Interview with Alan McSmith

Can you tell us a bit about the elephant encounter, as viewed on YouTube? (You can watch the video here.)

I was training a group of apprentice walking guides in northern Kruger National Park. We knew the bull elephant was there, because we had heard him in the thicket. I wanted to get to an open area to have a better view of him. And as we were walking past the thicket, he had the same idea, to get a better view of us. So we got past him back into the clearing, and he was there too. Then one of the students started filming the encounter on their cell phone.

The encounter is noteworthy for the fact that you are unarmed, and are clearly calm throughout. Were you not frightened at all? And what were you thinking?

No I wasn’t frightened, and I wasn’t really thinking, although I can understand this may sound strange to most people.

In a situation like that, I relied on my experience and intuition that has developed over 35 years of immersion in the African bush. So instead of thinking, it’s largely a feeling in the moment.

I would say I was very calm – but very alert. You don’t really have time to think in a situation like that…you have to react instinctively and intuitively. Perhaps you have to “un-become” all you have learned.

Often I’ve chosen not to rely on information or intellect. Yes, you have to be highly rational in terms of guiding lore such as: situational awareness, wind direction, presence of other elephants, potential exit routes, rifle stage, presence of other people. All these things are vitally important, of course, but there is more to it than rationality. There is an information highway around us at all times; we just need to be available to it.

Of course you have to have done your training, and spent thousands of hours walking in the bush to get to a place where you can rely on your natural instinct to handle what is potentially a very serious situation.

What I’d like to say to people is that the encounter didn’t start the moment we saw the elephant. In fact, it didn’t start that morning, when we decided to go for a walk. It didn’t even start the day before. It possibly could have started the day I was born, or the day that we arrived for the trails course in northern Kruger.

We chose to plug into what I call the great operating system of the universe, which is consciousness. And to allow yourself into this operating system, you have to be humble. And we have to admit that in ecological terms, we’re no more important than an earthworm. Only then is it possible to get into that space where you can step outside what you’ve been taught, what you should or shouldn’t be doing. And to trust in an unknown outcome. Trusting in unknown outcomes is the essential challenge.

So would you term it a sixth sense?

I don’t think it’s a sixth sense. I think it’s the first sense. The more you plug in, the more you realize it’s not an extra dimension. It’s actually the first dimension.

It’s not something weird and woolly, but it’s not logical either. Consciousness is either available or it’s not. And when it’s available, it’s just there. So you don’t have to quantify it or describe it or measure it, because you can’t. It’s just there.

You chose to wait several years before you put the video on YouTube. Why?

Initially I was concerned that it would cause a lot of controversy, and I was worried what other people would think. I thought a lot about it, but in the end, I wanted to show what is possible. I wanted to show that there is another way of doing things, a different way, to what most guides are instructed to do. I also wanted to tell the story of that elephant, and that moment.

The video is not about me, nor is it about the elephant. It is about inter-connection. The footage not only portrays the elephants intelligence, but also the sense of wonder that they evoke, and that modern man still shares a kinship with the wild.

This inter-connectivity with our natural world is absolutely essential to our well-being. The video is an invitation to look at elephant awareness differently. We need to disrupt our historical view of elephant conservation and what sentiency means. The video has generated 50 million views on all social media platforms, so it has been a conversation-starter.

In a way, the video is a voice and a narrative for the silenced: elephants.

Okay, but most trails guides – and anyone walking in “Big 5” areas – will still likely think you’re taking chances?

Yes, I’ve taken a lot of heat for seemingly being reckless or taking chances. I know that if I tried to have this conversation with some people, particularly certain other guides, they may think, “Oh, this guy is out with the fairies.” But I don’t mind. I trust my experience and my knowledge.

Some would say, “you’re crazy. You can’t do that.”

I would say to them, “Have you done it?” No, they say.

“Okay, do you know of someone who has done it?” No, they say.

“Have you read in a book that it can’t be done?” I ask them. No, they say again.

“So how do you know it can’t be done?” I ask.

Of course I’m not saying that animals like elephants, lions and buffalo are harmless. And I certainly don’t believe in doing this sort of thing with elephants on every walk.

Importantly, I never set out to get close to an elephant. It all depends on the elephant, the moment, the people and the context. It’s never a foregone decision, and it’s certainly not for photographs or adrenaline junkies. Its not about the instagram moment or the adrenalin rush – its about connection. If you want an adrenalin rush, then perhaps you should consider jumping out of an airplane.

