Lecture 2
SAVING THE SPECIES - SOUTHERN GROUND HORNBILL
"I saw my first ground hornbill at Umgeni River Bird Park in Durban. I thought it the most amazing bird I had ever seen and when I got back
to Mabula I wondered why we did not have them on our reserve. I was told that Alan Kemp was the world authority and to ring him. I did
and 10 days later he arrived with three 4-month old chicks that I thought we would release onto the reserve and check each day…..it was
not like that.
They were not self sufficient until two years old, and knew nothing about predators or their complicated social structure. I found myself
running a conservation project for a species under threat of extinction. With WWF funding……..11 wonderful years becoming an unusually large
and successfully privately funded international research and conservation project."
