African Safari: A Wildlife Adventure

Grant Nel is an enthusiastic disciple for biodiversity conservation, continually travelling the globe to experience and study our planet’s myriad wildlife. After qualifying as a Zoologist, Grant opted for a career as a field naturalist. He received his ranger training at the world-renowned Mala Mala Game Reserve and has been working in the African wild for the past thirty years. Living a few hundred meters from the confluence of the Chobe and Zambezi Rivers, makes the Victoria Falls and Chobe National Park virtually his back yard. A highly respected conservation advocate, he sits on the board of two local environmental organizations and frequently consults on national ecotourism and conservation policies.

Zimbabwean-born Robyn Keene-Young is an Emmy-nominated film producer and a widely-published travel and nature writer. For more than 25 years, she’s explored southern and east Africa, producing magazine features, books, and television documentaries. Her films appear regularly on PBS, National Geographic and BBC. Her work allows her to spend her waking hours in the close company of some of the earth’s wildest and most fascinating creatures.

Robyn attended the University of the Witwatersrand during South Africa’s turbulent transition to democracy, where she graduated with Bachelor of Arts and Law degrees. She worked as a human rights attorney among farmworkers in the Cape winelands, before leaving the profession to live in a tent and document the African wild with her photographer husband. When she’s not filming in remote wilderness, Robyn lives on a farm near South Africa’s Kruger National Park. To read a story written by Robyn for Smithsonian magazine click here.

Dr. Tempe Adams is an Australian conservation ecologist who has been based in northern Botswana since 2012 and works in elephant conservation and research throughout Africa’s savanna elephant range. She has a deep passion for improving human-wildlife coexistence by combining modern technology, indigenous knowledge, our understanding of ecology, and strong community relationships to build meaning conservation polices. She previously held several roles at the Botswana-based wildlife NGO Elephants Without Borders, investigating how humans and elephants can coexist in Africa for her PhD, leading innovative research and educational studies as co-existence and education manager, and conducting aerial wildlife surveys.

Tempe holds adjunct scholar positions with the Okavango Research Institute at the University of Botswana and with her alma mater, the University of New South Wales. In these positions, she teaches and supervises post-graduate students from both Botswana and Australia in their conservation research projects within Botswana.

Tempe’s work has been published in several scientific publications and featured in an array of media platforms including the BBC, The Sunday Times, CNN, and National Geographic to name a few.

Dr. Moreangels Mbizah is a conservation biologist and community development advocate working at the critical intersection of wildlife conservation and human well-being. With deep expertise in community-based conservation, she is dedicated to pioneering inclusive approaches that promote peaceful coexistence between people and wildlife, while strengthening the socio-economic resilience of communities living near protected areas.

Moreangels holds a PhD in zoology from the University of Oxford, where her research on African lions in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park illuminated the complex challenges of predator conservation. Her groundbreaking work was featured in the acclaimed National Geographic short film One Woman’s Remarkable Journey to Protect Lions (2018), elevating her voice on the global stage.

A TED Fellow and Mandela Washington Fellow, Moreangels delivered a powerful TED Talk in 2019 titled “How Community-Led Conservation Can Save Wildlife,” in which she emphasized the crucial role of local communities in shaping the future of conservation in Africa. She is also a National Geographic Explorer and recipient of the prestigious Wayfinder Award. Passionate about mentorship and leadership development, Moreangels is committed to empowering the next generation of African conservation leaders to drive meaningful change from within their own communities.

Pepper Trail has traveled the world in the course of his studies on the ecology, behavior and conservation of birds. After receiving his PhD from Cornell University for his field study of one of the world’s most spectacular birds, the Guianan cock-of-the-rock, Pepper did post-doctoral research at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the California Academy of Sciences. An expert photographer and writer, his work has appeared in many publications including Science, Conservation Biology, and National Geographic.  

For over 20 years, Pepper served as the forensic ornithologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where his work combatting the U.S. and international wildlife trade earned him the title of "the Sherlock Holmes of bird crime." He is the creator of the leading feather identification website, The Feather Atlas of North American Birds. Recently retired, Pepper continues to work for the protection of threatened birds, particularly the spectacular and endangered hornbills of Africa.

Pepper is a popular expert on trips to the world's top natural history destinations, including southern and East Africa, the Galápagos, the Amazon, New Guinea, and the South Pacific.  His knowledge, enthusiasm and sense of humor enrich the experience of birders and non-birders alike on every journey.