The Cull

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Tony Park lives part of the year in Africa and seems well versed in the various laws and intricacies of operations that might span different countries. She also has to deal with corruption in law enforcement positions, rangers and police paid off to turn a blind eye. A little bit of looking around led me to this article on the dangerous reality of being an anti-poaching ranger.

Hudson is a former CIA agent so he has mad skills of his own and now he works as a safari guide and sometime private investigator. I found this to be a really engrossing read from the first page — I loved the setting and felt like I was learning more about the poaching situation and the lengths that are needed in order to try and present a defense to it. There were some really good secondary characters especially Tema, she was fantastic. Park certainly writes very strong, independent female characters and the story had a few twists and turns, some of which I guessed and some that were a surprise.

Jan 26, Tony Nielsen rated it it was amazing. Aside from a rollicking story Tony Park's love and knowledge of Africa is an aspect of this story that really impressed me. The fact that Park and his wife divide their time between homes in Australia and Southern Africa answers that question. Sonya Kurtz is a former soldier and mercenary but now employed to take on the poachers of Thino horns and elephant tusks. She tries to fly under the radar as she tries to find out the details of a mysterious poaching organisation dubbed the Scorpions.

There Aside from a rollicking story Tony Park's love and knowledge of Africa is an aspect of this story that really impressed me. There are quite a few inter-linked characters on both sides. Sonya herself has an on again off again relationship with safari guide and private investigator Hudson Brand, as well as a similar situation with the uber rich Julianne Clyde-Smith, who is funding the operation to identify and take down the top poaching kingpin.

Its a deadly battle as lethal force is used on both sides. Park is a descriptive and well researched writer and the action is fearless from start to finish. One of the best and most realistic action stories I have read about southern Africa and the increasingly desperate attempts to protect the fast diminishing wildlife. Nov 23, Shannon rated it really liked it. Definitely a twist in there that I didn't expect! I had never read anything by Tony Park before and hadn't realised this was the third book in the Sonja Kurtz series, although I didn't feel that I missed anything from not reading the first two books.

I have also never been to South Africa and am not too familiar with the poaching problems so this really opened my eyes. The only issue I had was the ending was a little frantic. A lot seemed to happen in a short amount of time, but I suppose it reflects the action packed activities of the book.

This is book three in a series of books featuring the character Sonja Kurtz, an anti-poaching action hero. It is not necessary to read the stories in order. The main characters were well developed with some to love and some to despise. Park's descriptions of the animals and wilderness were magnificent.

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The action scenes were exciting and realistic. I found it a great insight into the murky world of poaching and how it co A well paced action thriller set in the Kruger National Park in South Africa. I found it a great insight into the murky world of poaching and how it continues despite wildlife warriors and government interventions.

A complex subject which is worthy to be written about more. On the edge of my seat Another amazing book by author Tony Park.

If you know anything of Africa, you find yourself constantly thinking I know that person or I know that place. Sometimes in real life you think you know something that happened at one of those places and realise it was in one of Tony's books. He researches everything so thoroughly and often you read things that you heard with your own ears. He soaks up everything around him and has total love for this continent. Well done, I couldn't put it down I have read all of Tony Park's books, taking great enjoyment from his depiction of the African continent and the wildlife within it.

However, this may be his best book yet. A clever plot with some unforeseen twists, and more ongoing action as the mission to rid poachers escalates. The return of the very likeable characters Sonja Kurtz and Hudson Brand give extra reasons for this being a good read. Action and a serious issue brought to light This is a great read. I am a fan of tony park and his latest book doesn't disappoint.

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The issue of poaching and criminal gangs that mastermind it are exposed. The heroine Sonja Kurtz is a great lady with complex issues of her own. The setting is perfect and this could be made into a movie or a mini series. If you haven't read tony parks books ,start you will not be disappointed. Africa comes to light. Excellent Good African novel A good read from beginning to end.

Would recommend to anybody interested in wildlife conservation and the outdoors. Jan 24, Shirley Metelmann rated it really liked it. But found a few chapters in it took over. Loved it and will be searching out more of Tony Parks books. It allows the breeder to make major gains in one aspect while moderate or lesser gains in others. For example, a breeder is willing to make a smaller improvement in muzzle length and muzzle shape in order to have a moderate gain in improvement of eye placement and a more dramatic improvement in eye shape.