In the video, you’re not carrying a rifle. And you’re known for never carrying one. This is contrary to the accepted standards in the industry, especially in South Africa and Zimbabwe, where all trails guides carry rifles on their walks. Why don’t you carry a rifle?

For starters, I certainly do not believe that wild animals are harmless. Big, wild animals can be potentially dangerous. I’m not naive in this regard. I know that numerous highly competent colleagues of mine have had to kill a charging animal, so my views are in no way disrespectful to them. However, is there perhaps a conversation about firearms and trail guiding to be had?

Let me make my case. Wilderness trails in Africa have been operating long before the modern firearm regulations came into law. As an example, I ran un-armed walks in the Okavango long before any guide training or rifle handling course was conceived or standardised.

By the way, although South African and Zimbabwean guides carry rifles, it was – and still is – illegal for a guide to carry a firearm in Botswana’s national parks. So in Botswana – where I lead a lot of trails – we developed a different attitude and understanding. And most of my mentors were illiterate trackers and mokoro polers who, while not qualified on paper, were masters of animal behaviour and bushcraft. They knew exactly how to approach big game safely. This moulded my guiding philosophy. Through their and my own experiences, I discovered how to handle big game encounters safely with a cool head – and without a rifle. This is especially relevant in different regions and animal cultures, where animal behaviour patterns are different.

I must say that the standard of training and proficiency in the modern industry is amazing, and carrying a firearm is now entrenched in training and operations. However, I think there may be a bias towards rifles, which in turn creates an environment of apprehension and possibly fear, even if only on an unconscious level. For me, this aspect is crucial in trails guiding, as the energy of the guide becomes the energy of the clients who are walking with him or her, which in turn influences animal behaviour.

It’s something that cannot be theorised nor fully explained, but it is as real and relevant as the day is long. Again, this is not intended to be a judgement of guides who have had to use their rifles to protect themselves or their clients, and it is not a judgement of the industry – it is merely my personal opinion.  The topic is not black or white. However, the industry needs to have an ongoing conversation about it, because it influences our understanding of animal behaviour, our roles as guides, and perhaps most significantly, our roles in the inter-connectivity with nature.

Do you think elephants are particularly conscious creatures?

For sure. As an example, I was once on a walking trail with guests in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. It was the dry season, and three big bulls were walking to drink from a water hole nearby. Two elephants walked past us but the third bull stopped to feed near us.

As I moved to look back down the path where he was, I saw something moving in the grass just in front of me. It was a tortoise and he was stuck upside down with legs in the air. Of course, if a tortoise can’t right himself, he’s doing to die from thirst, especially in the dry season.

Then the third elephant came up to us, but he was more interested in the tortoise. So he stopped and looked carefully at it. And with his front foot, he carefully turned the tortoise over. The tortoise was back on its feet.

So that was another “wow” moment when I realised how supremely conscious these animals are.

Would you say that you can communicate with elephants?

I believe that all of us have an innate capacity to communicate with animals. This is part of our origins. It’s not possible to prove, buy why should it be?

Sometimes it feels like I have a connection with some elephants. Is that communication? Who knows. But there’s definitely connection, and mutual recognition and respect. All I can tell you is what I’ve experienced personally, and much of it is beyond rational explanation, unfortunately.

Do you remember the desert elephant in Namibia called Voortrekker? He was shot as a “problem animal” in June 2019.

At the time I was here in the lowveld of South Africa doing a training walk with some guides. We saw a breeding herd of elephant, and they were walking away from us, calmly but deliberately. We stopped to sit in a grassy area. And the elderly cow stopped. If you have spent time with elephants, you will know how they stop sometimes, quite deliberately, as if they’re thinking about something. Or silently sensing.

Then she turned, and walked back down the path to us, retracing her steps. She came fairly close, watching us as we sat in the grass.

And I heard something. I don’t know what it was, but the words eventually seemed to appear, and I heard this coming from the matriarch: “Tell them who we really are. Tell them who really are”.

She then turned and walked away. It was about 10 am in the morning, on the 20th of June, and later that day, I discovered that Voortrekker had been shot.

You can decide for yourself what to make of that.

You obviously have always had an unconventional approach to guiding.

Sure. I remember when I first started guiding in Timbavati, part of greater Kruger in South Africa.

We didn’t see a lot of elephant back then in the reserve because of all the fences that were still up at the time (separating Kruger itself from Timbavati). So the elephants were skittish, and if you saw a group breeding herd of ten elephants, people would say “wow, that’s a huge herd.”

