What do you think?
Rate this book
Called by the Wild: The Dogs Trained to Protect Wildlife
The thrilling story of a pioneering conservationist working with dogs to protect wildlife from poachers
Conraad de Rosner is a pioneering game ranger, working with dogs to protect wildlife against poachers – both ‘bushmeat’ poachers, who use cruel snares to trap animals, and criminal syndicates killing for rhinoceros horn and capturing critically endangered pangolins, the most trafficked animal in the world.
Con’s life – constantly at risk from poachers, wildlife and even his own fellow rangers – has been saved on numerous occasions by his devoted canine companions. His first dog, Zingela, a Weimaraner, saved Con from near certain death at the hands of two fellow rangers; on another occasion, Zingela alerted Con to a concealed wounded buffalo, one of Africa’s most dangerous animals, about to charge.
When Zingela was tragically killed, hit by a car while Con was away, the only meagre consolation was that Con had kept Landa, one of the nine puppies sired by Zingela. Landa followed in his father’s footsteps as the leader of the canine anti poaching team that is still operating today.
Con’s story is an epic of modern-day African wildlife conservation, filled with courage, adventure and romance.
*Contains descriptions of violence*
Conraad de Rosner is a pioneering game ranger, working with dogs to protect wildlife against poachers – both ‘bushmeat’ poachers, who use cruel snares to trap animals, and criminal syndicates killing for rhinoceros horn and capturing critically endangered pangolins, the most trafficked animal in the world.
Con’s life – constantly at risk from poachers, wildlife and even his own fellow rangers – has been saved on numerous occasions by his devoted canine companions. His first dog, Zingela, a Weimaraner, saved Con from near certain death at the hands of two fellow rangers; on another occasion, Zingela alerted Con to a concealed wounded buffalo, one of Africa’s most dangerous animals, about to charge.
When Zingela was tragically killed, hit by a car while Con was away, the only meagre consolation was that Con had kept Landa, one of the nine puppies sired by Zingela. Landa followed in his father’s footsteps as the leader of the canine anti poaching team that is still operating today.
Con’s story is an epic of modern-day African wildlife conservation, filled with courage, adventure and romance.
*Contains descriptions of violence*
- GenresNonfiction
320 pages, Paperback
Published November 23, 2023
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 6, 2023
I love wild and crazy and weird stories, which is why I mostly read fiction. Fortunately, I’ve never been the kind of reader whose enjoyment of a story is contingent on the story’s level of believability. Sometimes, for me, the crazier and wackier the story, the better. I get more than enough reality every day in my personal and professional life, hence, my love and fascination with urban-fantasy, sci-fi and the paranormal genres.
Even on those rare occasions that I do pick up a non-fiction book or story, it too is a subject that I love and am fascinated with, at the moment. The last few non-fiction books that I’ve read were on diet, exercise, and dogs. While my interest in maintaining a healthy lifestyle has had a tendency to fluctuate over the years, my love for dogs never has. I was born and raised in a family and a home with dogs and have spent most of my adult life as a dog mama, even married two husbands who were both doggie daddies. I have a lifetime of wonderful memories of all of my fur babies and a knowledge of just how amazing and fascinating dogs truly are.
Anyway, it’s not much of a stretch that someone like me would be fascinated by the story of training dogs to catch animal poachers in the wilds of Africa. The book summary isn’t more than just an introduction to the prologue (written by de Rosner’s mother) of this book on the life of Conraad de Rosner, wildlife conservationist, dog trainer, artist, writer, son and husband. Conraad grew up in a conservationist family on both sides of his parents. Growing up in Africa is a tough life and it certainly prepared him, as well as led him to, the life he has now. The first chapter described a scene where he and his dog Zingela came up on poachers who were tracking Conraad in order to kill him for reporting them and their poaching crimes to the authorities. Zingela saved Conraad’s life that day and that was when Conraad decided to start training dogs to track poachers.
The next seven chapters (about 30% mark) go back to Conraad’s childhood (70’s) and into his early 30’s (early 2000’s). This section is filled with stories about growing up in the wilds of Africa and his time spent working on many of Africa’s wildlife reserves and ecotourist destinations as well as his time on anti-poaching units (APU). There are stories of being stalked by leopards and lions and charged at by buffalo and wildebeests. There was a really amazing story of sharing a beautiful and scenic view of the horizon with a leopard who walked up beside Conraad as he was sitting on a boulder meditating. There was another story of sharing a peaceful moment in a cave with another wild animal who let Conraad walk away unscathed. The story of coming up to a kill site where two lionesses and their cubs were feasting on their kill was a really intense and scary story too!
