Dereck and Beverly Joubert: a legend of Africa

Africa has given rise to many legendary couples. Some fictional, like Charlie Allnut and Rose Sayer, played by Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn in The African Queen. Others very real, like Karen Blixen and Denys Finch Hatton, a couple with an extraordinary destiny and unforgettable protagonists of Out of Africa, or Osa and Martin Johnson, the first wildlife filmmakers, Hollywood stars in the first half of the 20th century, whose romantic story is told in Michel Viotte's film, Les Amants de l'Aventure.
Dereck and Beverly Joubert are without question eligible for this list of legends.

Writers, filmmakers and wildlife photographers, members of the National Geographic Society, they have travelled across Africa for more than thirty years. Thirty years of a shared life devoted to conservation and wildlife protection. Made famous by several films shot in Botswana, they are behind the Big Cats project in collaboration with National Geographic, an initiative aimed at studying and protecting Africa's large felines.

At the heart of the Okavango Delta lies the private Duba Plains concession, the place Dereck and Beverly chose as their original base and for their film “Relentless Enemies”, which sheds light on the interaction between the buffalo and the highly active lions of the concession. Two male lions, the Duba Boys, are famous for their buffalo hunts. They are exceptional for their many years of dominance over the female groups in this area. They were already present when Duba Plains Camp opened in 1996. Born in 1992, they belonged to the Tsaro pride led by their father Stick. He was driven out by his rival Squinty at the end of 1996, who held power until 1999. It was then that the Duba Boys reclaimed leadership of their maternal pride, a rare occurrence since males are normally expected to leave their pride to acquire dominance elsewhere. Having reached the age of fifteen, they sired no fewer than 21 cubs. This exceptional period of power is due to the fact that there is only one way into their territory, a wooden bridge; potential rivals could not ambush them from all sides. It was in 2007 that a male, the elegant Skimmer, challenged them. He attacked and wounded one of the Duba Boys, who died on 27 December of that year, and began mating with the females of the Tsaro pride.