Craig Packer is the best lion man in the world, from all that I’ve read and seen, and I’ve seen a lot on trips into the mud-hut regions of Tanzania tracking man-eaters and tracing the bleeding edge of animal-human conflict in the Selous.
Packer has spent nearly 40 years studying the big cats, and he’s embraced everything from working with big game hunters to flash-bang grenades to try to stop the inevitable onslaught of civilization.
It’s still not working. And when Packer — the least alarmist conservationist I know — blows a whistle, it’s worth noting.