Junior Ben Block works with wildlife in Africa

Home Features Junior Ben Block works with wildlife in Africa
Junior Ben Block works  with wildlife in Africa

At 4:30 a.m. each morning in the South African winter, junior biology major Ben Block left his Cape Town apartment carrying a backpack with basic work supplies: Water, a waterproof layer of clothing, a radio telemetry set, and a multitool to cut snares off trapped animals.

For three to four months during his past two summer vacations, Block worked at game reserves on conservation and photojournalism projects in the “Rainbow Nation,” nicknamed for its multicultural diversity in the wake of the post-apartheid years.

Through his first encounter with the new continent — navigating through airport customs and ground transportation to his home base in Cape Town — Block quickly realized how even mere linguistic variety poses barriers to Westerners who are new to working in the area.

“Not Swahili, but Zulu and Xhosa are what you want to learn. There’s so many languages in South Africa,” he said. “I know some of each — the basics of both. They’re pretty complicated. It’s a place where you have to live for a couple years to get the hang of it, which wouldn’t be so bad.”

Block said he would be open to moving to Africa or anywhere else in the world, so long as he can continue combining his passions for photojournalism, travel, and the outdoors.

Hillsdale College used to offer an Africa work-study option for science students interested in research, but the program was discontinued before Block could enroll. Undeterred, he explored options online until he found an alternate way to gain experience: Wildlife conservation.

“Even though the program wasn’t there, I didn’t care,” he said. “I wanted to go so I just tried to pave my own path. As a biology major, at first I told myself I had to go pre-med and make money. But I love photography, writing, and being outdoors so I decided to make something out of what I love and do something I really enjoy instead.”

For most of summer 2014, Block worked with the Wildlife Act, a predominantly volunteer organization. He spent his days tracking animals in various national parks and game reserves, including Mkhuze, Imfolozi, iSimangaliso, and Kruger respectively. He also worked with Sanccob, a group interested in preserving endangered penguins.

“The big draw about going to Africa is the exotic animals and the fact that it’s an exotic place. Africa has a long history of attracting the big hunter,”Associate Professor of Biology Jeffrey VanZant. “From my conversations with Ben, I think his main research interest from his travels was the African wild dogs.”

Using a radio telemetry set to scan for signals, Block located the general position of the wild dog so his conservation team could triangulate its location. Out in the field, he often set up tents or slept in an old truck for the night so he could have an early start the next day to track the animal. After finally getting a visual sighting, Block darted the animal and removed any snares to help save its life.

“There’s only like 2,000 of them left in the wild and they’re so cool,” he said. “When you hear people say animals don’t have emotions or feelings, that’s just not true. If you work with them for a long time, you realize they very much do.”

In addition to wild dogs, Block worked with white and black rhino, African elephants, cheetah, leopard, lion, and vultures — apparently farmers poison vultures because they’re pests and poachers poison them for the feathers.

On several occasions, Block traveled with the South African anti-poaching patrol, accompanying rangers fully kitted with assault rifles and searching for any signs of illegal activity.

An ecologist and record keeper and her two guards ride in the back of a pickup headed to rendezvous with an anti-poaching patrol in the Drakensburg Mountains in Northern Zululand.
An ecologist and record keeper and her two guards ride in the back of a pickup headed to rendezvous with an anti-poaching patrol in the Drakensburg Mountains in Northern Zululand.
A shot of fishing boats in Hout Bay, Western Cape, South Africa.
A shot of fishing boats in Hout Bay, Western Cape, South Africa.

“There were some ambushes, a few run-ins, but nothing major,” Block said. “In southern regions, poaching is more toned down. But up in the Congo? It’s an all out war. Ivory poaching is where terrorists in Africa get a big chunk of their money. I think Al-Shabab, an Al Qaeda group, and the Somalian pirates get more than 40 percent of their money from the ivory trade.”

In summer 2015, Block switched his primary work from conservation to photojournalism. He is now the chief editor at newly-launched RangerDiaries.com, a subsidiary of National Geographic that features a myriad of wilderness photos and articles and boasts 60,000 to 70,000 followers on various social media platforms. Block works for the founder of the site, James Kydd, a National Geographic staff photographer and blogger.

“To write about anything you have to have some history or knowledge or background I that area to really understand it. Biology is always changing and we are always learning new things. Only somebody who studies in that area can continue to write about it well. This won’t necessarily make someone a scientist, but they could be a very good science writer,” VanZant said.

Block plans to extend his summer conservation interests and journalism experience in Africa to his school work at Hillsdale College by working on a research project focused on the cheetah in consultation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and Cheetah Conservation Botswana. His work will likely also extend to communication with the University of Botswana and the University of Pretoria.

“Our planning is still preliminary, but we are hoping to compare the wild cheetah to that of the captive cheetah to get a handle on nutritional problems with the captive cheetah. Many cheetah in zoos are getting sick with gastrointestinal diseases and we think it might have something to do with the microbiome,” Block’s research mentor, Professor of Biology Daniel York said.

Block said the project will be one of the first “comprehensive studies” on the subject, which he plans to accomplish by analyzing the differences in bacteria between captive and wild cheetahs. His research goal is to make a reasonable recommendation on how to improve the lifespan of the captive cheetah.

Block said his biology background already contributes to his wildlife and science articles. His primary goal is to be offered a full-time position as a staff photographer and writer for National Geographic following graduation.

“What I want to do is just get an assignment and go there,” Block said. “The guy I work for now was in Nepal a month ago tracking snow leopards. Now I think he’s in Patagonia in South America tracking a different kind of leopard. It’s kind of a nomadic type of job. It’s the life I want.”

Many of Block’s photos are availablae on Instagram at @rangerdiaries