Dr Tammie Matson graduated with a Bachelor of Applied Science (Honours, Class I) in 1999 and went on to complete her PhD in Zoology in 2004.

She traveled to Etosha National Park in arid Namibia on an Australian Government scholarship to study the endangered black-faced impala.

“While impala are fairly widespread in Africa, very little is known about the endangered black-faced impala, which is endemic to Namibia,” she said.

“My three-and-a-half year PhD project investigated the influence of environment on the black-faced impala in its semi-arid habitat as a basis for a management plan.”

Dr Matson has lived in Namibia since 2000. She currently works as an environmental consultant for organisations including Wilderness Safaris, Save the Rhino Trust and the Namibian Professional Hunters Association, as well as running a research project on human-elephant conflicts at the request of the Chief of the Bushmen.

“I would play with a semi-tame cheetah and help teach her to hunt for herself,” she said.

“I would walk through the African bush at night, surrounded by the smell of elephants, and come a bit too close for comfort to being squished by one.

“I escaped from a charging lioness and watched a witchdoctor strike fear into his victim’s hearts.

“I taught English to a bunch of grade six children while I learned their language, Shona, and discovered that half of my pupils were actually older than me at 17.

“To my great shock and horror, I learned how controlled trophy hunting, along with ecotourism, has a place in Africa and that it plays an important role in wildlife conservation, something that had always seemed to me to be a contradiction of terms.

“But that’s Africa for you, isn’t it? It has a way of turning everything you know and trust on its head.”