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Steve Seager - Interview by Mike McNamee - part 1 of 1 2 3 4 5

by Mike McNamee Published 02/02/2015

Steve Seager has the job that many people would die for and those who don't fancy it for themsleves remain envious of what he does? The reaction of people I told about what he does for a living suggested it was well worth a write-up.

After completing an honours degree in International Wildlife Biology, Steve took a three-month guide and ranger qualification at Antires Nature College (www.naturecollege. co.za). His course led to an FGASA qualification (Field Guides Association of South Africa) - the Antires website also lists some other interesting courses such as their Dangerous Animals module which includes all the techniques necessary to look after yourself in extreme conditions including shooting. Steve, incidentally, goes about armed with nothing more than a pepper spray of slightly dubious efficacy! He followed this course with a placement at the Selati Private Game reserve, working for Leo Africa (www.leoafrica.org). This is a privately owned game reserve held by a number of stakeholders and extended to 33,000 hectares. The estate holds a diverse population of African wild life including some of the less well-known but very important species. With six employed guides, the reserve provides experience for up to 14 'volunteers' at one time. These paying volunteers come for a variety of reasons from furthering their postgraduate studies to gap-year working vacations. The guide's job is to keep the volunteers safe while they learn their craft and interact with the animals.

Professional Imagemaker caught up with Steve on a recent return to the UK, as he was preparing to fly back to the reserve to carry on his work there. Having initially set him up with some 'wildlife' photography training, we were anxious to hear how he was getting on, but also took the opportunity to brush up his Photoshop skills and introduce him to drone technology!

Tell me a bit about the reserve that you work on

The reserve is 33,000 hectares of what is known as bush veldt or a 'savannah biome'. This is clusters of acacia/combretum in a grassland penetrated by granite intrusions that are called 'koppies'. These koppies are up to 50 metres in height and are used by the top predators as lookout posts. The elephants also climb up them occasionally. They help us look out for poachers and to search for species hiding in the long grass.

Poaching is a terrible problem in the game parks. Rhino, in particular are hunted for their horns in a completely misguided notion that they have medicinal properties. Even dehorning them is no guarantee of their safety, the poachers have been known to kill rhino to collect the remnants of the horn stub. It is a significant part of the guide's job to watch after their animals and protect them from poachers. All reserves have armed anti-poaching units, but such are the extents of the reserves that even then it is difficult to guarantee the safety of the species.

How is your typical day on the reserve organised?

There are two types of day, game drives and animal monitoring days. For game drives we get up at around 6am and set off in our modified Toyota Land Cruisers at 7am. The drive typically lasts for five hours and we come back to base at lunch time. Then we go out again around 3pm and stay away working until nightfall around 6pm, before getting back at around 7pm.

The animal monitoring days last from 7am until 5pm. Quad bikes are used for transport and we may take a volunteer with us to teach them tracking skills. Radio telemetry is used to locate specific animals so that their health can be assessed, as well as checking who they are hanging about with. En route to find a particular animal we will record the location and numbers of other herds in the park. Although the reserve is 'only' 11 miles north to south and 14 miles east to west it is an all-day job to travel across on a quad bike. We teach the volunteers telemetry which is more of an art than a science and often only places the guide in the general vicinity of the animal. Once we get close we have to leave the vehicle and stalk in so that the assessment can be made. Vigilance is paramount during this stage, you have to know the direction of your vehicle at all times and keep an eye for useful trees up which to climb in an emergency. Not all the animals have collars and so you have to be aware that the collared one is possibly hanging out with companions. We know our animals quite well and we don't want to find that a placid one we are stalking is teamed up with an unpredictable companion! Poachers too are an ever-present threat.

If the day finishes early we are tasked with climbing a nearby koppie and spend the time until nightfall scouring the terrain for any signs of unwanted activity that might require calling up the anti-poaching unit. As the lions also use the koppies as lookouts we have to take care to check who is around while we are absorbed in our searching.

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