≪Dr Ian Whyte is an independent environmental consultant who retired from SAN Parks in 2007. He was previously engaged in fulltime wildlife research in the Kruger National Park from 1970-2007. At the time of retirement, he was responsible for the coordination of all research projects pertaining to elephant, buffalo and other large herbivores and rare antelope. He is a member of the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission’s African Elephant Specialist Group. He has co-authored three field guides to the birds of the Kruger National Park and in 2020, released his book about his life and work in the KNP.
The International Union for Conversation of Nature (IUCN) was founded in 1948 and is the world’s first global environmental organisation dedicated to preserving the natural world. Among many other aspects, its work has led to the creation of laws and international treaties to protect endangered species.
One of its projects was to initiate the early versions of the ‘Red List of Threatened Species’, which was first published in 1964 and has become the leading source of
