MANOJ Shah grew up in Kenya surrounded by wild animals and obsessed with feral cats. Perhaps it’s no great surprise, then, that he would go on to become a wildlife photographer (as did his brother Anup).

Both men feature in a new history of wildlife photography. Into the Wild, by Gemma Padley, a catalogue of striking images of the animals we share the planet with. It is also a record of how our attitudes to those animals have changed over the last 150 years. From exploitation to conservation, you might say.

If nothing else, as Shah’s astonishing 2017 image of a male baboon jumping in Amboseli National Reserve in Kenya illustrates, wildlife photography is a vivid illustration of the variety of life we should be striving to protect.

The Herald:

Into the Wild: The Story of the World's Greatest Wildlife Photography by Gemma Padley, published by Laurence King at £40. © Manoj Shah/Getty Images.