White River based wildlife expert killed in aircraft accident

On October 23 the 70-year-old White River resident was part of a team conducting an elephant census, when their four-seater Cessna 182 light aircraft went missing.

Petri’s wife, Zanne, said, “The plane (wreck) was located in a heavily wooded section in Chewore North Safari Area, Chirundu, of Lower Zambezi National Park on October 25.

“According to one survivor, the sudden and complete engine failure caused the aircraft to drop from the sky.”

Zanne said her husband had loved planes and flying his entire life. “As a child in Bloemfontein, where he grew up, he and his friends were always trying to get things airborne – and once even made a rocket which set the veld near his home alight.”

Petri completed his compulsory military service in the air force, but it was only after finishing his BSc honours in zoology and working for nature conservation at the Transvaal Provincial Administration in Pretoria, that he saved enough money to get his private pilot’s licence at Wonderboom. At this time, he was also doing fieldwork for his MSc.

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From there he got posted to the Lowveld by the same Pretoria company to do research on lions.

After several years, a Johannesburg businessman approached Petri to do a lion research project in Botswana’s Chobe National Park.

“It was in 1982 that, as newlyweds, we headed to Savuti in Botswana to live in a tent. We had a small plane at our disposal, not only for shopping, but also to track the lions.

“After four years, we returned to South Africa and shortly after, he was appointed to fly aerial census in the Kruger. It was during this time that we started our family. Carina was born in 1988 and Shanine two years later, on our wedding anniversary,” said Zanne.

He built up thousands of low-flying hours in the park, and by the time he left SANParks at the turn of the century, he had already made a name for himself.

Petri branched out into independent wildlife consulting for the next 20 years. “He worked all over Africa and in China on the conservation of the endangered South China tiger.”

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This included various activities, ranging from research monitoring and management projects, to sustainable resource utilisation. He finally clocked more than 8 000 hours’ experience as pilot, observer and data recorder, conducting both aerial and ground wildlife surveys in South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania.

“Petri’s involvement in wildlife recently extended to placing cameras at crowned eagle and bat hawk nests for research and monitoring.

“He loved flying and took up radio-controlled aircrafts, drone and glider flying in all earnest. His passions dovetailed. He loved to watch the eagles catch thermals and would send his gliders where eagles dared.”

These passions, including photography, were just never-ending and his wife described him as both a scientist and an artist. “There are hundreds of beautiful photos on Flickr and Instagram.”

Petri outlived his only sibling, his younger sister, by almost 30 years. Despite turning 70 this year, he pursued new hobbies and leisure activities with great enthusiasm, “like getting a mountain bike during lockdown,” said his wife.

“We have received messages of condolences from all over the world, reiterating how I would sum him up: A gentleman (a kind and gentle man), supporting and loving, passionate about his work, meticulous in whatever he did and keen to share his knowledge.

“The crippling sense of loss we are all feeling now is the measure of the man.”

Since he has not yet been repatriated from Zimbabwe, with no timeline available, a private cremation will take place in due course. A memorial service will be held at the Lowveld National Botanical Garden on November 6.