The path of a conservationist is filled with challenges, including shoestring budgets, a lot of work with little to no tangible rewards and perhaps the most challenging of all, changing the minds of the general population. This year the world lost one of nature’s most renowned conservationists – Dame Daphne Sheldrick.
Born in Kenya on 4 June 1934, Daphne’s work in conservation spanned a lifetime. From an early age, Daphne grew up with animals, both wild and domestic. With a love for wildlife instilled within her at an early age, she carried this love forward towards her conservation efforts. After matriculating in 1950 from Nakuru Primary School in Kenya Daphne was offered a bursary for university, but instead opted for marriage. After marrying David Sheldrick, Daphne and her husband worked as wardens for Tsavo National Park.
Daphne’s successes in conservation has largely been attributed to her life-long experience with animals and a deep seated knowledge of animal psychology. An essential part of her success has been a genuine and profound empathy for all animals. Realising that elephants aren’t so different from humans in terms of what they feel, she understood their fragility, capacity to care and love for their own, as well as their ability to grieve and heal. She is most well-known for her work on animal husbandry – particularly the rearing and rehabilitation of orphaned elephants (she has also worked with black rhino, buffalo, zebra, eland and kudu). Daphne Sheldrick was the first person to get the milk formula just right for orphaned elephants and rhinos. This achievement alone has saved a lot of orphaned elephants and rhinos in Kenya and across the African continent.
Daphne’s accolades are numerous, but here are a few of them:
- Decorated with an M.B.E. (Order of the British Empire) in 1989
- Placed on UNEP’s Global 500 Roll of Honour in 1992
- Awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery by Glasgow University
- Presented Moran of the Burning Spear (M.B.S.) by the Kenya government in 2001
- Lifetime Achievement Award by the BBC in 2002
Although Daphne Sheldrick is no longer with us, the people she has influenced and impacted will keep her work alive through their own conservation efforts. She is survived by two daughters and four grandchildren. Her daughter Angela has worked with the family wildlife trust for the last 17 years and the mantle of matriarch has been passed on to her. It may feel like a lonely undertaking, but Daphne is in good company when it comes to wildlife and environmental conservation personalities. Below are some people who have stepped up to conserve the world’s environments and wildlife.
From tech-entrepreneur to conservationist, Greg Carr made a big fortune from his internet and voice-mail technology ventures in the 80s and 90s. In 2004 he visited Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park. At the time, the park was just a shell and wildlife was close to non-existent, due to rampant poaching during the Mozambican Civil War (1977 – 1992) and after it. An agreement was reached between Greg’s foundation and the Mozambican government in 2004 to rehabilitate the park. Greg has pledged 40 million US$ over 30 years in an effort to rehabilitate the park. Gorongosa is now one of Africa’s premier wildlife destinations.
“While most kids were on the sports field, I was doing bird banding and taxidermy. Building fences, erosion control – I’ve been doing this since as long as I can remember.” Peter has come a long way from his boyhood afternoons and co-founded African Parks in 2000. This non-profit has worked towards the long-term survival of national parks across the continent. African Parks currently has 13 parks under its stewardship, in some of the most challenging environments in Africa, including Chad, Malawi, Benin and the Central African Republic.
One of the original members of the Black Mamba Anti-Poaching Unit (an all-female anti-poaching unit), Collet along with her colleagues are dedicated to protecting wildlife in the Greater Kruger National Park. Only armed with their tracking skills and wit (that’s right, no weapons), Collet and her colleagues have reduced snaring in their patrol area by 78%. Early mornings are the norm for Collet and her team. Including a 14 km perimeter patrol each day.
German born Sabine Plattner fell in love with Africa and its wildlife when she first came to South Africa in 1978. In 2007 she travelled to the Republic of the Congo to set up an environmental education program for villagers in Odzala-Kokoua National Park. Realising that conservation doesn’t work sustainably without commerce, Sabine set out to build lodges in the area to bring in much needed tourism. In 2013 Odzala-Kokoua’s second lodge was complete providing jobs for the local community as well as a base from which to research Africa’s endangered Western Lowland Gorillas.