16 Facts About Lawrence Anthony

Lawrence Anthony was a South African conservationist, environmentalist, explorer and author.

Lawrence Anthony was the long-standing head of conservation at the Thula Thula animal reserve in Zululand, South Africa, and the Founder of The Earth Organization, a privately registered, independent, international conservation and environmental group.

Lawrence Anthony was an international member of the Explorers Club of New York and a member of the National Council of the Southern Africa Association for the Advancement of Science.

Lawrence Anthony died of a heart attack at the age of 61 before his planned March 2012 conservation gala dinner in Durban to raise international awareness for the rhino-poaching crisis and to launch his new book, The Last Rhinos: My Battle to Save One of the World's Greatest Creatures.

Lawrence Anthony's grandfather, who was a miner in Berwick-upon-Tweed, England, had migrated to the area in the 1920s to work in the gold mines.

Lawrence Anthony started his career in the insurance sector, though subsequently started working the real estate development business.

Lawrence Anthony was called by a conservation group to rescue a group of nine elephants who had escaped their enclosure and were wreaking havoc across Northern Mpumalanga, and were about to be shot.

Lawrence Anthony tried to communicate with the matriarch of the herd through the tone of his voice and body language, eventually rescued them and brought to the reserve, and in time came to be known as "Elephant-whisperer".

Lawrence Anthony was married to Francoise Malby and lived on the Thula Thula game reserve in Zululand.

Francoise Malby Lawrence Anthony wrote accounts of their work with the elephants.

Baghdad Zoo was the biggest zoo in the Middle East; however, by 8 days after the 2003 invasion, when Lawrence Anthony reached the zoo on a private rescue initiative, out of the original 700 animals in the Baghdad Zoo only 35 survived owing to bombing of the zoo, looting of the animals for food, and starvation of the caged animals without food and water.

Lawrence Anthony wrote a book about the wartime rescue of the Baghdad Zoo, and the movie rights have been acquired by a major Hollywood production company.

Lawrence Anthony was involved with programs to involve remote African tribes in conservation on their own traditional land.

Lawrence Anthony had created two new Game Reserves in South Africa.

Lawrence Anthony's private focus was the rehabilitation of traumatized African elephant.

Lawrence Anthony had served on the National Transitional Executive Committee during the South African Governments transition from Apartheid on the panel for the electronic media which appointed the board of directors of the South African Broadcasting Corporation and on the committee which appointed the Film Board of South Africa.