Are too many tourists killing Africas wildlife?
Then I hear footsteps and, looking over my shoulder, see the lean figure of Dereck Joubert striding towards me. As he passes me he raises his hands and claps twice. The big bull shakes his head, looks Joubert up and down, and turns off the path towards the fever berry trees. “Isn’t that fantastic?” Joubert says with a broad grin. “These elephants are so relaxed. They’re already getting used to this camp and we’ve only been operating here for six months.” That isn’t quite what is going through my mind. Joubert is one person you would expect to know the difference between a relaxed elephant and one that in an instant would drop its head, flatten its ears and charge you with deadly effect. He has, after all, with his wife Beverly, spent the past quarter of a century living out here cheek-by-jowl with wild animals. In that time, spent mostly in tents, they have come to know the wilderness and its inhabitants in the way we city dwellers have come to know the neighbourhood shops, art galleri
