This young South African conservation scientist left a lucrative job – and her home country – to help rhinos survive extinction.
Zoliswa Nhleko, a Mail & Guardian Top 200 young South African studies rhinos in South Africa but is currently 10,000 kilometres away at the University of Florida.
The junior scientist with South African National Parks, went to the University of Florida to study wildlife ecology and conservation. She’ll use what she learns in her doctoral program to protect the species from extinction.
Nhleko says that it was in primary school when her passion for wildlife conservation was kindled.
“I was part of the Natal Museum club, which exposed me to a wide range of topics in environmental education and wildlife conservation,” says Nhleko.
“One of the notable, fascinating and scary topics was the extinction of animals through human activities — such as the dodo on display at the museum. After being told that species continue going extinct, I wanted to learn more.”
After getting degrees in zoology and environmental management from Rhodes University and the University of South Africa, Nhleko landed a high-paying job with a water-purification company. Then she heard about the opportunity to work at Kruger National Park as a junior scientist.
“Rhinos were brought back from the brink of extinction in the 1960s, and now they’re threatened again. To think we’ve let it get to this point is devastating,” she says.
Nhlenko’s interest in rhinos began with a simple question: What do the parks really need to know?
“I asked a regional ecologist, ‘What are the questions that you really need answers to, but don’t have the manpower?’ One of them was the reproductive success of black rhinos. Are they reproducing or not? What is happening with the population?” The question appealed to her for its far-ranging impact.
As a keystone species, rhinos anchor their ecosystems, which means management strategies that benefit rhinos benefit other species, too.
And as part of the Big 5 — the charismatic megafauna on every safari-goer’s wish list — rhinos drive tourism, which supports one in 12 jobs in South Africa.”
Typically, junior scientists at Kruger study at South African universities. But Bob McCleery, an associate professor in the UF/IFAS Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation, had heard about Nhleko through contacts at Kruger and offered her a spot in his lab.
“After meeting her and seeing the kind of potential and passion she had, we decided we would try to bring her here,” he says.
“She’s fearless. She never once hesitated.”
Nhleko does coursework in Gainesville during the academic year, then spends the summers studying white rhinos in Kruger National Park. Since the rhinos she studies have radio tags, satellite data can tell her what her subjects are up to at all times. She wants to understand the long-distance movements of white rhinos, which aren’t known to migrate.
“They stay in an area for a long time, then seem to just pack up and move great distances before settling in new areas again,” she says. “I will be trying to tease out what triggers them, which individuals do these movements and whether they occur all year round or during certain seasons.
Conservation work is hardly ever high-paying, but knowing you are contributing to a greater purpose is the reward. Knowing that our work will ensure that future generations will not miss out on species like the rhino and the elephant like we did with the dodo. Saving our large mammals means saving many ecosystem services and processes — and humans, which would be negatively affected by their removal.”
Her goal is to find better ways to ensure that the conservation of wildlife gets the attention it deserves, especially in a country where eco-tourism plays such an important role.
“I wish to motivate more young people into the conservation sector in South Africa, which is not ranked as a highly rewarding career.”
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