetologist Eli Greenbaum on his race to identify a multitude of unidentified species in the Congo, a volatile African region overcome with population pressure, military oppression, and climate change. These are the backdrop challenges to the science pursued by Dr. Greenbuam in this timely work worthy of Darwin.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eVenomous River\u003c\/i\u003e chronicles a field scientist's search for new species in the Congo Basin, one of the world's great crucibles of biodiversity, in the face of climate change. Although tropical forests cover less than 10 percent of Earth's land surface, they are home to about two-thirds of the planet's terrestrial biodiversity. Unfortunately, a ballooning human population has severely damaged half of the planet's pristine ecosystems and the biodiversity they contained, leading to an unfolding sixth mass extinction. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In Joseph Conrad's famous 1899 novella \u003ci\u003eHeart of Darkness\u003c\/i\u003e, he described the Congo River as \"a great snake.\" More than a century later, herpetologist, evolutionary biologist, and seasoned expedition leader Eli Greenbaum set out to find the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (Congo for short) incredible diversity of serpents in the flesh, along with the country's rarest frogs, lizards, crocodiles, and turtles, which live in and along Africa's second-largest river. For a biologist, an expedition into the heart of the Congo is a priceless gift, with its incredible species, known and unknown, lurking around every bend in the river. But the Congo is also a place of endemic political instability, widespread corruption, human suffering, and extraordinary danger. These, as much as the challenges of the natural world, confront any scientist doing field work in the Congo. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003ci\u003eVenomous River\u003c\/i\u003e is the harrowing story of a biodiversity scientist's successful quest to discover several new amphibian and reptile species in the remotest heart of Africa, a wilderness where he encounters friendly peoples, a cook who is revealed to be a dangerous killer, highly venomous snakes and scorpions, deadly tropical diseases, and troubling echoes of the Congo's colonial history.\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 0826368247\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9780826368249\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Greenbaum, Eli, N\/A, N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: High Road Books\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"High Road Books","offers":[{"title":"HardCover (Oct 2025)","offer_id":45658202046661,"sku":"9780826368249","price":28.45,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9780826368249.jpg?v=1768898693"},{"product_id":"okavango-and-the-source-of-life-exploring-africas-lost-headwaters","title":"Okavango and the Source of Life: Exploring Africa's Lost Headwaters","description":"\u003cb\u003eGorgeous photos, detailed maps, and a moving personal narrative narrate grueling expeditions to the source of Africa's famous Okavango Delta, a sanctuary of biodiversity. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eExplorers discover signs of Angola's ghost elephants--presumed extinct after decades of civil war but now reappearing in the highlands wilderness. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFollow intrepid explorer Steve Boyes as he leads the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness Project, documenting the little-known lakes and rivers flowing through central Africa to the vast Okavango, a region supporting the world's largest elephant population as well as lions, cheetahs, and hundreds of bird species. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFor miles on end of twisting waterways and leech-filled swamps, Boyes and his fellow explorers pole their flatboats with only satellite imagery and hippo trails to guide them. Sometimes they must drag their boats through dense bush or mud-thick waters. An angry hippo threatens to overturn the caravan; swarms of bees dive-bomb explorers' ears and eyelashes. In Angola, closed off by war for decades, the team tracks ghost elephants--a subspecies thought to have disappeared forever. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBy day they press on, by night they camp under the stars. Lions roar and hyenas howl in the distance. Locals become friends and fellow travelers--guardians of the rivers, sharing generational knowledge of these waters they call the \"source of life.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eWith more than 100 photographs and maps, including a foreword by Prince Harry and portraits of local wisdom keepers, this beautiful book provides a glimpse of primeval wilderness still thriving on the planet--and the grit of explorers determined to preserve it.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"display:none\"\u003eISBN-10: 1426224079\u003cbr\u003eISBN-13: 9781426224072\u003cbr\u003eAuthor: Boyes, Steve\u003cbr\u003ePublisher: National Geographic Society\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"National Geographic Society","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover (Mar 2026)","offer_id":46099984515269,"sku":"9781426224072","price":47.5,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0708\/6414\/2533\/files\/9781426224072.jpg?v=1776647078"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.inveni.store\/collections\/travel-africa-central.oembed","provider":"Inveni","version":"1.0","type":"link"}