- From the editors desk - Last Month’s Top Shot Winner - Facebook Cover Shot Winner - Volunteer Encounter
- THAF Update - Community Focus
- Photography Reflections - Photography Focus
- Research Update - Research Focus
Welcome to the latest release of the Warthog Post, where we, Ester and Pietro, proudly update you about the impact of our projects during the last month. We took part in the Photography and Conservation Project for the first time. Pietro, 23 years old, is from Italy, and Ester, from Holland, just turned 32 during her stay here. We got the opportunity to work with different people and to learn new skills in photography, both in field photography and in the editing with Lightroom. We had never seen any of the wildlife that we got to see here, and it was amazing to be able to just walk freely around the property and see beautiful creatures in their natural environment. As volunteers, we not only felt like we were improving our abilities, but also like we were taking part of something bigger, like our work had a direct impact on conservation. Even if a month felt like a really short time here, the bonds that were created between the people, both volunteers and staff, were exceptionally strong. Enjoy reading the Warthog Post!
Covershot: 19th April 2016 | Rangers enjoying the sunset at Jasons dam, Klaserie | Pietro Baroni
Nathalie Kremers (50) is a speech therapist and teacher for children between 12 and 19 years old in the Netherlands. She came to the Dumela Lodge of African Impact to take part in the photography project for four weeks. What made you decide to come here? I longed to be on safari again, because it’s been such a long time. I’ve been in South Africa three times before, twice in this area and once in Cape Town. The last time was ten years ago. Now I have a sabbatical of five months and I had different wishes. My friend Tom suggested this trip, in which I could combine two of them: wildlife and photography. Where did you spend the rest of your sabbatical? I started with three weeks in Thailand to relax and next I went for a month to Ethiopia for the Timkat Festival, a religious celebration that takes place once a year. After that I stayed one week in the cold (-14 C) of the Lofoten in
Norway for a photography course, where I took pictures of the Aurora Borealis. And before I came here I stayed three weeks in Myanmar and travelled around with a friend. I just spent one day at home to do my laundry! You can tell travelling is my passion. Although it can be quite strenuous for others, apparently it’s easy for me to change over to something new. Are you familiar with volunteer work? Some years ago I did volunteer work in Ghana, where I advised the team of a school for deaf and hearingimpaired children. In China I tried to improve the English pronunciation of students and went on a promotional tour to engage students. So the principle of doing something in return is not new to me. In both cases I offered my services for this volunteer work myself - there was not an organisation in between.
Why did you choose African Impact? I think it is an added value not to travel as a tourist solely. Here I try not only to take, but also to bring something. And it is a way to learn more about the culture of a country. It’s a good feeling to contribute to the community and research projects. As a member of the WWF for nature I find conservation very important. And at the Dumela Lodge the pieces of the puzzle come together.
The bond between mother and calf is very strong. A calf is completely dependent on its mother during the period of suckling, which lasts one year. .
Does it live up to your expectations? Yes, I learn a lot from the different assignments I get, about the editing program Lightroom and during the gettogether with the other photographers. In the first week I expected to go out more to see wildlife. Unfortunately the private reserve Buffaloland was closed, but no one’s to blame. Now I’m very much looking forward to tomorrow, when I go to Klaserie for the second time.
How do photos contribute to conservation? WWF uses photos from the database of African Impact with attribution. That might be a nice side issue for me, but more important is to bring African Impact and conservation to the attention of others - who they are and what they stand for. African Impact tries to enlarge their network by offering free photos to nature organisations. And I hope to contribute to that.
How did you find out about African Impact? I was looking for something different. Favourite aspect of your role at A.I. Being inspired continuously by volunteers and staff. It’s so interesting to see the different perspective of photographers and how every style is different. How would your family describe you in 3 words? Mischievous, Messy, Entertaining Proudest moment on the job When a volunteer was saying goodbye and said ‘it felt like saying goodbye to his father.’ Two truths and two lies (answers later) • When I was young I used to lie on train tracks to play ‘chicken’ • I broke my leg falling off a garage roof onto a pile of bricks • I once played the recorder for the world featherweight boxing champion of the world • The most common words directed at me by my School Principal were “Stop yawning Feherty”
With a brand new shop at the lodge it was about time to go into the community we are working with to look for artisans who could provide us with new merchandise. We made it our mission to stock the shop with as much local product as possible. This way we don’t only provide our awesome volunteers with the opportunity to get their hands on amazing souvenirs but even better, we provide local artist and producers with a market for their products. In order to find out where we could meet these local producers, we met with a contact from our partner organization Eco Children. She is that one lady every village has who knows everything and everyone! That became especially clear when we went with her to a place where the local artists meet. She knew everyone there, and everyone knew her.
