Field Guide


Field Guides Association
of Southern Africa

I went to South Africa for the first time in 1989, when Apartheid still reigned.
Many things have changed since then but Nature is still what it used to be.
In the big parks, where the elephant is the undoubted master, it is easy to meet mostly antelopes, varieties of birds and mammals.

Thanks to the experience I have achieved and my knowledge of the territory, small groups of tourists have asked me to be their guide: the enthusiastic results drove me to face new studies and get a field guide patent (Field Guide Association South Africa) the most important professional African association that grants a certificate for rangers which is compulsory if you want to work as a guide in all the parks of Africa.
With great personal satisfaction, in June 2004 I passed the exam in South Africa being thus one of the few Italians with a Field Guide qualification and a First Aid Certificate granted by the South African Red Cross Society.

COLLABORATIONS
My qualification as Field Guide allowed me to collaborate with some reserves in the Kruger Park area, in particular with the Inyati Game Reserve where the extraordinary Black native rangers taught me many secrets of the bush, the typical vegetation of the area, as well as some words in Shangan, the language spoken by the people to communicate during a safari.

I spent a few weeks in a reserve which rears white lions, not Albinos, but a very rare race of Nature: only 1500 specimens are known to exist throughout the world! In this environment I could live in direct contact with these splendid creatures.
Furthermore I have visited many centres of rehabilitation for wounded animals and for orphans which were very educational and interesting to be able to understand a reality, which is so different from our normal schemes.