Peter Kuhnert

Peter Kuhnert’s life has embraced a kaleidoscope of experiences.

He immigrated with his family to Johannesburg, South Africa in 1957 and became a citizen when he joined the Naval Gymnasium.

In 1959 Professor Phillip Tobias, head of anthropology at the Witwaters Rand University, invited Peter to join him on his Bushman expedition to the Kalahari.

His love of Africa and the immensity of the bushveld with all creatures that live there was kindled during many nights under the magic of the Southern Cross.

During his corporate life in the computer industry, Peter was the first to introduce passive microchip technology to the country. During a darting project at Pilansberg National Park, he sponsored transponders to be implanted into all rhinos for identification purposes. He also donated micro-chips to the De Wildt Research Centre in Pretoria and in Hoedspruit, where the newly discovered species of King Cheetahs were implanted as well as wild dogs and other threatened species.

In 1993 Peter retired to his roots in Namibia where he stayed for ten years. He managed Ongava Lodge, where he sponsored the return of a problem rhino called Brutalis from the Berlin Zoo to Namibia. Brutalis was successfully returned to the wild. In 1997 Peter started his own safari company; ‘The Big Five Experience, Exclusive Safaris’. In Windhoek he met his partner and the pair decided to move to Cape Town in 2003 where he lives and writes today.