The breeder would evaluate these characteristics on a scale of 1 to 10 and multiply by the weights. The formula would look something like: The breeder determines the lowest acceptable total score for an animal to be folded back into their breeding program. Animals that do not meet this minimum total score are culled from the breeding program. Since livestock is bred for the production of meat or milk, the herd must be culled to a certain number of production or meat animals a farmer wishes to maintain. Animals not selected to remain for breeding are sent to the slaughter house, sold, or killed.

Criteria for culling livestock and production animals can be based on population or production milk or egg. In a domestic or farming situation the culling process involves selection and the selling of surplus stock. The selection may be done to improve breeding stock, for example for improved production of eggs or milk, or simply to control the group's population for the benefit of the environment and other species.

In order to increase the frequency of preferred phenotypes, agricultural practices typically involve using the most productive animals as breeding stock. With dairy cattle, culling may be practised by inseminating inferior cows with beef breed semen and by selling the produced offspring for meat production. With poultry, males which would grow up to be roosters have little use in an industrial egg-producing facility. Approximately half of the newly hatched chicks will be male and would grow up to be roosters , which do not lay eggs.

For this reason, the hatchlings are culled based on gender. Most of the male chicks are usually killed shortly after hatching. In the United States, hunting licenses and hunting seasons are a means by which the population of "game" animals is maintained.

Outrage over wild pony aerial cull at Singleton army base

Each season, a hunter is allowed to kill a certain amount of wild animals. The amount is determined both by species and gender. If the population seems to have surplus females, hunters are allowed to take more females during that hunting season. If the population is below what is desired, hunters may not be permitted to hunt that particular "game" animal or only hunt a restricted number of males. Populations of "game" animals such as elk may be informally culled if they begin to excessively eat winter food set out for domestic cattle herds. In such instances the rancher will inform hunters that they may "hunt the haystack" on his property in order to thin the wild herd to controllable levels.

These efforts are aimed to counter excessive depletion of the intended "domestic" winter feed supplies. Other managed culling instances involve extended issuance of extra hunting licenses, or the inclusion of additional "special hunting seasons" during harsh winters or overpopulation periods, governed by state fish and game Agencies. Culling for population control is common in wildlife management , particularly on African game farms and in Australia in national parks. In the case of very large animals such as elephants , adults are often targeted.

Their orphaned young, easily captured and transported, are then relocated. Culling is controversial in many African countries, but reintroduction of the practice has been recommended in recent years for use at the Kruger National Park in South Africa , which has experienced a swell in its elephant population since culling was banned in Culling acts as a strong selection force and can therefore impact the population genetics of a species. For example, culling based on specific traits, such as size, can enforce directional selection and remove those traits from the population.

This can have long-term effects on the genetic diversity of a population. Additionally, culling can act as a selection force intentionally implemented by humans to counteract the selection force of trophy hunting. Hunting typically enforces selection towards unfavorable phenotypic traits because of the strong hunting bias for specific traits, such as large antler size. Animal rights activists argue that killing animals for any reason including hunting is cruel and unethical.

Some bird species are culled when their populations impact upon human property, business or recreational activity, disturb or modify habitats or otherwise impact species of conservation concern. Cormorants are culled in many countries due to their impact on commercial and recreational fisheries and habitat modification for nesting and guano deposition. They are culled by shooting and the smothering of eggs with oil.

Another example is the culling of silver gulls in order to protect the chicks of the vulnerable banded stilt at ephemeral inland salt lake breeding sites in South Australia. The gulls were culled using bread laced with a narcotic substance. In South Australia, the recovery of the state's native population of New Zealand fur seals Arctocephalus forsteri after severe depletion by sealers in the s has brought them into conflict with the fishing industry.

This has prompted members of Parliament to call for seal culling in South Australia. Shark culling currently occurs in four locations: In , a controversial policy was introduced by the Western Australian state government which became known as the Western Australian shark cull. The policy's objective was to protect users of the marine environment from fatal shark attack.

The Cull by Tony Park

Thousands of people protested against its implementation, claiming that it was indiscriminate, inhumane and worked against scientific advice the government had previously received. White-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus have been becoming an issue in suburbs across the United States of America due to large population increases.

The effectiveness of these deer culls has been debated and often criticized as only a temporary fix to the larger problem of deer overpopulation and argue that the use of culling will increase fertility of remaining deer by reducing competition. Another great read from Mr Park. Sonja Kurtz is a recurring character but my 1st of her novels. Shes the leader of The Leopards, a small anti poaching unit, that getd caught up in an action packed scandal. Great plotting, fun action scenes, my only concern is sometimes I felt a limited connection to the characters having not read any of Sonjas other adventures.

