Outskirts Press, INC.

Tanja Nayak was born in Johannesburg, South Africa and always loved wildlife and nature thanks to annual winter safaris in the Kruger National Park. She can count the number of times she has seen honey badgers on her trips spanning many years on one hand - but each memory has stayed fresh in her mind despite the distance of years. She believes that the honey badger was the appropriate choice to finish writing about and publish a book about during a pandemic year as honey badgers are energetic, courageous, and determined. We all could use a little honey badger energy in our lives to see us through persevering through challenging times. A honey badger never gives up and they certainly never fail to do what they have set their mind's upon achieving!

She also wrote the story so she could also share information about other lesser-known nocturnal African wildlife in story and factual form such as the civet and genet. In addition to this she wanted to draw attention to the plight of pangolins which are a critically endangered species.

The pandemic turned out to be positive for her because she was unable to travel abroad in 2020 due to restrictions and wanted to create a virtual safari through the book to remind her of happier times.

When she was a child she wanted to grow up to be an explorer like Mary Kingsley who traveled extensively in Africa, but today she lives in Colorado and travels to South Africa with her husband and daughter when possible. She didn't realize it at the time, but she actually did travel quite a bit throughout Southern Africa in her youth not only to the Kruger National Park, but also the Blyde River Canyon, Sudwala Caves, Victoria Falls, Great Zimbabwe, Kariba Dam, Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, Augrabies Falls, Kalahari Desert, Drakensberg Mountains, Transkei Wild Coast, Hluluwe and Umfolozi Game Reserves, St. Lucia Estuary, Knysna Lagoon, Ai Ais Hot Springs, Fish River Canyon, Namib Desert, Skeleton Coast, Etosha Pan, and the Cape because her father loved taking her family on road trips. She feels privileged to have had such an upbringing because she knows that there are children who don't even know what the night sky looks like without city lights!

When her family is not heading off on safari they enjoy hiking in the Rocky Mountains and especially spotting moose and birds.

Her present dreams are to see a tiger in the wild in India and to travel to Tanzania and Kenya to see the "Big Five."