Whatshot
RIP Ian Player
RIP Ian Player
The patron of the Rhinose Foundation, Dr. Ian Player, died peacefully today aged 87 at his farm in the Karkloof Hills outside Howick in KwaZulu Natal, in the company of his family.
"Madolo," as his Zulu rangers affectionately named him, was South Africa's greatest conservationist, who headed up the successful campaign to save Africa's last Southern white rhino from extinction in the late 1950's and 1960's.
An activist to the very end, he remained at the forefront of the current Rhino War, heartbroken that the animals he and his team had once saved from the brink were again under threat of being wiped out by ignorant superstition and criminal greed.
Our condolences go out to his wife Ann, their children, and the Player family.
Hamba kahle beloved Rhino Warrior. We celebrate your life well lived, and salute your legacy to conservation and the wilderness that lives on in your name and memory.