Liam Bartlett: “Damien Mander has become a shining star of the cause. But diamonds do not come much rougher or tougher. A Sydney publican’s son with a taste for danger.”
“He first trained as a Navy clearance diver then a commander before spending three years in Iraq where he ended as an adviser to the Iraqi police. At the start of 2009 he was ready for a fresh challenge and Africa beckoned.”
Liam Bartlett: “Particularly Africa or just…?”
Damien Mander: “No…yeah. Africa, you know, just… I probably read too much Wilber Smith as a kid, you know, and to be fair I came over for the adventure, you know.”
“I thought ‘awesome, you know, I will come over and and… and throw me hat in the ring.’ I have got all this experience now from, you know, Australian military and… and in Iraq and I can really make a difference.”
Damien Mander (to his anti-poaching team): “Come on like you mean it, strike.”
Liam Bartlett: ‘This was no hollow whim. Damien sold just about everything he owned and invested a quarter of a million dollars to create the International Anti-Poaching Foundation”.
“His plans for an Anti-Poaching Army might sound ambitious but nowhere is it more needed than strife-torn Zimbabwe.”
Image: Damien Mander leads his team in training, Full Copyright Belongs to 60 Minutes Australia
Charlene Hewitt: “Our wildlife is being poached at a phenomenal rate and really what we need to do is set up anti-poaching units and I think Damien has got the expertise.”
Liam Bartlett:“So, it really is the here and now it is… it is that critical.”
Charlene Hewitt: “We have to do something now because tomorrow is going to be too late.”
Image: African elephant, Full Copyright Belongs to 60 Minutes Australia
Liam Bartlett:”When you told your family and your mates back home that you were selling up everything you had and moving to Africa did they think you had had too much sun?”
Damien Mander “Mum was happy to see me out of Iraq. to be honest. Yeah. She was pushing me ‘Yeah, go’… (unintelligible)
Liam Bartlett: “Anything but Iraq.”
Damien Mander: “Yeah”
Liam Bartlett: “It may not be Iraq but manning Zimbabwe’s thin green line can be just as deadly. It is legal to shoot poachers on site so the stakes are high as we set
out to track them.”
Damien Mander: “DYING IS NOT ON ME LIST OF THINGS TO DO TODAY. BUT, YOU KNOW, IF YOU ASK IF I AM WILLING TO DIE FOR THE STRUGGLE THEN THE ANSWER IS ‘YES’.”
Liam Bartlett: “We move quietly looking for signs of poachers. Head tracker Elliott soon discovers one of the main tools of the trade, a wire snare.”
Damien Mander: (whispering) “It opens up and just becomes a big noose. The thing is it is like a landmine unless you disarm it it stays there.”
Liam Bartlett: (whispering) “What is it meant to catch?”
Damien Mander: (whispering) “Mate, it is indiscriminate so it can catch anything. It can catch a wild dog this big or get caught around the leg of an elephant so it is completely indiscriminate.”
Liam Bartlett: “Soon we come face to face with the carnage snares can cause. A beautiful male impala not long dead.”
Image: Liam Bartlett (L) & Damien Mander examining the wire snare trap, Full Copyright Belongs to 60 Minutes Australia
Damien Mander: (whispering) “This (expletive) pisses me off, mate.”
Liam Bartlett: ”The trap is part of a snare line set within the last day or so.
(whispering) Are you going to set that off?”
Damien Mander: (whispering) “No. We are just going to… we are going to disarm it and we are going to ambush this side later.”
Liam Bartlett: (whispering) “Try to wait for the poaches to come back?”
Damien Mander: (whispering) “Yeah,”
Liam Bartlett: “So now the hunters become the hunted. An hour before sunset Damien’s team head back into the site to lay an ambush. Surprise and patience are critical. The Rangers must watch and wait. The hunch is the poachers will come back either at sunset or sunrise.”
(Liam Bartlett crouched down, whispering) “We have been in this ambush position since about an hour before sunrise. Damien has three of his Rangers all armed and waiting.”
