The Old Diocesan Issue 13 - Magazine - Page 62
The Wildlife Forensic Academy
is the first institute in South Africa
to offer forensic courses related
to fighting wildlife crime through
on-site experiential learning and
online courses. One of Greg’s cofounders, Andro Vos, is programme
director for the Netherlands
Forensic Institute, a broader
operation with a history that
dates back to the 1940s. The WFA
is a far newer initiative: having
opened the doors in 2022, Greg
and his team are today performing
the task of training future wildlife
detectives to investigate the
monstrous (and terrifyingly
profitable) trade in wild animals
and other organisms.
Recently, Greg has added blue
cranes and vultures to the diversity
of species examined at the academy.
Succulents – a surprisingly large
and devastating aspect of the illicit
wildlife trade – are now also part
of the curriculum. “The plants
haven’t done well indoors, so we’re
looking at 3D-printing some,” he
adds. The clash of the real and
the virtual is fascinating.
Greg’s primary mission is to train
local rangers and develop a more
holistic approach to the poaching
element of conservation. Walking
through the facility I meet an
eclectic group of attendees:
SANParks rangers, Cape Nature
officials, police investigators from
Switzerland, and research students
in zoology and forensic science
from various European countries.
They have come to train on
the types of situations they
will encounter in real life, from
searching a house and examining
the body of an animal in the veld
to examining evidence in a lab and
prepping for court appearances.
The crime-scene-to-courtroom
approach integrates fields that
are often disparate in the battle
against illegal wildlife trade.
While a group of investigators
58 | THE OLD DIOCESAN
To find out more about the
Wildlife Forensic Academy, visit
wildlifeforensicacademy.com
Greg works on an injured cheetah at an undisclosed private game reserve.
Assisting him are course attendees on the WFA’s four-week wildlife forensics,
crime scene management, illegal wildlife trade and conservation course.
goes over data collected in the
field, another course attendee
painstakingly studies hundreds
of individual hair samples from
a lion in research that aims to
refine the evidentiary powers of
investigations into wildlife crime.
We aren’t able to tour the
specialised open-air Wildlife
Taphonomy Facility due to the
inclement weather, but Greg
explains its importance. The site
provides a singular opportunity
for researchers to study natural
decomposition processes, including
the impact of scavengers and the
natural breakdown of soft and
hard tissue.
I ask Greg about his journey
to this extraordinary place. After
a year at UCT, he left for Pretoria
to complete his veterinary science
studies before embarking on a
career as a wildlife vet. He racked
up further research degrees with
an MA in Public Health from
