Bringing Back the Lions

International Hunters, Local Tribespeople, and the Miraculous Rescue of a Doomed Ecosystem in Mozambique

By: Mike Arnold

Narrated by: Kelly Klaas

This book is the never-before-told story of the dream to set up camp in a vast African wasteland and return it to its former glory as one of the world's premier wildlands.

Outdoor writer Mike Arnold takes us on an impressionistic journey through Coutada 11, a once again magnificent natural area in Mozambique's Zambeze Delta. Mike leads us from its poached-out days as a source of bush meat for starving villagers and civil war military troops to the arrival in the early '90s of hunting outfitter Mark Haldane and his partners, on their often perilous, sometimes hilarious, travails to take the defiled and uninhabitable place and make it whole again.

Through Mike's encounters with Haldane and his crew of scientists, guides, and motor-cycle-riding poacher patrols—with local villagers who were an integral part from the beginning—and, of course, with the apex predators, birds, and game animals that 30 years ago no one could have imagined thriving in this locale, this book serves as proof that a small group of dedicated people can make all the difference, and dreams can come true.

©2022 Mike Arnold (P)2022 Mike Arnold

Must read for anti trophy hunter and hunters alike!

This is a must read anyone who is anti hunting. And is also a great read for true conservationists and hunters. It’s very well written and tells a story of not just the return of the lions but how true conservation and hunting work to not only help wildlife area survive but thrive. With much lower impact by man and his foot print. A must read for anyone on both sides of the Trophy hunting fence!

A successful conservation initiative of magnitude

This is a complete conservation story bringing together what many of us have heard or read in pieces from multiple sources over the years. The value of wildlife to international hunters and local people, the collaboration of a small team of dedicated, insightful individuals, visionary philanthropists providing a means of funding, the necessary and constructive behavior modifications of affected people, and wise and willing government officials resulting in a wonderfully told story of rebirth, restoration, and rejuvenation.
Anyone with a passion for conservation, the hunt, proper balancing of the ecosystem, and reversing the "scars upon the land" from past generations will get enjoyment and find enlightenment from this book.