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The life and times of a wildlife filmmaker
June 2010 Issue - On Sale Now!
Filmmakers are a special breed of person. Do not be mistaken into thinking that all directors, producers, actors and so on are superstars, saddled with millions of dollars. The majority of the world’s movie makers survive on passion, the goodwill of friends and sheer grit. Spielberg, Cruise, Bruckheimer – let me assure you that these people represent a small albeit affluent minority. Being a filmmaker is truly an artist’s life.
Even within this beleaguered group of passionate individuals, there is a sub-group of people who have it even harder. The wildlife filmmaker’s life is a greater struggle. Take it from someone who has worked in the field.
The wildlife filmmaker needs to work with a cast that is entirely uninterested in the project, on locations which care very little about the cost of equipment, and often without a script.
Getting someone to finance a project that often has no clear objectives and/or timelines? Forget about it.
And yet, all over the world there are people who do exactly that. The motivations run the gamut of a love of cinema, a love of the natural world or simply for the sheer challenge of it.
Of the people who take up this kind of life, one of the best is South Africa’s very own John Varty, with whom Leadership had the privilege to speak.
Where did your interest in conservation begin?
I was born into it. My grandfather, Charles Varty, pioneered the Sabi Sands Game Reserve in an ox wagon in 1926.
I grew up in a hunting environment and switched to photography and filming when my brother and I started Londolozi in 1974.
Why are you so passionate about and committed to the “big cats” specifically?
As a kid, I hunted lion and leopard; and then in 1979, I met a female leopard at Londolozi. With my tracker, Elmon Mhlongo, I spent every day with her for five years and eventually followed her for 14 years.
I documented 19 of her cubs, many from birth to death. I was with her when she died.
After this, I picked up Shingalana, the lion cub, and rehabbed Little Boy and Little Girl – two leopard cubs – back into the wilds of Luangwa Valley.
Jamu was another leopard I had in Luangwa, after her mother was killed in a wire snare. After this, I returned three cheetah, two of which were King cheetah, to Tswala in
the Kalahari.
I recently have documented the life of a leopard called Manana, which lived for 17 years at Londolozi. At the end of her life, she allowed me to hunt with her.
I spent four years rehabbing the tigers Ron and Julie back to the wilds and was with them in more than 300 hunts, many of which were successful.
I introduced a six-day-old lion cub called Savannah into tigress Julie’s litter in a genetic diversity experiment.
I presently have 16 tigers free-ranging at the Tiger Canyon experiment..
How do you feel about the anthropomorphising of wild animals?
Initially, I was in the scientific mould: a leopard should have a number on a computer. It is the non-emotional instinctive animal that needs prey, cover, water and protection from human beings to survive.
I’ve gone through my own evolution and I now view leopards as highly intelligent, emotional beings with a culture that is different but no less complex than our own. I now engage with leopards, lion and tigers in symbiotic relationships that can span decades.
The relationship I have with tigress Julie I value just behind the relationship I have with my own family.
Lions, leopard and tigers have taught me things and given me values that I use in my everyday life, and I go to great lengths to pass this on to my children.
Your work with the tigers in the Philippolis area has been dogged with controversy. How do you respond to your detractors?
My Tiger Project at Tiger Canyons near Philippolis was heavily criticised when it began. Now the Indians can find only 1 041 wild tigers.
The tigers in Sariska went extinct in 2008 and the tigers in Panna went extinct in 2009. All of this under a cloud of deception, corruption
and poaching.
Suddenly there is a wake-up call; many people are saying the tiger won’t be saved in Asia. If it can’t be saved in Asia, where will the wild tiger be saved?
India has 1.3 billion people and China has 1.7 billion. In these two tiger countries alone live nearly half of humanity. Neither country has any blueprint to save the tigers, both are corrupt and heavily poached.
A tiger in India competes with 320 human beings per square kilometre. At Tiger Canyons, the tigers compete with sheep, a failing land use system and two people per square kilometre. In India and all the tiger countries, the tigers are owned and managed by the governments. At Tiger Canyons, they are privately owned.
It doesn’t take rocket science to work out where the tiger has the most chance of survival.
What has the response been from local farmers to you and your work there?
The farmers love me because of the 21 sheep farms that I have bought over the years. Only five farmers occupied the land, the rest earned their income in towns and cities nearby.
Under the apartheid government, the farmers were kept on the land by the government. The ANC government has other priorities and so sheep farming has become a non-viable way of using the land.
