Internationally renowned wildebeest expert Richard Estes of Peterborough died on Dec. 6 at 93.
Estes was considered one of the world’s foremost authorities on the migratory patterns of the Serengeti. He studied the animal kingdom of Africa for decades, authoring three books – “Behavior Guide to African Mammals,” “The Safari Companion” and “The Gnu’s World,” and co-authoring “The National Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife.”
“Being with him while he observed animals was like a sacred experience,” said Hancock author Sy Montgomery, a longtime friend of Estes who accompanied him on safari to track wildebeest migration in 2016, chronicling the experience for a book. “He knew the vast sweep of [wildebeests’] effect on the entire Serengeti ecosystem. They are the engine driving the most iconic ecosystem in Africa – and Dick was the man who knew more about this than any other person who ever lived.”
Estes graduated from Harvard University in 1950 and then studied ethology at Cornell, where he began his African wildlife research, eventually moving to Tanzania to study wildebeests in the Ngorongoro Crater. There, he uncovered many secrets of the wildebeest; he also met his wife, Runhild, there, and the two were married in 1964.
He’d continue his wildlife research over the course of many decades, along the way moving with his family to Peterborough in 1981.
“He was wonderful company,” said Elizabeth Marshall Thomas of Peterborough, another author and longtime friend who accompanied Estes on safari to Africa. “He was fun to be with. Smart, funny – just a really wonderful person.”
Estes was a founding member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Antelope Specialist Group and the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation.
“Through his decades of arduous, painstaking, yet joyous fieldwork, Dick came to understand the ebb and flow of life perhaps better than anyone,” wrote RSCF director Paul Reillo. “Documenting the wildebeest’s great migration — one of nature’s most awe-inspiring life cycles — no doubt imbued Dick with a wisdom about nature’s holism and humankind’s integral role. I have grown to appreciate that, over time, this understanding necessarily evolved from caring, to stewardship, to responsibility.”
Estes did his share of conservation work at the local level, as well, as a Peterborough Conservation Commission member and founding member of the Monadnock Conservancy. His love of wildlife extended far beyond Africa; Montgomery said he could imitate practically any bird call and have the birds answering back, or bark in conversation with a dog.
“He loved the fact that he could communicate with the animals,” Montgomery said.
Estes is survived by his wife Runi, children Lyndon and Anna and granddaughter Lehna.