By the time we arrived, about five people had gathered there awaiting our arrival. As they knew we were coming they had made the room into a small exhibition. Of course we were interested in everything they made but most of all we were interested in the products made out of recycled materials. Especially since all of our projects at our Greater Kruger location have something to do with conservation and volunteers’ time here can involve litter picking or snare sweeps. Our ultimate objective is to have our picked up litter and found snares turned into amazing merchandise. We were delighted to find out that some of the local artists actually made products out of recycled materials. There are for instance those reed mats brightened up with candy wrappings you can see in the pictures.
It was amazing to hear from the locals how they chose to make these mats with plastics wrappings. One of the reasons why they constructed them with plastics was because they were bothered by the amount of litter in their communities. This pure motivation to tackle that matter is one of the reasons we would love to work together with these people. That way we are able to address as many issues at once as possible. Not only are we working on income generation, we are also working on conservation by selling responsible local souvenirs in our shop. The next steps for this project will be to visit even more people involved with arts and crafts and then to decide who of those people we want to work with. Furthermore we want to introduce these people to new materials and ways to recycle materials into great merchandise. By the time they
have their processes in place we will contact other lodges in the area to introduce them to each other and the merchandise can be sold all around the local area!
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All in all a great project with great opportunities for development. Stay tuned for more exciting updates!
Mongooses live in burrows and are nondiscriminatory predators, feeding on small animals such as insects and reptiles. Some species supplement their diet with fruits, nuts, and seeds. Creative hunters, they are known to break open bird eggs by throwing them with their forepaws toward a solid object.
Understanding your subject.
Research the animal’s behavior – the better you can anticipate an animal’s movements and its motivation, the better you can photograph it. For example, larger birds will often ruffle their feathers and defecate before flying away, lightening the load as it were. Knowing this will enable you to be prepared for that ‘take-off’ shot. Smaller birds, like Kingfishers, will often use a particular perch to spot prey in a watering hole, and come back to the same spot again and again. Knowing this allows you multiple tries at the same shot.
During School Holidays there has been a flurry of activity at both Hloaia and Seganyane Primary Schools with Eco Children’s Holiday Workshops. African Impact volunteers have been supporting Eco Children projects by helping to prepare the school vegetable gardens for planting. The drought which has plagued the area earlier this year delayed planting as this was a major issue for the success of the gardens. Now the cooler weather will hopefully bring a new lease of life for the seedlings planted.
Eco Children’s projects allow fresh produce to be grown for the school kitchen to increase nutrition in the school lunches. This also increases responsibility for the children to care for the garden themselves and Grade 6 and Grade 7 take on this task in groups. The physical work and visible success motivates the students and shows the rewards of the time and effort they spend in the garden. This multi-faceted reward project is one African Impact are very proud to support!
During the School Holidays this meant there was a lot more time for the students to spend in the garden and at both Hloaia and Seganyane students and teachers committed their time and efforts to plant the whole Eco Village which was a great success! Now the responsibility lies with the children to care for the garden and ensure their own personal vegetable gardens flourish.
As it was school holidays, after the hard work in the garden Eco Children had some fantastic games planned as well, to give the students some well-deserved breaks in between! The games included conservation elements such as wildlife protection and also educational elements including using the alphabet and numbers to incorporate some great learning aspects during interactive games and stories. All in all the Holiday Workshops were a fantastic outlet for the children to have fun while also learning and we were very lucky to support Eco Children during these workshops! During the past 3 months we have learnt a lot about the schools we are working in. Without community, we have no conservation and this is something we are keen to impress upon our volunteers. One way we are working towards increasing awareness of conservation is our Conservation Education through Seganyane Primary School.
Rhinoceroses are large, herbivorous mammals identified by their characteristic horned snouts. The word "rhinoceros" comes from the Greek "rhino" (nose) and "ceros" (horn). Rhinoceroses are the largest land mammals after the elephant. There are five species of rhinos, two African and three Asian. The African species are the white and black rhinoceroses, and both species have two horns. Asian rhinos include the Indian (or great one-horned rhinoceros) and the Javan, each with one horn, and the Sumatran, which has two. Rhinos are herbivores, meaning they eat only plants. White rhinos, with their square-shaped lips, are ideally suited to graze on grass. Other rhinos prefer to eat the foliage of trees or bushes.