And the custom of the guides at the time was to reverse the vehicle towards the herd, and keep the engine running, so if there was a problem you could drive away quickly. Of course that didn’t sit well with me.

So I would get out of the vehicle and walk up to the elephants, or I would drive up to them and switch the engine off right next to them. And of course that didn’t go down well with the guy I was working for, and I was asked to depart the lodge.

Have you experienced a similar type of connection with other species besides elephants?

Yes. For instance, one afternoon in Manyeleti near Kruger, we were looking for lions, and we knew they were around a particular waterhole. We couldn’t find them on their game drive so we went back for dinner.

And then after dinner, I asked one of the guides if they ever did night-walking.

He said “no ways, you can’t do that.” I asked him why not?

So we decided to go.

There was a bit of moonlight. We walked to the waterhole where we thought the lions would be. And as we came over this little grass bank, the lions were lying there. They just sat there, watching us. So we got through the grass into the open area, and we sat down and watched them for about an hour in the moonlight. One by one they lay down and fell asleep near us.

The next day I went back to the waterhole on my own, and saw the tracks where we’d been sitting. The lions had moved on obviously. And I found where I’d been sitting the night before and I sat down. And I just felt this urge to fold, almost as if the atmosphere was settling down on me. I collapsed into the foetal position and I wept. I was shaking uncontrollably. And it was probably just because of the release, or the ripple of plugging into nature, that I was feeling.

This experience with the lions at night…can you explain why it impacted you so much?

I really can’t explain it with words. I’ve had a similar feeling before with Bushmen in Botswana during a trance dance.

There was a sick child they were trying to heal. So they were doing a healing dance around the fire. It was probably two in the morning and the healers came over towards me, and one of them touched me. I felt this force from the soles of my feet through my calves to my thighs. I felt like I was falling – but not downwards. I felt like I was falling upwards. I felt the same thing with the lions, but in reverse, where I was falling downwards into the Earth.

All I can say is that if you make yourself available to it, it can emerge. But it’s not something you can commercialize. It’s not something you can duplicate. It’s not something for social media. It cannot be used to boost your ego.

Have you always been someone who does things differently?

I was born and raised in Johannesburg. It was more rural in those days. I was fortunate to grow up in a stable, loving home. But I don’t think I was an easy son, or little brother, to have around. I think I was constantly probing, questioning and searching.

I always had this feeling that I didn’t belong. It’s almost as if some strange God, with a weird sense of humor, had plucked me from where I should have been and put me there in Johannesburg.

There was no specific incident that made me feel this way, but it emerged as I grew up. John Denver wrote a song in Rocky Mountain High, with a line that says “Coming home to a place he’d never been before.” And that’s essentially how I felt. Because I’ve always felt most at home in the bushveld, not in the city. The wild is my natural habitat.

I think life is a search for identity, and internal peace. In my case, nature gave me this. I was able to harmonise the extremes in my life, to find a sense of home, in nature. I’m not saying I had these feelings or thoughts as a confused eight-year-old kid, but looking back, it could be said that nature saved my life.

Where did your love of nature come from? 

My earliest memory as a child, when I was about two years old, was the smell of a camp fire. Just sitting around a fire, wrapped up in a blanket staring into the flames and hearing people tell stories. I don’t know if my memory of the campfire is a living memory. Perhaps it’s a memory I inherited from my ancient ancestors.

One of my other earliest memories was being in Kruger with my folks when I was about ten. I remember that feeling of watching a male lion roaring under a red dawn sky, the sun rising. He was walking past us, roaring, the moisture of his breath condensing in the cold morning air. I thought “this is incredible.”

What is it about African wilderness that seems to appeal to people around the world?

It’s all about vulnerability and inspiration. Wherever you come from in the world, if you plonk a person down around a campfire, with lions roaring in the distance, and animal shadows moving in the dark, they will feel vulnerable, and alert. Something wakes up inside of them. And from that vulnerability, inspiration can emerge. That’s something that is embedded in in each one of us as humans.

You guide a lot of people from Europe and the USA. Do you notice themes emerging from your experiences with them?

Yes. With every email and every WhatsApp message we send, with every digital conversation we have, the human split from nature gets wider. Some people refer to it as progress, but I think it can be regress.

The more people use their intellect, as opposed to their intelligence, the wider the split becomes. What the wilderness experience does, is that it turns your sight the other way around. Once you start to look at yourself, you become more aware of your origins.

