Greg Rasmussen


Greg Rasmussen is a British wildlife conservation biologist who has studied the African wild dog for over twenty years, working in the Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. He is the founder and a former director of the Painted Dog Conservation project in Zimbabwe. He is also the founder and current head of the Painted Dog Research Trust.

Background

Rasmussen was born in London but moved to Zimbabwe with his parents when he was eleven years old where he attended Falcon College. This was followed by a spell in the merchant navy. In 1988, Joshua Ginsberg offered him a job observing animals in Hwange National Park. He established the Painted Dog Conservation project in 2002.
In 2003, he was involved in a light plane crash which left him severely injured and alone in the African bush. He survived and was eventually rescued. He almost lost his feet but doctors saved them, and as a result of the incident he is shorter. The story of his survival is featured in season one of I Shouldn't Be Alive, a documentary series broadcast on the Discovery Channel in the United States in an episode entitled "Jaws of Death". In the United Kingdom, it was broadcast as "Thrown to the Lions" on Channel 4 where the series is called Alive.