The government desperately needs to produce jobs that can uplift poor communities. Philippolis is the fourth poorest town in South Africa.
The only way the government can create jobs in Philippolis is through tourism.The only way to attract tourists to Philippolis is through wildlife and to have a wildlife magnet. That magnet is a large cat with stripes, called a tiger.
If I create a Big Five reserve, I compete with 2 000 other Big Five reserves. If I create a tiger experiment, I have the competitive edge.
As Asian’s wild tigers dwindle, I have the monopoly on wild tigers worldwide. This is why every professional wildlife photographer is heading for Tiger Canyons because he/she knows that he/she can shoot 1 000 images a day against a spectacular backdrop.
What has this to do with farmers?
When a farmer owns a sheep farm, the value is y. If he puts wildlife on the land, the value is three times y. If he puts wildlife and tigers on the land, the value is 10 times y. Therefore, the land around Philippolis will reach its maximum value under wildlife with wild tigers.
How do you see the future of conservation in Africa?
The future of wildlife in Africa lies in the ability and vision of African governments to move away from destructive land use systems to sustainable land use systems.
Then, African governments need to partner with the private enterprises in these sustainable systems, for example privatisation of camps in the Kruger National Park. These partnerships need to create jobs, create upliftment and invest rural people in wildlife.
In order for this to be successful, both government and private enterprise must have the commitment and vision to create a sustainable activity that is non-destructive to the land, but closes the gap between rich and poor, for example a large sheep farm doesn’t create jobs, doesn’t attract tourists and is not kind to the land. The same land under wildlife creates jobs and attracts tourists.
In order for the farmer to reach this new position, he may well need assistance from the government.
At Londolozi Private Game Reserve, we can accommodate 52 guests and we employ 209 people and feed 1 000 people every day. The land earns 40 times more than the same land in the Kruger Park and 100 times more than a cattle farm nearby.
What can the South African government do to contribute to conservation which it is not doing yet? Policies, legislation etc.
I don’t know of any government that has the knowledge, the vision or the commitment to turn around the destructive journey on which mankind is presently embarking.
I have a T-shirt at Tiger Canyons which reads: “The world is waiting for a new direction – one based on the laws of nature”.
Another T-shirt reads: “With just one day of the money spent on the Iraqi war, I could save the tiger 10 times over”.
What is your opinion on conservation in South Africa?
South Africa initially had a disastrous conservation record where, in the 19th century, it destroyed in excess of 100 million springbok in the Karoo and replaced them with exotic sheep and goats.
Although they have never reclaimed the Karoo for indigenous animals, the government and private enterprise have set aside about 300 000 hectares a year for wildlife for the last 10 years. These mostly are failed farming areas being changed to wildlife and then earning their living from hunting, ecotourism and game sales.
The South African government now needs to change its mindset. It needs to perceive itself as a leader in the field of wildlife management, ecotourism and creative conservation. Now it can reach out to struggling developing countries that can’t protect their wildlife or their endangered species.
A perfect example is the tiger. The South African government, and by extension the National Parks Board, should take the attitude that Asia can’t save the tiger, so it will save it for Asia.
South Africa’s management of big cats is arguably the best in the world.
I would like to see the National Parks of South Africa create a national park for tigers. This would be run on the basis of ecotourism, research, communication and social upliftment of surrounding communities. It must be a fully functioning national park – profitable, self-sustaining and playing a major role in the field of job creation in the surrounding communities.
It would be styled as an ‘ex situ’ conservation project and its emphasis would be on awareness, education and inspiration.
On no account should a mature ecosystem such as the Kruger Park be invaded, but rather a park such as the Pilanesberg or Madikwe – which can be started from scratch – be created. Once created, the National Park of South Africa should unashamedly market the Big Six!
What is it about your work that brings you the most satisfaction and sense of achievement?
Working with big cats has been an honour and a privilege. Humans are primates, they have great capacity for deception. Cats are straight- forward – you step out of line, they bite you. I like that.
If you were not doing this work, what else would you be doing?
I would be a rock ‘n roll singer representing the fragile planet Earth.
Where to next for John Varty?
I have just written a book called Nine Lives. I am hoping my next life will be as exciting as this one.
If there were one thing you could change about the world in which we live, what would it be?
I can change nothing, all I can do is tell my kids life is fragile, never take it for granted, live each day like there is no tomorrow and follow
your dreams…
Interview by Jo Kromberg, with introduction by Zaid Kriel