And Africa in particular will inevitably make you ask questions of yourself. Very few people emerge form our wilderness experiences without a clearer understanding of balance, or their place in the world.

African wildlife – and wildlife across the planet – seems to be constantly under threat. What can people do?

There are apparently several million environmental NGOS. Most of them seem to refer to the Earth as being in need of saving. The forest needs to be saved, the oceans need to be saved, the wild dogs, the elephants, the whales etc.

But they’re all missing the point because the planet is fine. It’s not going anywhere. Nature and life will carry on regardless of what we do as a species.

All those NGOs miss the most important point: we need to save ourselves. The most populous mammal on the planet is an endangered species. We are making our future existence very precarious by the way we are currently treating the rest of life on Earth.

So ecological humility is essential.

As I said earlier, we are no more important than an earthworm. And this challenges a lot of our belief systems, especially man’s dominion over the planet. But what other belief system can you grab on to? Therefore we need to rewrite the story of our relationships with the earth. It’s difficult for people to grasp onto something that’s still being formed.

Elephants are a controversial species. Some say there are too many elephants in some parts of Southern Africa, and need to be culled. What do you think?

I don’t know what the right decision is. Yes, we see an elephant killing a tree. And then you also see the regrowth and explosion of diversity. When I first worked in Timbavati, there were hundreds of eroded gulleys, with no topsoil. Now there is vibrant climax grass. Its a story of ecosystem dynamics and transformation. Change, in nature, is constant.

I’m not saying it’s all because of the elephants. But consider that a big bull will drop 100 kilograms of dung every day. That’s 35,000 kilograms – or 35 tons – per elephant, every year. That’s a lot of compost. And because elephants aren’t ruminants like buffalo or antelope, their dung is only 40% digested, so it’s full of seeds, leaves, grass and bark. It’s premium, A-grade, top-of-the-range good shit.

They say that Kruger has at least 20 000 elephants. That’s at least 500 million kilograms of compost every year laid out across the landscape. So they’re a keystone species for sure. Based on that, make your own conclusions about elephants and their importance to the ecosystem. Part of my story is to encourage role players and conservationists to view elephant biology through a new lens, and to challenge contemporary theories.

What is the future of elephants – and wildlife – in Africa? What can people do to help?

It’s the same for everything. The war in the middle East, the war in Ukraine, financial crisis, political angst, the great existential crisis that we’re facing. All I can do is just be true. Be honest, be authentic, and have conversations about these challenges.

Conversation is all we can do. And the more conversations that can be had, the more chance there is of a collective transformation.

Transformation starts with two people having a conversation from the heart. It is contagious. If one person talks from the heart, the other person has no choice but to be drawn in. And then exponentially it expands out from there to others.

So people will ask me questions like: “How can we stop elephant poaching? How do we stop rhino poaching?”

I always say: “One conversation at a time.”

But the conversation has to come from the ears, not from the mouth. Conversation is about listening, learning and being available to perception change. Around a campfire, I can say ‘nothing’ in 100 different languages! So it’s about being prepared to compromise, being prepared to listen, being prepared to discover yourself in that person’s situation.

If you can listen to each other, and then respectfully disagree, that’s still a conversation. I believe that our innate creativity and originality, and therefore our capacity to change our perceptions, is only accessible when we are relaxed and at peace with the world. So what better space than to create inspiring dialogue than in the sacred space of nature, where we can come home to ourselves. This is an essential part of the way I conduct my wilderness trails.

And when conversations happen in nature, it disarms us, it creates space for listening. What do you think will happen if we take two people out into a wilderness space? Facing outwards into nature, listening to each other’s views. Looking to see a bigger picture as opposed to a little picture.

And that’s what I do. I’m a conversation starter.

What does nature and wilderness mean to you?

I believe that what connects all of us is an inherent sense to find peace in our life. Or you could say stillness, belonging, or being known. An ease with the present moment.

Regardless of where you are from, regardless of what your colour is, what your history is, how much money you have, or what you do for a living, what car you drive, we are all connected by this essential desire.

We might mistake money, territory, power or possessions as our goals. I’m not romanticizing poverty, but those things in isolation cannot give us what we ultimately want.

For me, those moments of stillness, peace and belonging can happen because of my time in nature.

The wild is a sacred silent space to explore great truths. Truths about our own selves and our inter-connectivity with the ancient order of things. Perhaps mankind’s most urgent priority, now, is to look at our relationship with our natural world differently.