Safari guides become unlikely stars as conservation turns to Instagram

A wildlife trainer feeding and petting a pride of lions at the Lion and Safari Park near Johannesburg, South Africa. Livestream game drives aren’t just a promising pathway toward economic recovery following the Covid-19 pandemic, says Robinson. They’re also a desperately needed balm for quarantine wanderlust and, in less obvious ways, an important lifeline for the animals on screen. — Reuters

More than half the world may be on lockdown, but more people than ever are going on safari.

Jarryd Du Preez, a guide at andBeyond Phinda Private Game Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, recently fielded questions from safari goers in India, Chile, Bahrain, Germany, Canada, the US, the UK, Saint Lucia, and Russia as he pointed out two white rhino calves hidden behind an adult female. Can you tell the sex of the calves? (They were males.) Are poachers a danger? (Always.) Africa’s golden light cast its magical glow as a soft breeze rustled through patches of shrubbery called stinking grass. "What does stinking grass smell like?” someone asked.