Dogged determination … indefatigable … undeterred … unassuming. This is without doubt the best way to describe veteran conservationist Peter Bridgeford.
Way back, during the 1990s, there was no Lappet-faced vulture chick in any camel thorn tree in the Namib too high for Peter to reach. And, while he was busy with the construction of the Namib-Naukluft Hiking Trail, the steep-sided valley up to Bakenkop, which seemed impossible to scale, did not deter Peter from finding a way. Later, when I hiked up the very same kloof with the help of chains that had been fitted, I could not figure out how we got up the kloof.
𝐂𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐕𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐓
Peter started his career in nature conservation in what was then known as South West Africa when he was appointed as a tourist officer at Okaukuejo in the Etosha National Park in 1976. After just three months he was transferred to Swakopmund, followed by postings to Henties Bay, Ugabmond and Möwe Bay. In 1982, he was transferred to the Namib-Naukluft Park and rose through the ranks to senior warden in charge of the park’s southern section.
Peter was the driving force behind the construction of the Naukluft Hiking Trail, which was officially opened on 3 June 1989, as well as the now-defunct Naukluft 4x4 Trail. On ‘retiring’ from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in 1999, he worked at the NamibRand Nature Reserve for five years before settling down at Walvis Bay.
A PASSION FOR VULTURES Way back in the 1980s, when Peter was stationed in the Skeleton Coast, he and his wife, Marilyn, began recording breeding attempts of Lappet-faced vultures in the park. Their early interactions with these majestic, but much-maligned birds, proved to be infectious and the couple ringed their first chicks in the Sossusvlei area of the Namibia Naukluft Park in 1986. Boundless enthusiasm soon turned into a life-long passion. With the help of fellow conservationists, friends and supporters, the ringing project became an annual event in October when the chicks are large enough to be ringed but still too small to fly. Patagial tags replaced the early system of a numbered metal ring and a unique combination of coloured rings that were attached to the chicks’ legs in 2006.
Peter was instrumental in establishing the Namibian section of the Vulture Study Group, a working group of the Endangered Wildlife Trust, in 1997. The group, which was renamed Vultures Namibia to reflect its local identity in 2005, is coordinated by Peter.
Having worked for more than three decades with the Lappet-faced vultures of the Namib, Peter is without doubt Namibia’s foremost expert on Lappet-faced vultures.
𝐀𝐔𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑
Peter has written and co-authored numerous scientific and popular articles. Realising that there is a dire lack of information about two of Namibia’s popular tourist destinations, Peter and Marilyn, his wife and
soulmate, who sadly passed away in April 2014, teamed up and produced two outstanding guide books: Touring Sesriem and Sossusvlei and Cape Cross Past and Present.
Fearing that stories of Namibia’s conservation pioneers would be lost for future generations his book, Conservation Pioneers in Namibia and other stories by game rangers was published in 2018. Over a period of four years, Peter spent countless hours poring over archival material, tracking down sources to interview in person and contacting colleagues and conservation officials, spread across the globe, by phone and email.
Peter’s next book, Rocky Point Skeleton Coast – Namibia Rocky Point Skeleton Coast – Namibia, was published in 2022. He has recently completed a follow-up to Conservation Pioneers which will be published by Kuiseb Publishers.
AND MORE … With his boundless energy and enthusiasm, Peter has had no time to ‘retire’. He has also been involved in the training of tour guides and has given numerous presentations on vultures, the identification of wetland birds and the Namib Desert. He has coordinated the bi-annual Walvis Bay wetlands bird count since 2009 and is frequently called upon to work as a freelance guide.
Despite his immense contribution to conservation is so many ways, Peter Bridgeford remains his unassuming self. And his enthusiasm for vultures, nature has not waned one bit.
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