The 2025 Chronicle

ST MICHAEL AWARD 6 JUNE 2025

VINCENT CARRUTHERS

Vincent Craig Carruthers (Farfield, 1959) is being honoured today for his immense con tribution in the field of wildlife research in southern Africa, and also for his work in publicis ing the extraordinarily rich historical, geological and ecological diversity of the Magaliesberg region. This work, in addition to his leadership, has been largely in strumental in having this area (which includes the Cradle of Humankind) declared as an International Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO in 2015. Vincent was born in Johannesburg and was educated at Cord walles and Michaelhouse. At Michaelhouse, Vincent was in Far field, won the Rector’s verse prize and was a School Prefect. In1958, he organised the first schoolboy climb of Kilimanjaro with three fellow scholars and a master. His time at Michael house fostered a deep appreciation of nature and wildlife. After school, following a period in commerce, Vincent took up the position of CEO of the Wildlife Society of Southern Africa, a position that he held for several years, reorganising the so ciety’s management and bringing it to financial stability. From 1989 to 2015, a period of over 25 years, Vincent has owned and operated an environmental and business strategy con sultancy, working with SANParks, the University of the Witwa tersrand and, through his appointment as an honorary mem ber, the North West Parks and Tourism Board. Thus, his work as researcher and author has been accomplished outside of, and in addition to, his full-time job. Vincent is best known for his wide-ranging compendium The Wildlife of Southern Africa: A field guide to the animals and plants of the region , which was published in 1997. It describes more than 2 000 plants and animals and is the go-to book for people interested in nature and wildlife. It has sold more than 200 000 copies and has been translated into Afrikaans and German. It is now in its fourth edition. Unusually for an amateur biologist, Vincent soon became in terested in amphibian fauna, in particular, the study of frogs or herpetology, and realised their ecological importance in wetland ecology. Frogs are studied by relatively few biologists because they are so difficult to find and research. Given his demanding professional life, it was on weekends and vaca tions that Vincent travelled throughout South Africa tracing and tracking frogs by night, studying their behaviour and main taining careful records of their habits and habitats. In addition, Vincent recorded and photographed them extensively. On one occasion, Vincent and a few colleagues were detained on sus picion of illegal diamond digging when looking for frogs in the Namib desert at night. At the police station, Vincent stated that they were looking for a rare frog that burrows into the sand in

order to get to the moisture that filters down there from the Atlantic Ocean. The policeman said it was the worst story he had ever heard. In 1979, in conjunction with Professor Neville Passmore of the University of the Witwatersrand, Vincent published the first sci entifically valid and beautifully illustrated guide to the frog fau na of South Africa. This book, titled South African Frogs , set a world standard. In due course this book was followed by Frogs and Frogging in South Africa and Frogs of Southern Africa: A Complete Guide , in conjunction with Professor Louis du Preez of North West University. It was for his outstanding research in this field, that Vincent was recognised with several prestigious awards: • The Stevenson-Hamilton Medal from the Zoological Society of South Africa. • The Award for Individual Achievement from the Wildlife Society of South Africa. • The Chancellor’s Medal from North West University. • University of Witwatersrand Gold Medal. The other passion in Vincent’s life is the Magaliesberg bio sphere, which he initiated and led towards UNESCO recog nition. This strip of land about 100km long and 50km wide, which contains the World Heritage Cradle of Humankind, is the home of the origin of the human species. The Magaliesberg area contains many fossil sites in which important hominin and other species have been discovered. It is an area where world-renowned paleoanthropologists such as Raymond Dart, Phillip Tobias, Robert Broom, Ron Clarke and Lee Berger have made their names. The Magaliesberg is also of enormous historical interest. Re mains of Stone Age and Iron Age societies have been found to gether with evidence of occupations by different communities over long periods of time. At the beginning of the last century during the South African War a number of important battles were fought in the Magaliesberg, where the British forces tried to entrap the Boer commandos under the wily leadership of General Koos de la Rey. All these battle sites have been marked and commemorated by the Magaliesberg Association for Cul ture and Heritage, where Vincent has played a leading role. Later in the 20th century, the Magaliesberg became the site of the remarkable Hartbeespoort Dam. This dam, with over 50km of irrigation canals, was built to provide jobs and help restore the countryside which had been devastated by the South Afri can War. Fifty years ago, the Magaliesberg was also the site of three world-class observatories, the Leiden University Observatory

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