“He is betting on the fact that the poaches come back to check their catch within about 48 hours of setting the snares. Any longer and the lions will move in instead. If he is right it will not be much longer.”
“Fifteen minutes later Elliot signals contact. It is on.”
“Busted”
(Damien yells out to poachers) “‘Down, face down, face down, face down, down face down..’”
(Man from anti poaching team yells out) “Down…Down, Down”
Liam Bartlett: “This is what Damian’s training is all about.
(Man from anti poaching team yells out) “Down”
Image: poachers are apprehended (Damien Mander (L)), Full Copyright Belongs to 60 Minutes Australia
Liam Bartlett: “Armed poaches taken down without a shot fired. The two arrests make a total of nine in just a month.”
(Man from anti poaching team) “Nine”
Liam Bartlett: “They confess to killing seven animals on this hunt. A shotgun for their own protection, and in case they come across a black rhino, all this in a private game reserve.”
Damien Mander: “This is a problem right across the country right across the region. So…”
Liam Bartlett: “It is a real battle isn’t it?”
Damien Mander:“These guys will go to where they think the easiest kill is, you know, if they think this is the easiest kill… I hate to think what is going on in the other areas.”
Liam Bartlett: “You have got ten men in a relatively confined space.”
Damien Mander: “Yeah.”
Liam Bartlett: ”The national parks must just be a nightmare.”
Damien Mander: “Yeah, screaming for help.”
(Man from Anti-poaching team to poacher) “Let’s go.”
Damien Mander: “Good ambush, Liam. (laughter) Good stuff, mate.”
Liam Bartlett to Damien Mander: “He (anti-poaching tracker) did well.”
Liam Bartlett: “Damien dreams his Band of Brothers will soon run into the thousands. With money he does not yet have he has plans for five regional training academies.”
“A green militia running down the Zambezi River protecting the wildlife of Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.”
“Well what happens if none of this works?
Damien Mander: “That is not an option, mate. You got a spare room at your joint?” (laughter)
Image: Damien Mander at home in Africa, Full Copyright Belongs to 60 Minutes Australia
Liam Bartlett: “Home and family are never far from mind. But for Damien this is a Tour of Duty unlike any other and he is here until the war is won.”
Damien Mander: “Yeah, I would love nothing more than to go home every Sunday and have a roast with the oldies or crack a cold one with the boys after work. But, you know, this is where the job needs to be done and this is what we are doing.”
“So, yeah, you cannot really put a value on on those sort of sacrifices. But, you know, I haven’t got much in the bank but I have never felt richer.”
Images and transcribed from: cc video “’Conservation Rambo’ takes on poachers to protect Africa’s animals | 60 Minutes Australia”, Full Copyright Belongs to 60 Minutes Australia
Sources:
(1) ‘Conservation Rambo’ takes on poachers to protect Africa’s animals | 60 Minutes Australia
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Conservation+Rambo+takes+on+poachers+to+protect+Africa%27s+animals+++Creative+Commons
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=damien+mander+anti+poaching+africa+Creative+Commons
(2) https://www.akashinga.org/about-us/our-story
(3) https://www.instagram.com/brianaevigan/reel/DAvMc91Of-k/
(4) https://www.akashinga.org/about-us/akashinga-rangers
(5) https://www.akashinga.org/akashinga-leadership-members/damien
(6) https://karmacommunity.karmagroup.com/experience-karma/step-up-star-weds-at-karma-kandara/
(7) https://www.africanelephantjournal.com/anti-poaching-activist-has-saved-huge-populations-of-elephants-and-rhinos-from-being-slaughtered/
Elephant Spoken Here Facebook
Elephant Spoken Here twitter now called X @ESHelephants
Image: Damien Mander & his anti-poaching team training, Full Copyright Belongs to 60 Minutes Australia
Pingback: The Man in the Making: Leader in Africa’s Anti-Poaching Campaign Featured in an Early Look at His Determined Efforts to Save Endangered Wildlife: Part 2 | Elephant Spoken Here