Oxfordshire couple mark 10 years of running Zambian wildlife centre
Steve and Ann Tolan with their pet warthog. © Oxford Mail
Most of us have at some point harboured a dream of a complete career change so I thought you might be interested in this story from our local press which featured one Oxfordshire couple who did just that.
A decade ago they were both serving police officers in the Thames Valley before they decided to sell-up and follow their dream of living and working in one of Africa’s premier safari destinations. Now they’ve just celebrated 10 years of running their own nature reserve in Zambia.
It was back in 1988 when Steve and Anna Tolan decided to sell their house and emigrate to Zambia to set up a wildlife reserve and education centre in the South Luangwa National Park - right in heart of safari country. In 2001, after three years hard work, they fulfilled their dream and the Chipembele Wildlife Educa-tion Centre finally opened.
As a result, many thousands of local children have now taken part in various projects to do with environmental awareness and conservation. As well as teaching local children about the importance of their natural inheritance, they’ve also involved themselves in more practical measures such as rescuing and rehabilitating orphaned or injured animals, these include: elephants, bushbucks, pukus, a buffalo, a serval, a bushbaby and a civet.
Anna Tolan said:
“It has been a wonderful ten years. After years of safari trips to various wonderful parts of the African continent, we fell in love with Zambia’s wildlife and people, and moved to live in a beautiful wilderness area on the banks of the Luangwa River.
“We wanted to conserve the diverse and unique wildlife of this land by teaching local children the value of their wildlife.
“In the 1970s, approximately 10,000 rhinos lived in the Luangwa Valley, but by the end of the 1980s, they were all poached out and became locally extinct.
“It has been an amazing experience. We even have a ‘pet’ warthog called Alice.”
Read the full article in the Oxford Mail.
Chipembele Wildlife Educa-tion Centre, set up and run by Steve and Anna Tolan.
