Staff continued

Dr Chap Masterson - Project Veterinarian
Dr. Chap Masterson was born and raised in Zimbabwe before studying veterinary science. He graduated from the University of Pretoria Faculty of Vet Science, Onderstepoort, in 2001. In 2002-2003 he worked as a wildlife veterinarian for Specialist Game Services, a major game capture and translocation company in RSA, capturing and translocating almost 10 000 animals a year including numerous rhinos and entire family groups of elephant. From 2004-2010 Chap was based in the Hluhluwe district of Kwazulu Natal and consulting country wide to game capture teams as a freelance vet under the name Zvakanaka Wild Vet. During this period Chap gained invaluable experience through thousands of chemical immobilisations of a wide range of wildlife species with emphasis on rhino, buffalo, leopard and nyala, as well as consulting on a broad spectrum of issues facing wildlife ranch management. He gained particular experience in ecology, ethology and treatment, as well as control of animal diseases at the wildlife-livestock-human interface. In January 2011, Chap returned to Zimbabwe with his wife, Lisa, and their 2 sons to join the LRT team so as to assist with rhino conservation work and promote the realisation of conservation benefits to rural communities in his home country.

Jackson Kamwi - Head Rhino Monitor
Jackson Kamwi is the senior rhino monitor with the Lowveld Rhino Trust. His job is to use his bushcraft skills to track specific rhinos so that they can be reported on regularly. Kamwi was involved as a tracker in many of the rhino capture operations with National Parks teams working in the Zambezi Valley in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and was recruited by the Lowveld Rhino Trust to start a rhino monitoring unit in 1996. The Lowveld Rhino Trust has deployed him on missions to locate rhinos and to train local staff in Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania and Ethiopia. In addition, he found the last surviving black rhino in Akagera National Park, Rwanda, and proved that the reports of black rhinos surviving in Cameroon were based on false information. He has also participated in an unsuccessful search for the few northern white rhinos that were hoped to be surviving in DRC. For his long-term role in rhino conservation, Kamwi was recognized as an International Conservation Hero by the US-based Disney Conservation Fund.