Learning about ourselves and nature from the Kaimanawa wild horses
In the mid-1990s Wayne Linklater landed a job researching the bands of wild horses that lived in New Zealand’s largest military training grounds near Waiouru. For the next four years he observed foals born, the love between stallions, mares and their offspring, and also violence, loyalty, betrayal and courage, all played out against an astounding landscape.
Linklater started out believing in the objectivity of conservation science and that free-roaming horses were a harmful, invasive species. But those four years taught him differently.
Clear-eyed and backed by deep science, this moving book is about the fascinating history and lives of wild horses, about the bonds between horses and humans, and about becoming a different sort of conservationist. This is nature writing of a very high order.
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‘It is an effortless read, combining rigorous science with compelling storytelling. What makes this work so exceptional is the unprecedented level of immersion behind it . . . The insights gained are both profound and unparalleled, providing readers with a rare window into the lives of wild horses.’ — Kelly Wilson, bestselling author and wild horse advocate
‘Packed with deeply moving personal stories impeccably woven into the latest science about horse behaviour, Linklater offers a highly readable page-turning book and captures what it is like to be a horse — their unique personalities, their rich cognitive and emotional lives, and what they need from us to thrive in an increasingly human-dominated world.’ — Marc Bekoff, PhD, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals
‘A memoir and a manifesto, this chronicle of years spent with New Zealand’s wild horses is a fitting homage to a population dismissed as “pests” but better seen, in Linklater’s telling, as one beautiful facet of the kaleidoscopic, infinitely complex, always-changing multi-species patterns we call nature. A must-read for horse enthusiasts, students of the practice of field ecology and science-policy interactions, and anyone involved with wildlife management.’ — Emma Marris
