I am Dr. Francois Deacon I am a normal farmer that grew
up in the small town Kroonstad attended the
agricultural school there and always had a
passion for wildlife and conservation
and then I went to go study and I never
realized in my life that I'll get a
degree or thought it's possible for me
to get a degree but then I got hooked on
on certain aspects of of the reality of
conservation and and wildlife and
management and I did a zoology degree I
continued after that with with honors in
wildlife management in rangeland science
and then that all the steps the
continued with a master's and a PhD and
in all those steps research was a was
the main priority to understand animals
or systems or ecosystems or habitat better
and that lead me to this point where I'm
based at the University of the Free State
to to lecture and teach in
rangeland and wildlife ecology but
before that I worked a couple of years
for Sanparks and I was placed in the
Kalahari and that was the best time of
my life just skipping in the dunes and
enjoy every moment under the stars what
we did today as a research group from
the University is a quite a broad
approach with interdisciplinary each
one's got his own different goals
objectives aims we were team of 12
people in general we close to 20 people
that are involved with with the research
going on at Rockwood and the opportunity
that arised for us is is enormous
to bring all these different researchers
together
and combine all this and integrate this
information and the real understanding
of if if you understand an animal better
if you know how to to take care of it or
what the basic needs of the animal it's
easier to take care of it or preserve it
or conserve it
my project is to study the influences of
dehorning Rhinos on their behavior so
in terms of do they move to more higher
ground now to sort of get a vantage
point to see what's going on around in
the environment also do they move to
more open open ground as opposed to
dense Bush so that they can see more of
their surroundings and also do they tend
to form bigger groups now that they now
that they won't have been cut off
because they feel sort of self-conscious
with their without their their weapon
not all classrooms are between four
walls the best classroom is to take
someone outside out of the comfort zone
get them involved and make them realize
you busy with something important if you’re not
that part of that process of what we did
today to collect all those samples and and
if you're not part of that I don't see
how you can create that stimulus just by
watching Nat Geo or television or
Discovery programs or documentaries the
best approach I think you could have is
to get people actively involved
you need that Texan coming from the
United States and next time we do a
rhino capture or a giraffe
translocation he needs to be with us you
need investors but not just money you
need people that that give time or or
that interest or that stimulus for the
next generation and if you get that
Texan family to come and help with the
rhino capture or a European family or it
could be from anywhere in the world if
you've had them once here being involved
with what we did this morning you've got
them hooked and they're gonna spread the
news in the story and and that's what
you want that's the positive stuff we
want to put out there the approach Rockwood
has and putting that experience out
there for someone to come and touch the
world life and help and assist with daily
routine procedures in management
procedures doesn't matter if it's a
rhino or buffalo or giraffe or any of the other
wildlife species the more you can attract
people that can come and assist
volunteers and families and NGOs people
that can be boots on the ground hands-on
become part of it that's where we're gonna
make a difference
if you look at the footage from what
we've did this morning all of those
students have never touched a rhino and
they’ve been sitting somewhere at a
younger age probably dreamt of maybe
getting involved and there's a lot of
young people in the world that really
has a heart for conservation if we can get
some of those people here students
or young scientists or even professionals
that can come and help us or assist or
just take part in collecting samples
there is a place for all of them we can
make good use of all of them
my name is Corlia Steyn. I’m from Douglas
and I’m currently studying the University of the Free State
I’m busy with my final year studies which includes my honors degree
I am studying Animal Production [Management] at the agricultural facility
at the University of the Free State
I can now do my honors on rhinos
I care deeply for these animals
so I want to do as much
as I can with rhinos
It’s a very interesting system that they
have here with the rhinos
They have good supervision over the rhinos
with the bomas
the three camps that the rhinos are guided into in the evenings
behind locked
gates and them being monitored and protected
As I understand, it’s about having more control over rhinos
rhinos than leaving them in the veld and having to search for them every day
It’s better regulation of the rhinos
with all the poaching going on these days
Talking about poaching
people who poach do
not have a love for animals
All that they see
is making a quick buck
I’ve read a book where they say
that the rhino species will go extinct
but I don’t think about that
I mean, it’s [horn is] part of its face, but I don’t think about that
If someone would chop you in the face
what would that look like?
It hurts to see a big animals like that suffer
Actually, if they can just
come to their senses
and think clearly, to say
Something as great as that
[Music]
It hurts to see a big animal like that suffer
I actually don’t want to talk too much, too deeply, about those things
People from the outside, if they sit and think
about the rhinos, they’ll see that the
work that Rockwood does
here is about teaching
and we still want to learn
more in the years to come
Those who want to know more should come and visit
so we can have a conversation
with them
about rhinos
I’d like it if someone who doesn’t know about rhinos could ask me qustions
about what goes on here
I can tell you about the experience
I got here and we
welcome visitors at Rockwood
Here we don’t chase away
we invite in
what you saw today in the field is that's what we do we’re getting
dirty we’re active in the field it's the
students it's the lecturers it's the
scientists the game rangers it's the farm
manager it's the film crew everyone is
part of it it's it's there and if you’re
not there
you miss half of it you need to be
there you need to go through that
emotion of that that cow going to you to
that calf laying still waking up I mean
that is an emotional moment if you look
at it that's why we here if you look at
that scene and you realize yes that's it
now I can go home that was that was the
perfect moment that's that's what I live
for is to experience that moment man if
you can get that woman (tannie) from Europe that
can see that or experience that you
would hook her for life and she would
change the world for you and this is the
place to do it this is the
invitation to get these people
scientists and everyone to get involved
and touching that rhino I mean I
don't know how many of you guys have
touched a rhino before but it's
amazing it's it's a you know it's just
very few people in the world has
experienced that so Rockwood is
putting that opportunity for anyone to
get involved and want to be involved
this is the place to be
this is the place to come and experience
if you're a volunteer or a scientist or
a young professional come help us we
need you
you probably bring something to the
table we've never thought of or never
had that angle to approach and if we
don't make a difference who is going to
do it if if I'm a young guy and you’re a young guy
there’s plenty of people that probably
gonna see a lot of what you're trying to
capture and if we can't stimulate that
curiosity amongst young people and the
students that are with us here that each
one's got assigned even if they collect
ticks or milk body or temperature or body
measurements or hoof clips this if you
don't stimulate that interest in the
student who's gonna take over who's
going to help build that legacy and what
Wicus and Rockwood is doing is building a
legacy to save what's left
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