I also found the love stories bewteen Mario, Sonja and Hudson very cliched and weird. Highlights important issues that are currently cau Another great read from Mr Park. Highlights important issues that are currently causing problems in Africa with a fun action filled story. Hudson Brand was safari guide and a part-time private investigator when Anna Mnisi came to ask him to look into the death of her son Shadrack.

Sonja Kurtz was the leader of an elite squad that is fighting poaching of the wildlife in African's National Parks. Sonja Kurtz was the love interest of Hudson Brand, and when Sonja became a targeted of a poaching syndicate cal "The Cull" is about saving the Africa Wildlife from poaching and how two people finally found someone to trust with their hearts.

Sonja Kurtz was the love interest of Hudson Brand, and when Sonja became a targeted of a poaching syndicate call Scorpions, Hudson Brand becomes involved in the investigation to find the kingpins of The Scorpions. The readers of The Cull will follow Hudson and Sonja blossoming romance and the twist and turns in the investigation into the poaching syndicate. I have only recently found Tony Park's books and I was so pleased I did, and The Cull continued my love affair with his books. The twist and turns in The Cull kept me engaged in the plot.

The conclusion of The Cull was surprised to me, and I did like it. I enjoyed Tony Park portrayal of his characters and the way they intertwine with each other especially Hudson Brand and Sonja Kurtz.

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The Cull was well written and research by Tony Park. The readers of The Cull highlights the importance and the consequences of allowing poaching in the African Natural Parks. I recommend this book. Another good read from Tony Park.

Record 32,000 badgers shot in annual cull

The Cull is the third book in the Sonja Kurtz series, but the first that I've read. I liked her as a character and I'm intrigued to go back and read the others. This instalment sees her up against a shady poaching syndicate at the request of a rich business woman who wishes to take the fight to the poachers. Park delivers another exciting, explosive, and exhilarating adventure across half of Africa, with plenty of twists and turns along the way. While some parts w Another good read from Tony Park. While some parts were a little predictable and I kinda saw the ending coming, it was still an enjoyable ride.

I quite like Park as a writer, and I recommend his books for anyone looking for a bit of action mixed with the beauty of Africa. Sonja is resourceful, intelligent, observant and equip http: Sonja is resourceful, intelligent, observant and equipped to handle everything that she comes across in the African wilderness. Two women in the team end up dead. Tema walked with the fluid gait and cold stare of a leopard slinking through the long grass. She wants to find out who is at the top of these organisations and destroy them from the source.

The team are suddenly entangled in a dangerous and deadly war between them and a poaching mob named The Scorpions. At the same time, Sonja is a bit flawed. She really had made a mess of this. She regretted bringing Mario onto the team, and what had gone on between them, but she was sure he would be enough of a gentleman not to put her on the spot. She had made this bed and would have to lie in it, with both of these handsome dark-haired men. The side characters are just an intriguing as Sonja, and I really enjoyed reading this book.

Three men, each wearing a balaclava and armed with an AK, burst out into the restraint terrace. The man who had given the order pointed his rifle at a family. Thank you to the publisher for sending me a review copy in exchange for an honest review. Sonja is back in Africa working to train local women as an Anti-Poaching unit when they are ambushed by a group of poachers who are surprisingly well armed. As a result, Sonja is offered a job by an incredibly wealthy businesswoman named Julianne Clyde-Smith, who wants to take down the poaching kingpins ravaging the African wildlife one at a time.

Centered around the areas of large animal conservation reserves, Sonja crosses countries in her mission, occasionally having to dodge authorities due to incidents in her mercenary past. I really loathe big game hunting — people posing with guns and carcasses of elephants or giraffes or lions, beautiful creatures that should be left alone. Tony Park lives part of the year in Africa and seems well versed in the various laws and intricacies of operations that might span different countries.

She also has to deal with corruption in law enforcement positions, rangers and police paid off to turn a blind eye. A little bit of looking around led me to this article on the dangerous reality of being an anti-poaching ranger. Hudson is a former CIA agent so he has mad skills of his own and now he works as a safari guide and sometime private investigator.

I found this to be a really engrossing read from the first page — I loved the setting and felt like I was learning more about the poaching situation and the lengths that are needed in order to try and present a defense to it. There were some really good secondary characters especially Tema, she was fantastic. Park certainly writes very strong, independent female characters and the story had a few twists and turns, some of which I guessed and some that were a surprise. Jan 26, Tony Nielsen rated it it was amazing.

Aside from a rollicking story Tony Park's love and knowledge of Africa is an aspect of this story that really impressed me. The fact that Park and his wife divide their time between homes in Australia and Southern Africa answers that question.

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