Nickname? Studge Favoutite animal? Hyeanas, and Snakes especially Puff adders Do you have any Hobbies and Interests if yes what are they? Drumming, Hiking, Dubstep, metal music and Drum & Bass. What’s going on in the world today that affects you most? 1. Existence of Dementia and how it affects the peron with it and the families of that person. 2. Understanding both South African and Global Law and its Politics because Politics affects us in a huge way. If you were given an opportunity and permission to do anything what you want to do in Mpumalanga South Africa, what would that be? I would ask for Manyeleti Reserve, mainly to use it to develop the community around it, and also to create a responsible tourism that will get the local people involved. Manyeleti was the biggest and most popular reserve in South Africa - the world in fact. I would love to restore it to its rightful place through responsible tourism.
What is the perfect photograph? The simple answer is, there’s no simple answer. Or more correctly there is no perfect photograph. You could start, I suppose, by getting a perfect range of tone throughout the image, but by drawing a line with a perfect gradient from pure black to pure white would give you that ‘perfect’ range of tone, yet rather dull to look at. Perfection lies in the likes of science, which plays a part in photography, but an image is so much more. For me, a great image communicates an idea which then provokes a response from the viewer. This doesn’t have to be complicated – a photograph of a baby elephant, for example, always elicits an “Awwwwwww” response from many, which means the photograph is doing its job. I can think of many examples of war photography which,
through the reportage of human suffering, also bring a response from the audience, be it positive or negative.
One of the clearest forms of communication we have, we see every day. On signposts, in computer programs, on the road, in schools. It transcends language and is instantly recognizable, even by some animals. It is the arrow, or one of its many variants. It is a simple indicator, pointing a single direction, communicating its idea so perfectly that it cannot be misunderstood. This is the kind of simplicity we look for in photography.
A key element in all visual communication, be it graphic design, photography, oil painting or expressive dance, is simplicity. Presenting an idea with as little ‘noise’ as possible between the author and the audience. Most people, after reading a book, then watching the film version, will prefer the book. This is because originally, the communication was between the author and the reader. With the film, it now also goes through the screenwriter, the director, the performers, the cinematographers and more, and the idea becomes a shadow of its former self. It can be a great piece in its own right, but the original idea has been tainted.
And don’t be mistaken – this doesn’t have to be a complicated idea – in fact, in the idea itself, the simpler the better, and the easier it is to communicate. In these two shots of the lilac breasted roller, the first shows the beautiful bird in flight, against the sky. It simply says “This bird is beautiful”. In the second, we bring another element into the photograph. Bird, sky, and now telegraph lines. It shows the bird perched and alert, but can also suggest the bird is trapped by manmade structures, or overcoming man’s encroachment on its territory by making the best of a bad situation. Both convoluted ideas, sure, but open to (mis-) interpretation.
We can show how the Hippo has an affectionate, not just aggresive side, we can show the industrious dung beetle working away (the flies here, incidentally, point like an arrow towards the subject – I trained them myself), or a lonely impala with a long way to go. We can also create confusion within the image to make the viewer look deeper, like a crocodile’s eye seen through another croc’s mouth, getting the audience to engage with a photo, get them thinking.
Bringing two elements together, we can make a suggestion – here that African Impact works with snakes – so you can see that even with few variables, a photograph becomes more and more complicated. This, for me, is part of my fascination with photography - the control we can have over what we want to communicate, by simple inclusion or omission. It’s also where we have a responsibility, in not only what we say, but how we say it. There is no way we can get that perfect image, that puts an idea in another’s head with no confusion whatsoever. Striving towards that perfection, however, is what keeps the photographer coming back.
Use what’s on offer.
Natural lighting is always going to be way better than anything man can manufacture, so use it! The hours just after dawn and just before sunset (the golden hours) give light with a beautiful, rosy quality (which is why most romantic shots are set at sunset). ‘Bad’ lighting can work in your favour. Atmospheric conditions can lead to moody shots, so maximize any definition in overcast clouds to make sure it doesn’t look painted out. Rim-lighting (a technique used in studio lighting setups using a designated ‘hair light’ for models) and silhouetting can have a very dramatic effect. Just because you can’t get into the right position doesn’t mean you should try for the shot. Remember – let nature inspire you!
This month was such an amazing time filled with positive vibes and lots of achievements, from planting new seedlings in both Seganyane and Hloaia Primary School to our After School Club. Seganyane Primary School
There are plenty of types of foods that the Vervet Monkey will eat. They enjoy fruits, figs, leaves, and flowers. They will eat both bird eggs and young chicks that they find in nests. They will also consume insects and bugs such as grasshoppers.
