Reviews for Wrestling with Rhinos: The Adventures of a Glasgow Vet in Kenya

The average rating for Wrestling with Rhinos: The Adventures of a Glasgow Vet in Kenya based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2009-07-08 00:00:00 Peggy Margolin Jerry Haigh received a superb veterinary education in Glasgow. "As any new vet realizes, graduation is just the beginning of the process of learning your profession." A towering giraffe was Jerry's first patient when he began to practice medicine in Kenya. Not only does Jerry fully describe the problems and treatments of the animals he treats, he describes the various landscapes and organisms of Kenya with the observations and reasoning of a geographer. The reader also begins to understand a few of the ethnic cultures in Kenya. "It was like a piece of paradise. Hundreds of head of hoofed animals. Reticulated giraffe browsing among the treetops. Herds of zebra, showing little concern for the Toyota. A huge herd of buffalo moving through the bush ahead..." "Hundreds of birds of many species. A group of ostrich chicks running behind a dark and stately male, the female nearby. Guinea fowl clucking an rushing about as they competed for some unseen food item. A mass of moving yellow dots as we passed under a tree full of dozens of weavers, all industriously building and checking nests. A gorgeous lilac-breasted roller sitting on a tree stump by the track, the sun catching the blues on his belly and wings. We ended up with a picnic lunch on the banks of the Tana, just below Adamson's Falls. As we sat in the generous shade of a huge old fig tree we watched a large school of about 40 hippos in the pool below the cataracts. The noises they made accompanied the sound of the rushing water. Mainly snorts as the hippos surfaced and blew to clear their nostrils, and occasionally a loud series of grunts as they expressed their feelings. It was difficult to imagine anywhere we'd rather be."

Review # 2 was written on 2015-04-29 00:00:00 Ronad Bitner I really wanted to like this book. I've read several others by vets working on African or other exotic local wildlife, and they had wonderful tales to tell. Alas, I didn't, and here's why: #1 Mr. Haigh tried very hard to tell his stories with dialogue, but people don't talk like this! There's way too much obviously made-up/after-the-fact dialogue, and it's so annoying it overshadows the actual facts of the story. #2 Mr. Haigh had a thesaurus at hand, and decided rather than use "said" several times in a row, he would go through every.single.possible.label to attach to the aforementioned way-too-much dialog.