South African veterinarian works to save wildlife from poaching
Kelsey Emery is a journalism student at Texas Christian University with a minor in business administration. In the summer of 2017, she traveled to South Africa as part of the TCU Rhino Initiative to report for the Pulitzer Center on the cultural and economic issues rhinoceros poaching creates. Passionate about culture, human rights, and traveling, she aspires to be a writer for National Geographic. This is the first of two articles Kelsey did for the Pulitzer Center published on their website (see here) and we acknowledge, with gratitude, their permission to re-post Kelsey’s work here in our blog.
By Kelsey Emery
Rhino conservation is no longer simply a cause, but instead a war.
At places such as Kruger National Park in South Africa, lives are being lost in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade. People from all over the country are joining anti-poaching units at Kruger with hopes of protecting the wildlife from human greed.In other areas such as the Eastern Cape, people like wildlife vet Dr. William Fowlds are crusading against poaching through a more holistic approach, including the use of education and veterinary work. It is Fowlds’ belief that we must first address the demand for rhino horn and then work to improve environmental education to stress the importance of conservation.
Dr. Fowlds prepares to locate, and tranquilize the white rhino needed for the day’s procedure. Image by Kelsey Emery. South Africa, 2017.
In other areas such as the Eastern Cape, people like wildlife vet Dr. William Fowlds are crusading against poaching through a more holistic approach, including the use of education and veterinary work. It is Fowlds’ belief that we must first address the demand for rhino horn and then work to improve environmental education to stress the importance of conservation.Native to the Eastern Cape,
Native to the Eastern Cape, Fowlds grew up on what was once domestic farmland. The wildlife had slowly begun to move away from the Eastern Cape. Fowlds continues to work on the land that had been in his family for five generations. Fowlds had little exposure to the big five (the African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and rhinoceros) but instead to wildlife such as Kudu and other species of antelope.
Fowlds had little exposure to the big five (the African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and rhinoceros) but instead to wildlife such as Kudu and other species of antelope. Fowlds didn’t see his first rhino until he was in his third year at the University of Pretoria’s veterinary school studying wildlife in 1997.
It was during a vet school symposium with 73 students from 15 different countries that Fowlds said he saw African wildlife “through the eyes of foreigners” as truly valuable for the first time.
Originally, Fowlds said he “went into vet school to be a farm vet, to be a large animal vet, not to be a wildlife vet because there was no opportunity to be a wildlife vet in this part of the country yet.” Fowlds would later change career paths.
His family’s neighbors began to pioneer the way to bring wildlife back on their property, now known as Shamwari Game Reserve, and they started an eco-tourism business in the Eastern Cape.
Not long after, in 1999, Fowlds and his family left behind domestic farming life. They decided to convert their land to a game reserve and slowly transform it into a hotspot for ecotourism and conservation.