The after school club started off with a bang - we helped our partners Eco Children deliver their Conservation Education lessons in both schools, Seganyane and Matikinya. Holiday workshops are essential because it’s not only about education but also keeping the kids off the streets so that they don’t get up to any mischief!
The games were more educational and more interactive, for example our blindfolding game helps get the kids to trust each other. We also played the directions game where the kids had to run East, West, North and South depending where they were ordered to go, to see if they knew and understood directions. Other games included the ‘Big Five’ song and storytelling. The kids had so much fun as is evident in the pictures! We then finished off the day with planting veggies, where we planted spinach, beetroot, and tomatoes and watered the plants.
MILLIPEDES
Hloaia primary school As well as planting in this school we filled all the 28 keyholes with veggies back breaking work but everybody pulled through, and finished off with making sure all the plants had enough water. We then went to play the conservation education games; the kids had so
much fun and we’re sure they went home well informed. Everybody was so happy to be part of it and we are already looking forward to next holiday club.
Although the name suggests “a thousand” legs, in actuality, they are equipped with far fewer legs, only 2 per body segment. Like all things in the bush, millipedes play an important role in our Macrotermes termites are fungusecosystem. They are “detrivores” growers, plant material back feedingbringing on decaying vegetation toand the fungi. colony, chewing it to a pulp When threatened, millipedes have the unique ability on and using it to cultivate the fungus to curl up,feed. relying onworkers their which they The gather hardened exoskeleton a defenseit, wood by chewing it and as swallowing mechanism but can also secrete but due to the hard lignin in the chemicals such as cyanide, making wood cannot digest it. animals They themthey unpalatable to most return to the mound and take their with the African Civet, Assassin bug faecal pellets and join them into & scorpion being exceptions. a Commonly known in ZuluThey as take ball (with many grooves). “shongololo”, millipedes are fungal spores of a fungus, which only generally seen prior to or after a grows in termite mounds, and plant it good rain. Be weary, however, not in to the chewed wood. crush one up under foot as local lore would have you believe that The fungus the wood that actiondigests alone could inciteand a the drought!!! termites eat the fungus. In order for
the fungus to grow it needs constant humidity and a temperature of around 30 degrees Celsius. Humidity is maintained by tunnelling down to the water table in order to release water vapour into the colony. The deepest tunnel found was 30 metres below ground.
I’ve discussed in the past how photographic manipulation can be viewed as good or bad. I’ve also discussed my own personal views on it – my perspective is from an artistic point of view; I want to show not only how the scene or subject looked, but how it felt at the time as well. So I thought it was high time I showed you how I did it.
The average size of the Lilac Breasted Roller is 14.5 inches. The washed green head is large, the neck is short, the greenish yellow legs are rather short and the feet are small. The beak is strong, arched and hooked-tipped. The tail is narrow and of medium length. The back and scapulars are brown. The shoulder of the wing, outer webs of the flight feathers and the rump are all violet. The bases of the primaries and their coverts are pale greenish blue and the outer tail feathers are elongated and blackish. The chin is whitish, shading to rich lilac of the breast. The underparts are greenish blue. The bill is black and the eyes are brown. It has large wings and strong flight.
First of all, this is by no means what they call a ‘masterclass’. This word simply cannot apply to an artistic medium where personal opinion holds as much weight as technical ability. There are many editing programs, many ways within each individual program to get the same results. The important thing to remember is all of these can be done by YOU, with a bit of practice.
Secondly, once you have experience in both shooting and editing, you can begin to shoot for the edit. What I mean by this is, you know the capabilities of a combination of shooting in RAW, for example, and how much you can correct this in Lightroom. This is the advantage of previsualisation, a technique used within photography to imagine exactly the shot you are going to achieve before you press the shutter button. And third, remember that I take thousands of photographs every week, of which I show other people a small percentage. It is the same with any professional photographer. For every shot they show you, there are possibly hundreds they do not, so never be discouraged. Remember the only way I have learned is through constant experimentation (read: mistakes).
