Kruger National Park

Meet Kruger's elephant scientist - A career shaped by cricket, wildlife and the air

Dr Ian J Whyte, Kruger's experienced elephant specialist is a confident and accomplished scientist but if it wasn't for a rather sedate sport, his career path could have been very different. An underachiever (by his own admission) at school in Johannesburg, the young Ian had to retake his matric exam and failed to reach the required level needed for University. When his parents retired to White River shortly afterwards Ian came with them and took a job in an orange juice canning factory. In his spare time he was a keen cricket player. Playing a match at Skukuza one day, he struck up a friendship with one of the Kruger game capture crew. When a vacancy for a Technical Assistant later came up in the Park, the cricketing bond meant Whyte was recommended for the job.

Ian had always been interested in wildlife; devouring his father's collection of books and enjoying time spent on his brother's farm. Joining Kruger in 1970, he spent over three years assisting on the lion census. Spending every night moving from pride to pride, capturing and studying lions, was the fulfillment of one of his boyhood dreams. The other was to come later.

Catching up on his education while working, Whyte took a Certificate of Field Ecology at the University of Rhodesia and completed his Masters on the predator/prey relationship between lions and wildebeest at the University of Natal. By now responsible for Kruger's lion studies, he offered to 'swap' jobs, for the rather less glamorous sounding buffalo post, when an experienced colleague from the Kalahari moved to Kruger. There are many parallels between the study of buffalo and elephant so, when Kruger's famed elephant scientist, Anthony Hall-Martin moved on to Pretoria, it seemed sensible for Whyte to combine his work on both animals.

Today, as Kruger's Research Manager for Large Herbivores, Whyte is responsible for the study of everything from steenboks to elephants. He focuses mainly on topics related to the management of animals (such as population growth rates and home range studies) but doesn't have much time for 'real science' anymore. Almost half his year is taken up with data collection, analysis and reporting for the annual game counts in Kruger, Mapungubwe and Marakele National Parks. He doesn't complain though; having been a self-confessed 'aviation nut' since childhood, Whyte himself pilots the plane for the large herbivore censuses.

Completing his PhD in 2001, Dr Whyte considers the most important part of his career to be his balanced 'holistic' view of the management of elephants. His thesis bears none of the hallmarks of obscure, highly-specialised, abstract science. Instead it is a broad, readable account of the myriad factors that need to be considered when managing elephant populations in the confined area of Kruger National Park. Communicating this overview of what he calls the 'Elephant Dilemma' takes up most of Whyte's remaining time. Relishing the chance to challenge people's perceptions of elephants, he estimates he has given more than 250 elephant management lectures. His audiences have ranged from students and Honorary Rangers to parliamentary groups. Giving people the facts to make informed choices, he is clear to point out that "science doesn't make decisions about elephant management " that's about societal values".

As an acknowledgement of Whyte's work in Kruger, his colleagues recently motivated that one of Kruger's impressive big tuskers be named after him. Living up to Whyte's Tsonga name, Masthulele, which means ‘the quiet one', has only been photographed twice; both times by Whyte on the annual elephant census.

Despite falling into his 35 year career with Kruger by accident, Whyte has been bowled over by the experience. "Never for a single minute" has he considered leaving the Park. Having spent some time in Tsavo and Amboseli National Parks in Kenya, he would however like the chance to visit other wildlife areas in Africa. Spending time in other elephant populations, he says, has helped to clarify his thinking. Here in Kruger, he is keen to make progress on studies of feeding behaviour and elephant impacts and, if sponsorship could be found, would love to learn to fly a helicopter!