This was a fantastic read! I have to admit that the prose is fairly workmanlike, but the scientific intellect behind it is compelling and enormously influential. Kalema-Zikusoka, who is Uganda's first wildlife vet, began her career working with the gorillas of that country. It soon became plain to her, however, that disease could cross over from human to gorilla and back, and so - to be an effective environmentalist - she had to find a way to merge conservation and public health. By the end of the book, she's spent some thirty years with this as her focus, and it is the best illustration I've ever read about the importance of breaking down barriers between conservation and other economic and social practices.

The Ugandan gorillas mean tourist dollars, and so there's an economic incentive to protecting those animals - which means that issues of infection, agriculture, birth control, education, and business come into play as supporting pillars in conservation. It's clear, too, that although gorillas are Kalema-Zikusoka's primary conservation focus, that the interconnection of human and nonhuman that she explores here can be applied to other species. The brief example of the hippos dropping dead after contracting anthrax, for example, was shocking. 

This is going on my list of books to buy (as this one has to be returned to the library today). What an excellent argument for conservation, and what a fantastic scientist Kalema-Zikusoka is!