Alex and Renias

Alex spent his formative years growing up on a cattle farm in the Western Cape, South Africa. After completing studies in Marketing and Business Management, he joined the world-renowned Londolozi game reserve for 23 years where he worked as the environmental manager, presented for the marketing team, and conducted specialised safaris. Alex’s greatest fascination is the traditional skills of wildlife tracking.

He has dedicated much of his life to learning the ancient skill, eventually qualifying as one of a handful of tracker assessors in 2004 – the youngest ever to achieve this feat. Over the last two decades Alex has tracked jaguars in the Amazon jungle, bears in California, grizzlies and wolves in Montana, Pumas in Patagonia and the famous black-mane lions of the Kalahari.

Alex is the Director of the Tracker Academy, an award-winning NGO which trains unemployed people in the traditional skills of tracking. He is also the director and shareholder of EcoTraining, the largest private guide training school in Africa.

In addition to his conservation work, Alex has conducted diversity training leading courses aimed at facilitating a better understanding between black and white people working in corporate South Africa.

Alex and Renias continue to work together in the bushveld, as well as to conduct motivational presentations in South Africa and abroad. Their inspirational presentation, The Power of Relationships, has relevance for both local South African as well as international audiences.

Alex is the co-author of two bestselling books called The Tracker Manual and Changing a Leopard's Spot

Renias Mhlongo was born in a mud hut in what is today the greater Kruger National Park. The Mhlongo family sustained themselves on the land by growing vegetables, tending cattle and hunting small game. Renias, almost as soon as he could walk, was sent out to tend the family’s cattle herd. He is one of the last people to be raised in the original traditions of a Shangaan hunter-gatherer.

During forced removals of Apartheid regime, Renias and his family were sent to a settlement called Dixie. Without any formal education, he was forced to seek work at a game reserve as a labourer. In 1984 he became a tracker at Londolozi – thereby putting to use his exceptional skills as a naturalist. Over the last 34 years Renias played a pivotal role in habituating the world-famous leopards of Londolozi.

Renias has conducted tracker training workshops in South Africa, Brazil, Kenya and North America – teaching people the traditional skills of trailing animals. In addition to his extensive experience with African animals he, with Alex, has tracked animals all over the world.

Using his tracking skills Renias has also conducted small mammal surveys for game reserve owners in South Africa. In 2010, Renias became a principle trainer of the Tracker Academy.

Renias is also a co-author of the Tracker Manual and Changing a Leopard's Spots published by Struik Nature and Pan MacMillan, respectively.

Renias has traveled internationally, and in so doing has touched many with the gracious manner with which he teaches people about African wildlife, culture, and philosophy. Renias is a natural storyteller and he taught Alex the art of humorous storytelling, which comes out strongly in their motivational presentation, “The Power of Relationships”. During their inspirational presentation, Renias provides personal insights to relationship building and the power of diversity.

For 16 years, Alex and Renias conducted safaris for some of the world’s most discerning travellers at Londolozi Game Reserve. Renias and Alex are one of only two ranger/ tracker teams in South Africa where both are qualified Senior Trackers. They have conducted guided experiences in many areas of Africa and North America. Alex’s relationship with Renias reached a climax when he attended the rare “Nhluvula” ceremony in Dixie, in 2008.

When they went to London together, Alex was able to return the favour by showing Renias the wonders of the Western world. Until then Renias had never seen a large city, nor flown in an airplane.

Their journey together has taken them from tracking leopards at Londolozi to following grizzly bears in Yellowstone National Park, Montana. From the remote African village of Dixie to the Knicker Bocker club in Manhattan these two men have broken through the barriers of their backgrounds and formed a bond which has changed both their lives forever. This is a relationship which is seen by many as a model in a democratic South Africa.