The rest of the first half catches up to when Conraad gets a Weimaraner puppy and names him Zingela. Conraad and Zingela spent seven wonderful years together working and training to not only track poachers, but Conraad also trained Zingela to track by scent. Zingela not only could track all the wild animals in their territories by their scent, but he could also track specific animals by their blood. This was absolutely essential when going on veterinarian runs to find and treat sick and injured animals.
It's into the second half that Conraad’s plan to start a K9 conservation team of his own gets sidelined. He is devasted by Zingela’s death and even having Zingela’s son Landa doesn’t help – at first. Eventually, he gets back on track and starts to train Landa to follow in his fathers footsteps. Conraad also starts his K9 conservation APU security team with just Landa and a couple of other dogs. It’s not long before he starts adding more handlers/APU trackers and their dogs and their successes begin to become legendary among not only the wildlife reserves and local farmers, but the poaching gangs and syndicates take notice.
Life in the wilds of Africa running a conservation APU security team is a dangerous life – EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! It’s important work too, because the battle between conservationists and APU security teams and their tracking dogs and the poaching syndicates and gangs still rages as much as ever. These APU of trackers and their dogs are making a difference. Conraad’s K9 Conservation organization’s success become so well known, APU organizations from other countries employ K9 Conservation for training and dogs to combat their own poaching syndicates.
While it’s not necessary to repeat the GR warning of violence, I will confirm that there are a lot of descriptive scenes of what poachers do to animals. There are also what I call the “circle of life” scenes of predatory animals tracking and stalking other animals in order to survive and to feed their young and their packs. There are also descriptive scenes of poachers who are killed by wildlife rangers in self-defense. In the world of wildlife conservation, survival can come down to kill or be killed.
I want to thank NetGalley and Ad Lib Publishers for sending me this eARC of an absolutely fascinating story in exchange for my honest review about an incredible man with a vision and the amazing dogs he has had the honor of working with.
#NetGalley #AdLibPublishers #CalledbytheWild
Even on those rare occasions that I do pick up a non-fiction book or story, it too is a subject that I love and am fascinated with, at the moment. The last few non-fiction books that I’ve read were on diet, exercise, and dogs. While my interest in maintaining a healthy lifestyle has had a tendency to fluctuate over the years, my love for dogs never has. I was born and raised in a family and a home with dogs and have spent most of my adult life as a dog mama, even married two husbands who were both doggie daddies. I have a lifetime of wonderful memories of all of my fur babies and a knowledge of just how amazing and fascinating dogs truly are.
Anyway, it’s not much of a stretch that someone like me would be fascinated by the story of training dogs to catch animal poachers in the wilds of Africa. The book summary isn’t more than just an introduction to the prologue (written by de Rosner’s mother) of this book on the life of Conraad de Rosner, wildlife conservationist, dog trainer, artist, writer, son and husband. Conraad grew up in a conservationist family on both sides of his parents. Growing up in Africa is a tough life and it certainly prepared him, as well as led him to, the life he has now. The first chapter described a scene where he and his dog Zingela came up on poachers who were tracking Conraad in order to kill him for reporting them and their poaching crimes to the authorities. Zingela saved Conraad’s life that day and that was when Conraad decided to start training dogs to track poachers.
The next seven chapters (about 30% mark) go back to Conraad’s childhood (70’s) and into his early 30’s (early 2000’s). This section is filled with stories about growing up in the wilds of Africa and his time spent working on many of Africa’s wildlife reserves and ecotourist destinations as well as his time on anti-poaching units (APU). There are stories of being stalked by leopards and lions and charged at by buffalo and wildebeests. There was a really amazing story of sharing a beautiful and scenic view of the horizon with a leopard who walked up beside Conraad as he was sitting on a boulder meditating. There was another story of sharing a peaceful moment in a cave with another wild animal who let Conraad walk away unscathed. The story of coming up to a kill site where two lionesses and their cubs were feasting on their kill was a really intense and scary story too!
The rest of the first half catches up to when Conraad gets a Weimaraner puppy and names him Zingela. Conraad and Zingela spent seven wonderful years together working and training to not only track poachers, but Conraad also trained Zingela to track by scent. Zingela not only could track all the wild animals in their territories by their scent, but he could also track specific animals by their blood. This was absolutely essential when going on veterinarian runs to find and treat sick and injured animals.
