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S P O R T I N G C L A S S I C S 6 0 in favor of imported breeds, which didn't fare as well amid the harsh climate and diseases that strike domesticated animals. In recent years, Ngunis have made a comeback and in post-apartheid South Africa, they've proved popular. In America, Western art celebrating cattle and cowboys is de rigueur. Hacking's painting speaks to an African version. "To me, the Nguni story reflects a lot about what's going on in South Africa," Hacking says. "Standing among these majestic ancestral cattle with huge flocks of cattle egret feeding around them was the highlight of my trip." Another notable sojourn, he adds, involved a trip into broken terrain high above the Orange River to see ancient cave drawings made by San artists thousands of years ago. He wonders if they had the same kind of creative impulses watching animals move across the landscape below. Hacking says wildlife art needs no defense, certainly none against the many urban dwellers who disparage it as prosaic and whose own understanding of the natural world is lacking. "There are artists painting wildlife right now who are every bit as talented and skilled as someone doing figurative work or landscape or what passes as abstract expressionism," he says. Grant Hacking has touched wildness wilder than most artists will ever know. For him, it isn't merely a dream. Africa was a dream he lived, and he's filled with a feeling that never goes away. Note: Columnist Todd Wilkinson, who grew up hunting and fishing in the North Woods of Minnesota, lives in Montana and is a noted authority on wildlife and sporting art. He also is author of a new critically-acclaimed book Last Stand: Ted Turner's Quest to Save a Troubled Planet.