With this shot, I know the capabilities of Lightroom to bring my images back from over or under exposure. I know that by letting the camera expose for the whole shot, I can bring the elements like the sky and elephants back in. There is still detail in the sky, but also the elephants and foreground (again, this is where shooting in RAW format comes into its own). Using the shadows slider, I can bring the elephants back up within the image. Remember that these adjustments only apply to certain parts of the photo, but will normally have some sort of effect on the rest – in this case, the image now seems washed out. To combat this, and to bring
contrast back into the image, I brought the blacks back down. Notice how this also affects the colour, too – giving the image more contrast will also make the colours more punchy, which you need to be mindful of. An oversaturated image will appear cartoon-like and unappealing.
of the time, rather than reality – I want to make the image superreal. Bringing up the mid-tone contrast with the clarity tool has almost desaturated the colours, so I’ve countered that with the vibrancy tool. Remember adjusting one part of the image normally has an effect on another.
So now my lovely Ellies are clear in the image, I still want to make them stand out. For this I’m going to use a lot of clarity, which brings contrast into the mid-tones of the image. Take note that using this much clarity will normally make your image jarring to the eye, and give a certain ‘hazing’ around skylines etc. In this instance, I don’t mind, as this is more about replicating the feeling and emotion
Finally, I need to bring in the sky. Using the Graduated Filter tool is perfect as I don’t want the Elephants to seem ‘cut out’. By simply bringing the exposure back down by one stop (giving it half the light/exposure), it brings in the detail of the clouds, and some depth of colour, too. After the filter, I’ve used a vignette around the whole photo, which gives a subtle frame within the frame, and
draws the eye towards the centre of the photograph.
It’s by no means a simple task and the adjustments, if applied too forcefully or not enough, can make or break an image, but by experimenting not only after the image is recorded, but in the shooting process as well, you can come up with imagery that does these beautiful, majestic animals justice.
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The small 5 are those fascinating little creatures in the bushveld with similar names to the real ‘Big 5’. The Leopard tortoise has markings on its carapace (shell) that resemble a leopard’s blotching. With a lifespan of 100 years, it is the largest tortoise species in South Africa and 4th largest in the world. It is also the only tortoise that can swim. The carapace is high and domed, sometimes with pyramid shape scutes. Juveniles and young adults are attractively marked and the markings on each individual are unique. The skin and background colour are cream to yellow, and the carapace is marked with black blotches, spots or even dashes or stripes. However, in mature adults the markings tend to fade to a slatey, nondescript brown or grey, commonly tinged with the local dust. Leopard tortoises are herbivorous and very long-lived animal. They reach sexual maturity between the ages of 12 and 15 years. Captive leopard tortoises, however, grow faster and may mature as young as 6 years of age.
Katie, Greek for “pure”, has a lot of African Impact experience on her resume. With three volunteer experiences and two years of experience as the Lion project manager in Zimbabwe she can be called an absolute African Impact maniac. But that’s not all, she also is an experienced figures skater, who has participated in competitions all over the U.S.. Katie in one image would be a woman, ice skating while playing the trumpet wearing a Syracuse Orange jersey, the one and only team she will stay up for until 5 am to watch them lose in the play offs.
Answers to The Elusive Mr. T questions from earlier: 1. Truth 2. Lie (I actually broke my arm) 3. Lie (it was actually the trumpet I played) 4. Truth
It’s 6am, I’m sat on the safari truck in Klaserie and a herd of elephants are so close I could reach out and touch them (although of course I don’t!) The elephants are beautiful, calm and majestic, moving silently around our truck. This is one of the most amazing ways to start the day. I feel rather blessed to experience this but there is a little bit of me that thinks, “oh no more elephant photos”. You see it hasn’t always been like this; three weeks ago before I arrived in South Africa there had been very little rain and that meant limited vegetation so in turn spotting an elephant was less likely. Being British I am rather surprised how happy the rain
seems to make people as its pretty much a daily occurrence for me at home, we joke that I must have brought it with me, after all I am the girl that went to Las Vegas and it rained in the desert. Back to the rain in South Africa; now, after a couple of weeks of
rain, the greenery had exploded, changing the landscape and it seemed that at every turn there was a big strong bull or beautiful herd of elephants. One of my projects was to review the elephant photos we take on drive and to identify the elephants from
ID kits we already have or to make new kits for new elephants. Now perhaps you see why I thought, “oh no not more elephant photos”. We moved from having tens of photos to hundreds! It was time to get focused we had to become more efficient in identifying herd and individual elephant data in the field as it was no longer possible to review every photo after we came off drive. A few extra volunteers were added to my elephant project and we worked through all the historic photo data, picking the key cows from herds rather than identifying every herd member. Cows with unique ears or tusks were the focus. Solitary bulls were identified too. ID kits were created for these key individual elephants. Now our volunteers have the ability to include elephant ID numbers on their data sheets and our photographers only
need to provide us with missing photographs. Sometimes elephants don’t want to show you all their sides so we have a few ID kits where we really need a right ear or perhaps a left side; remember those sticker books you had when you were a kid? mine was ET (yes I am old enough to remember when ET first came to the cinema); well we are managing the kits like this, get the missing sticker and complete the kit!