It's into the second half that Conraad’s plan to start a K9 conservation team of his own gets sidelined. He is devasted by Zingela’s death and even having Zingela’s son Landa doesn’t help – at first. Eventually, he gets back on track and starts to train Landa to follow in his fathers footsteps. Conraad also starts his K9 conservation APU security team with just Landa and a couple of other dogs. It’s not long before he starts adding more handlers/APU trackers and their dogs and their successes begin to become legendary among not only the wildlife reserves and local farmers, but the poaching gangs and syndicates take notice.
Life in the wilds of Africa running a conservation APU security team is a dangerous life – EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! It’s important work too, because the battle between conservationists and APU security teams and their tracking dogs and the poaching syndicates and gangs still rages as much as ever. These APU of trackers and their dogs are making a difference. Conraad’s K9 Conservation organization’s success become so well known, APU organizations from other countries employ K9 Conservation for training and dogs to combat their own poaching syndicates.
While it’s not necessary to repeat the GR warning of violence, I will confirm that there are a lot of descriptive scenes of what poachers do to animals. There are also what I call the “circle of life” scenes of predatory animals tracking and stalking other animals in order to survive and to feed their young and their packs. There are also descriptive scenes of poachers who are killed by wildlife rangers in self-defense. In the world of wildlife conservation, survival can come down to kill or be killed.
I want to thank NetGalley and Ad Lib Publishers for sending me this eARC of an absolutely fascinating story in exchange for my honest review about an incredible man with a vision and the amazing dogs he has had the honor of working with.
#NetGalley #AdLibPublishers #CalledbytheWild
November 21, 2023
Called by the Wild is a wild ride in itself! Conraad de Rosner regales the reader with stories of his life in the varied terrain of South Africa, from boyhood through the time the book was written, at fifty years of age. Living and working mainly in Limpopo province, de Rosner’s reverence and respect for the land and creatures who live on it is palpable. His life’s work is as a game ranger, protecting rhinos, elephants, and all other wildlife from the illegal killing for bushmeat, and body parts sold chiefly for falsely claimed medicinal purposes. It is shocking how bold poachers are, attempting to assassinate rangers and others who protect the animals. He escaped multiple attempts on his life as well as deadly encounters with wildlife. De Rosner relates many tales of close communing with dangerous animals in an almost mystical connection, again showing his respect and love for these creatures.
De Rosner pioneered the use of dogs in anti-poaching in the bush, an effort that has been highly successful. Conservation groups in other countries have used his K9 Conservation to train and provide dogs for their use. The narration of his devotion to his first dog, Zingela, is poignant. He also discovered and documented many newfound sites of San rock art, ancient paintings and carvings found in the caves and rock shelters. After his first sighting, he actively sought out new locations.
This book kept me enthralled from cover to cover, and I was sad that I had reached the end. It is something I will reread, likely quite soon.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ad Lib Publishers for this ARC.
De Rosner pioneered the use of dogs in anti-poaching in the bush, an effort that has been highly successful. Conservation groups in other countries have used his K9 Conservation to train and provide dogs for their use. The narration of his devotion to his first dog, Zingela, is poignant. He also discovered and documented many newfound sites of San rock art, ancient paintings and carvings found in the caves and rock shelters. After his first sighting, he actively sought out new locations.
This book kept me enthralled from cover to cover, and I was sad that I had reached the end. It is something I will reread, likely quite soon.
Thank you to NetGalley and Ad Lib Publishers for this ARC.
January 10, 2024
really interesting but the storyline was all over the place
February 10, 2025
While an intriguing premise, the book could have benefitted from a secondary writer and better editing. The subtitle, “The Dogs Trained To Protect Wildlife,” makes it sound like the book is all about dogs. It’s not. It’s really a memoir of Conraad de Rosener that includes his work with dogs. This book does provide an interesting on-the-ground insight into one man’s efforts to stop poachers and other illegal activities at wildlife preserves in South Africa, but it’s not well laid out nor organized. 2.5 stars rounded up.
November 8, 2023
This is an incredible, well written story of a man dedicated to saving wild animals and conservation. Conrad is South African and set up K9 Conservation, using specially trained dogs to track poachers. It's a tough and brutal job with more to fear from humans than from animals. I highly recommend this to animal lovers and anyone interested in the struggle to protect wildlife from the human race. Thanks to Net Galley for my ARC.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews