Saving the Last Rhinos: The Life of a Frontline Conservationist

The remarkable story of Grant Fowlds, who has dedicated his life to saving the imperiled rhinos, vividly told with Graham Spence, co-author of the bestselling The Elephant Whisperer.

What would drive a man to "smuggle" rhino horns back into Africa at great risk to himself? This is just one of the situations Fowlds has put himself in as part of his ongoing fight against poaching, in order to prove a link between southern Africa and the illicit, lucrative trade in rhino horn in Vietnam.

Shavings of rhino horn are sold as a snake-oil “cures,” but a rhino’s horn has no magical, medicinal properties whatsoever. Yet it is for this that rhinoceroses are being killed at an escalating rate that puts the survival of the species in jeopardy. This corrupt, illegal war on wildlife has brought an iconic animal to the brink of extinction.

Growing up on a farm in the eastern Cape of South Africa, Grant developed a deep love of nature, turning his back on hunting to focus on saving wildlife of all kinds and the environment that sustains both them and us. He is a passionate conservationist who puts himself on the front line of protecting rhinos in the wild—right now, against armed poachers—and in the long term, through his work with schoolchildren, communities, and policymakers.

Grant Fowlds is a South African conservationist with an unique commitment to everything endangered, Grant's vision is to try to fill the shoes of the late elephant whisperer Lawrence Anthony, notably with his recent undercover filming of a tusk and horn auction in Vietnam.

Graham Spence is a journalist and editor. Originally from South Africa, he lives in England. Together he and his brother-in-law, conservationist Lawrence Anthony, wrote The Elephant Whisperer, The Last Rhino, and Babylon's Ark.