Now on those amazing mornings where elephant seem to be around every corner. I keep the feeling of being honoured and amazed by these beautiful creatures, happy that the improved vegetation is bringing them to Klaserie. I’m no longer concerned that we will have too many photographs to work through, I’m just rather excited to complete those sticker books.
Working with the light.
As with portraits of people, side lighting generates strong highlights and shadows, which work to make your subject look more three-dimensional (this is why on-camera flash rarely works as a main light source. Make use of predominantly dark tones as a way of adding drama to your photos.
South Africa has the largest population of rhinos in the world. This fact makes the country very important to rhino conservation efforts. The two African rhino species, the white (near threatened) and the black (endangered) rhino, are at risk due to a huge increase in poaching to meet demand for illegal rhino horn, especially in Asia.
In Africa the Kudu is famous for its fence-jumping abilities. They can jump a 3 meter fence easily and even 3,5 meters when doing it under stress. This is a tall and majestic antelope. Males are fawn grey while females have a cinnamon color. Old males become greyer and darker in the neck area during breeding season. They have a single white stripe down the middle of the back as well as 6-10 narrow white stripes across the back and down the flanks. Both sexes have a short upright mane from the top of the head to the shoulders. They browse on a wide variety of forbs, bushes and trees. Kudus are normally active in the early morning and late afternoon. In developed areas they become nocturnal to escape hunting.
There has been a shocking rise in rhino poaching within the last years. Recorded numbers of deaths go from 13 in 2007 to 1175 in 2015 (source: South African Department of Environmental Affairs). This is an increase of 9000% and comes down to three rhinos a day. In 2015 70% of them died in the Kruger National Park. In the first three months of 2016 the Hoedspruit area has had around 6 reported deaths. Powdered horn is used in traditional Asian medicine as a supposed cure for a range of illnesses: from hangovers to fevers and even cancer. As well as its use in medicine, rhino horn is bought and consumed purely as a symbol of wealth. Beside the value of the horn the unemployment rate in South Africa is another reason
why rhinos are poached on such a large scale. Poachers are generally from extremely poor backgrounds and are desperate to feed themselves and their families. When your options involve starving or killing a rhino and feeding your family for a year or more, it’s no surprise what choice most parents would make.
The average mass of horn on an adult white rhino is between 4 and 6 kilos. This can add up to 325,000 to 600,000 dollars per horn. Almost double the value of cocaine or heroin. A poacher receives between 80,000 and 150,000 Rand per kilo of horn and will pay up to 10,000 Rand per round for .458 ammunition. With 4 to 6 kilo that’s up to 900,000 Rand for a single horn!
Dehorning is one of the most popular counter-poaching methods, but not always effective because of the stub of horn that is left after removal. Also there is discussion on whether the trade in rhino horn should be legalized. Antipoaching units do a good job, but not all reserves make use of them. And locals have to be educated about the importance of rhinos and people in Asia have to know rhino horn is not a medicine, but of the same substance as your nails.
There are large, well funded groups that poach within organized crime rings, that can be compared with drug lords, but small scale poachers make up a large percentage of regional wildlife devastation. The brutal poaching means rhino deaths are likely to exceed birth rates of rhinos between 2016 and 2018. Extinction is about to happen if we don’t do anything about it.
In the Kruger to Canyons Biosphere Region organisations are partnering to achieve a sustainable future for all life in the K2C biosphere. By helping protect rhinos, we’re helping to conserve their habitat for the benefit of people and wildlife, helping support local communities and making sure natural resources are available for generations to come.
When Jason thinks back to his childhood he always idolized the Kruger Rangers and knew that he would become one of them someday. Now the head ranger at African Impact, he has 8 years of experience in guiding and many qualifications such as FGASA Level 2, Trails guide, and most recently Kruger trails guide obtaining those olive green epaulettes that Jason always dreamed of. His biggest drive in life is; “to make a difference in the conservation of Africa’s wildlife”, and that is very apparent if you have a chat with him. If Jason wasn’t a guide he would be a music producer. He even has a Diploma in Audio engineering to prove it.
Check out our newest submissions for this month on: africanimpactphotography.com