How was Wild and Free’s Founder  Matt Bracken in an interview, explains what inspired him to save Africa’s Rhinos? Matt describes a profound elephant encounter. Matt Bracken tells us, what inspired him to protect rhinos and the incredible inspiration he sources from wildlife and the protection of the wild. Matt was a volunteer anti-poaching ranger. The founder of Wild and Free Foundation and the first American to have successfully completed the Protrack anti-poaching ranger training in 2011. “I have a dream, of Nature thriving wild and free among humans, and humans being healthier and happier because of it.” Matt Bracken. Matt Bracken being interviewed by Rohan Nel about; What inspired him to save Africa’s Rhinos? Matt describes a profound moment that caused a mind shift. encounter. This interview took place in Hoedspruit, South Africa in 2016. "What inspired me? I first got a taste of what I think is my memory and inspiration, it was 1984, I was 12 years old and I was on my first safari with my grandpa, Vern Moss, and he showed me what nature truly was. I looked into the eyes of the first elephant I ever saw, it was a big male and I’ve never seen anything like that, I've never seen the eyes of a truly wild animal in his space. Other than in a zoo where they’re fenced in and crushed and dominated by humans” “That elephant inspired something in me, that I saw something, I saw something wild and free. I saw a wild and free being, being totally wild and free, and, from that point I've always thought we as humans are the only thing that's come up with the words “wild and free”, we are actually the only thing that's not wild and free. And maybe that's why we try to make everything else not wild and free and fence it in.”  Matt giggles about how Rohan Nel inspired him. “So it was a wild animal that inspired me and I am also a wild animal, but I’ve been very humanized and I want to be wild like that elephant. I'm inspired to find that, and I'm inspired to be able to live that way. I think we would be?…. Life shouldn't be so hard, it shouldn't be so hard and frustrating that we kill ourselves. No other animal just shoots themselves in the head… and ends it. But that's what happens when we try to control everything, we've even controlled ourselves.” “I'm inspired by wild and free everything. It's like I'm working out every day, I'm trying to be a little bit more wild and free. And to allow, such a bad word, “allow”, but to “let”, I don't know what the word is… but let the world do what the world does and everything does what they do, and we just need to fit in.”  Matt describes how wild he wants to be like the wild elephant. So, I'm inspired by the thought that maybe humans will decide not to slaughter everything, for decorations, for status or for something cool, that now we've killed something so we can have something cool. I'm inspired by the unselfishness of nature and I want to try that! Give that a go!" Matt Bracken Wild and Free Foundation believes that by educating the world about rhino poaching and filming the survival or extinction of the rhinoceros using real short stories, we can raise awareness about rhino poaching, what passionate people go through, and how to preserve African wildlife.
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