Tim Martin from Osprey posted this on Facebook this morning so I thought I'd pass it along to AR.

Good read about who's doing right for conservation and how some western intervention with positive intentions has had a negative effect.

Wildlife's Unlikely Ally

The name Hannes Wessels, poster of this article caught my attention.

I wonder if its the same chap who nearly lost his life after being gored by a wounded buffalo in Kitiangare/Masailand a number of years ago ?

I got a kick out of that picture of John Sharp. That was defiantly a few years back and there has been a lot of water run under the bridge.

Good article

Thought they were a little harsh on Greg Carr and Gorongosa. Could things have been done differently, sure. Was money spent in the wrong ways, yes. But by all accounts they have put together a pretty good anti poaching team and the game has and continues to increase. Is it back to pre war levels, no. I'm sure Greg has learned from his experiences and if he stays with it the Park will regain much,but not all of its former glory.

fujotupo:

I think he's one in the same. One of the other articles below the main article came from his book, which is very entertaining and hilarious at times, by the way.

He deals with his accident in the book and he was flown from the "hospital" at Emboret to Kenya for treatment. I put the word hospital in quotes because I spent the better part of a day there a few years back when a tracker came down with cholera. It's hardly a hospital. More of a clinic managed by a nuns and a few nurses. No doctors, but it does have an airstrip.

My PH was on the phone with Hannes during that downtime on other matters however.

I think we were hunting in Hannes' gari. Not sure of the precise status of ownership at the time.

Lavaca:

I was doing a hunt in the Selous when it happened but as soon as I got back to my old haunt was taken to the thicket and exact spot where he got clobbered.

He spent considerable time in the Nairobi Hospital were his internals mended but never recovered psychologically - I believe he went back to his safer chosen profession (lawyer).... and writer.

Fujotupu:

Not sure about your evaluation of "safer professions", but everyone views that from their own perspective. I'm a lawyer and I'd fed up with it. It might be somewhat safer, but if I was younger and could start over, I'd rather deal with the risks of the other professions -- either one, take your pick.

Plus, my opponents in my current profession want to destroy me, discredit me, lie about me, etc. I like the straightforward approach of elephants and buffalo. We all know where we stand.

Now as to being a writer, that has the risks of both professions.