African Wildlife & Environment Issue 74

FAUNA, FLORA & WILDLIFE

game ranger I could be. The KNP had a proven system of sourcing their future game rangers from the wilderness trails rangers fraternity. I knew that to fulfil my dream of becoming a game ranger I had to work my way through the ranks and after a stint at Londolozi, I became a wilderness trails ranger in the KNP. After seven years of taking trails, where you would work one week on a trail and the alternative week help out the local section ranger, it was a good way to ensure that when you eventually were considered to become one of the elite game rangers, you knew exactly what to do after all that practical

a full-out war. As the crime syndicates become more specialised, the game ranger contingent has adapted, and the KNP has air capability with both fixed-wing and rotor-wing aircraft. There are specialist game rangers that operate like a Special Forces military unit and, along with things like tracking dogs that can run on a scent, there are also a host of high-tech military spec equipment options that help to combat this scourge. This all comes at a high cost both in monetary and psychological terms for the game rangers on the frontline. The days of becoming a game ranger

in service training. This was a very good, practical recruitment system at the time. The KNP game rangers were well resourced (unlike many countries further north of our borders) and my time as a game ranger in the KNP was one I will treasure my whole life. I did not have to deal with the intense rhino poaching crisis that the current-day game rangers have to face. We were still able to be involved in ecologically important tasks, whereas the current priority is counter-poaching, which can dominate the game ranger’s time. Each game ranger has a field ranger team consisting of a sergeant, corporals, lance-corporals and the field rangers themselves. They operate in para-military style because the current rhino poaching epidemic is

just to work in the field with wildlife and get away from people is unfortunately a thing of the past. As technology advances, the modern day game ranger is expected to be up to speed, and in many instances an expert, in a wide array of disciplines. The social media platforms nowadays can be just as destructive as a physical firefight. The modern-day game ranger needs to be aware and be able to fight the common enemy on all these fronts. A phrase was coined by Sean Willmore, the founder of the Thin Green Line Foundation and the President of the International Ranger Federation, where he said, “Conservation without game rangers is just conversation”.

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