Book Launch | Wild Horses of the Last Land by Wayne Linklater

In the mid-1990s Wayne Linklater landed a job researching the bands of wild horses that lived in New Zealand’s largest military training grounds near Waiouru. For the next four years he observed foals born, the love between stallions, mares and their offspring, and also violence, loyalty, betrayal and courage, all played out against an astounding landscape.

Linklater started out believing in the objectivity of conservation science and that free-roaming horses were a harmful, invasive species. But those four years taught him differently.

Clear-eyed and backed by deep science, this moving book is about the fascinating history and lives of wild horses, about the bonds between horses and humans, and about becoming a different sort of conservationist. This is nature writing of a very high order.

‘It is an effortless read, combining rigorous science with compelling storytelling. What makes this work so exceptional is the unprecedented level of immersion behind it . . . The insights gained are both profound and unparalleled, providing readers with a rare window into the lives of wild horses.’ — Kelly Wilson, bestselling author and wild horse advocate

‘Packed with deeply moving personal stories impeccably woven into the latest science about horse behaviour, Linklater offers a highly readable page-turning book and captures what it is like to be a horse — their unique personalities, their rich cognitive and emotional lives, and what they need from us to thrive in an increasingly human-dominated world.’ — Marc Bekoff, PhD, author of The Emotional Lives of Animals

Wayne Linklater has spent almost 25 years researching, writing and teaching about the ecology, behaviour and management of a variety of animals, from caddisflies and voles to horses, rhinoceroses and elephants in Africa, Australia, New Zealand, North America and Southeast-Asia.