Wild Dog; African Rhinoceros and The Aardvark

Leigh's description of the wild dogs captures the independent and fearless spirit that is shown in his illustration, 'The animals, now accustomed to us, flattered us by paying no atteniton to us - all, that is, but the wild dog. A pack of them came several times to the crest of the hill above to yelp at me. They are the gangsters of the plains; they never go singly-never attack save in numbers. They are so swift and bold that they will surround even a lion, pile upon him, and eat him up. They are greatly feared; for they show little discrimination; a man is just as good grub as anything else.' (W.R. Leigh, Frontiers of Enchantment, London, 1939, p. 140 and 142).

The image of the rhinoceros is featured in the final chapter of the book when Leigh was at Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania even though Leigh did not see rhinoceros here despite the ideal environment, 'It was ideal rhino country - one might appear anywhere, under any bush. A rhino lying down may very easily be mistaken for a rock, but hard as we looked we did not discover a single one.' (op. cit., p. 274).

Leigh described the unusual eating habits of the aardvark thus, 'There was not an ant in sight. Why? What had become of them all? Possibly they had been disposed of by the ant eating aardvark, which draws them out of their nests by suction, making a loud, raucous noise, which I was told may frequently be heard at night.' (op. cit., p. 54).