Rhino whisperer returns to Addo park

A former student at Addo Elephant National Park has returned to the Eastern Cape park as conservation manager.

Cathy Dreyer, pictured, started her career in Addo nearly 20 years ago and is affectionately known as the rhino whisperer.

She studied a Nature Conservation degree at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and did her experiential training at the park. Here she worked closely with the South African National Parks (SANParks) Veterinary Wildlife Service Unit based in Kimberley.

Then she joined the game capture team and worked with them for 12 years, capturing and relocating a wide variety of species throughout southern Africa and Africa.

In 2012, she left SANParks and took up the position of conservation manager at the Great Fish River Nature Reserve. Five years later she returned to SANParks as the black rhino surveillance and monitoring co-ordinator for Kruger National Park.

It’s been a busy two weeks in Addo park for Dreyer, who spent her first week participating in her first aerial census as well as being involved in an elephant contraception exercise.

Dreyer said the highlight of her career was being awarded the Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa in London in 2016.

She was the first South African recipient of the award and the first female to win it.

The Tusk Conservation Award is given to an emerging leader in conservation in Africa in recognition of their outstanding contribution and considerable successes in their chosen field.

Sir David Attenborough presented the award to Dreyer.