Anthony Ham - The Man Who Loved Pink Dolphins

The Last Lions of Africa is a gem It takes you on a different journeymore informative and spiritual in the telling than any I have read to date. If you think you know lions already, you are about to take your knowledge to another level. What magic he conjures up for us. A wonderful book packed with lyrical insights on the worlds most iconic large carnivore a classic.Jonathan and Angela Scott, Presenters of Big Cat Tales and founders of the Sacred Nature Initiative

Vastly important.David Quammen, author of Spillover, The Song of the Dodo and Breathless

This is a remarkable book. In it are piercing, hard-won stories no one else is telling.John Vaillant, author of The Tiger and The Golden Spruce

The best book on lions I have read in ages. Thoroughly recommended for all big cat fanatics!Brian Jackman, author of The Marsh Lions and West with the Light

This wonderful book has an elegiac tone and it shows in convincing detail how unlikely we are to preserve wilderness already in my lifetime.Lee Kofman, author of The Writer Laid Bare

Urgent and important. This moving tale with a heroic cast of characters, leonine and human, is a must-read for anyone passionate about wildlife and wild places.Tony Park, author of Last Survivor

A moving journey Ham is a beautiful storyteller.Australian Womens Weekly

This is gripping, insightful, evocative and ultimately heartbreaking reading.Travel Africa

The Last Lions of Africa is much more than a tale about the struggle to save the lion from extinction. What makes it so rewarding and gives it mythic resonance is the way Ham captures the intimate, complex interrelationships between humansfarmers, villagers, hunters, conservationistsand these proud, awe-inspiring beasts.Sydney Morning Herald (syndicated to The Age)

A gripping campfire story indeed these regal lords of their world are brought vividly to life by this exceptional writer and very brave man.The Chronicle

A wake-up call on how close lions are to becoming extinct what cannot be disputed is the incredible lengths Ham went to to tell this important story.The Weekly Times

An extraordinary and poignant account of one mans love of the world of lions Through the vivid storytelling, we are enlightened, entertained and become engaged with the fate of these embattled creatures and the surprising ways they might be saved.PS News

A fascinating and thought-provoking read about these majestic creatures in peril.Booklover Book Reviews

Richly written in beautifully evocative language, this is a riveting love song to the plight of lions, beautiful and confronting.Great Escape Books

First published in 2022

Copyright 2022 Anthony Ham

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The Australian Copyright Act 1968 (the Act) allows a maximum of one chapter or 10 per cent of this book, whichever is the greater, to be photocopied by any educational institution for its educational purposes provided that the educational institution (or body that administers it) has given a remuneration notice to the Copyright Agency (Australia) under the Act.

Some names have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals and their families.

Allen & Unwin

83 Alexander Street

Crows Nest NSW 2065

Australia

Phone:(61 2) 8425 0100

Email:

Web: www.allenandunwin.com

ISBN 978 1 76106 551 4

eISBN 978 1 76106 485 2

Map by Flat Earth Mapping

Internal design by Post Pre-press

Set by Post Pre-press Group, Australia

Cover design: Christabella Designs

Cover photograph: Getty Images

For Marina

2018

Its difficult when the person who promises to kill you lives just across the water.

This wasnt the first time that someone had threatened Christopher Clark: in the Brazilian Amazon, warnings of ones demise come with the territory. Clark had been in the Amazon for more than three decades. He knew that, out on the frontier where the nearest road can be hundreds of kilometres away, danger can come in many forms. There was little point seeking protection from the local authorities. In Clarks experience, even when you could find them, it was not always obvious whose side they were on.

There was the time when military police wielding machine-guns, their faces hidden behind balaclavas, raided his remote hut at Xixua (pronounced shish-wa-OO), many miles north of the Rio Negro. Or local politicians would turn up and threaten to burn down his house. And yet, so fluid was the Amazons tangle of loyalties, so real were the threats, that there were times when the authorities tried to protect him. Marina Silva, who was at the time Brazils Minister of the Environment, once implored Clark to accept federal police protection. He turned her down because, well, there just didnt seem to be much point. The houses here are open, he told me. Even if youve got a couple of police guys, it wouldnt have been at all difficult to kill me.

Sometimes the threats were thinly veiled rumours that were no less frightening because they were delivered second- or third-hand. Everybody was talking about it, saying They want rid of you or They dont want you here, Clark explained, years later. Just as often, the threats were more explicit, part and parcel of Amazon-style politics. Youre going to get a bullet in the back, a local politician once warned him. Even now, Clark knows how easy it would be to eliminate an enemy. If I wanted somebody to kill you, I could get it done for hundreds of reais, he told me. Not thousands of reais; hundreds of reais.

But this time, the threat was different.

On 17 July 2018, a local turtle hunter named Agostinho da Silva (not his real name) left the village across the lagoon from Clarks house and paddled his canoe to Clarks boat landing. Clark was in Novo Airo, the nearest major town and a two-day journey downriver, at the time. Only Marianaa local woman, and Clarks cook and family friendwas there. Agostinho shouted at her to leave, told her he was going to set fire to Clarks home. Mariana stood her ground. Agostinho was enraged. According to a police report of the incident, he smashed one of Clarks canoes. He then told Mariana, speaking of Clark: The place and hour of his death have been decided!

Unlike earlier threats, this one was personal, and followed a form well known in these parts. It is a chilling tradition in the Amazon, wrote Andrew Revkin in The Burning Season, his account of the murder of Amazon activist Chico Mendes in 1988, that the victim is always given notice that his life is scheduled to be taken, as if he were an employee being terminated. An anncio, as such a death notice is called, is not so much a threat as a statement of fact. It is meant to prolong the victims torment as he waits for the inevitable.

When news of the threat reached Clark in Novo Airo, he went to the local police station to file a report. Later the same day, as Clark was leaving a local grocery store in town with his adult daughter, Cathleen, a man approached. He got into their car, and told them that he planned to kill them.