So, what DO you do if a rhino is charging at you?

On the way there have been charging rhinos, collapsible giraffes, white lion cubs and monkeys that just didn’t want to do what they were told.

Animals, non-domestic and some very large, have been Bob Lawrence’s life and while he may lack Tarzan’s loincloth, preferring a pair of chinos, he’s certainly got the King of the Jungle’s nous when it comes to dealing with wild things.

Since the mid-70s he has been in charge of the livestock at West Midland Safari Park at Bewdley, but his kingdom stretches much farther than that. Across the world, in fact. Only recently he was transporting a lion in a freighter plane over Mexico City at night when a bird strike caused a hurried landing.

“There was considerable damage to the nose cone and we were refused permission to take off again. They actually turned off the runway lights,” said Bob. “I was trying to convince a local official we had to go, because there was a lion on board. But he was adamant.

Suddenly, as we were arguing, the animal, which was in a wooden crate, let out this great lion roar.

You’ve never seen anyone scribble out a certificate of air worthiness so fast in your life and we were on our way.”

The recent spate of television programmes about life in the African bush – Wild at Heart, The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency, Lion from Harrods etc etc – have brought the lifestyle of Bob Lawrence back into focus once more. Particularly his species conservation work, both at home and abroad.

For the Bewdley safari park has a sister operation at Ongava in northern Namibia, a research centre where studies are carried out into local flora and fauna with core projects focusing on rhinos and lions.

Talking about the former, as an interesting after-dinner discussion, how do you get a three-ton rhino where it doesn’t want to go, especially into a travelling crate?

No amount of pushing and shoving is going to work and coaxing it with a handful of grass is asking for trouble. After all, it’s got a sharp bit at the front.

“You dart it and while it’s out you put a cover over its eyes and block up its ears,” Bob explained. “When it comes round, without its sensory perceptions, you can put a rope round it and lead it where you want to go.”To prove the point, he produced a series of photographs showing exactly what he meant.

Although I’m not quite sure who was brave enough to try it the first time.

But then his life with animals has always been learning on the hoof, as it were. Fresh out of agricultural college, Bob was among the first employees at the safari park when it was opened in 1973 by the Chipperfield Organisation, taking money on the front gate. The early days were somewhat chaotic and it wasn’t long through a process of elimination he found himself promoted up the food chain to the grand title of Director of Wildlife, “which in principle is the same job I’m doing now”. Although, of course, he has 35 years’ experience under his belt, travels the globe and through on-the-job learning has become one of the foremost authorities in his field.

It has to be “on the job” too, because, as he explained: “Agricultural college ill-prepared me for artificially inseminating an elephant.” Likewise it didn’t teach much about how to treat a tiger with toothache, a giraffe with a bad eye or hand rearing lion cubs.

Although his career did start small.

At Bewdley, a pair of guinea pigs was his first successful mating.

One of the tools of his particular trade, in which he has become an acknowledged expert, is the dart gun. It’s the only way to subdue large animals for treatment and needs careful handling. The average vet never goes near one.

In the wild the weapon has an effective range of about 50 yards and then, of course, there is the wait until the drug becomes effective. Which can be the most difficult time.

“Giraffes are the most difficult animal to dart,” said Bob. “They’re all legs and neck and there is always the chance they will go down awkwardly and break something. They can also choke with that long neck.”

You need to be careful with rhinos too. They’ll cover 50 yards in no time. Bob recalled the occasion he was tracking a bull rhino with a colleague. They were both unarmed, but were accompanied at a distance by a group of local rangers proud of their newly acquired guns.

Suddenly, something spooked the rhino, which looked up, saw them and started to charge. There was nowhere to go so the pair stood stock still as the animal ran straight past them and off in the direction of their armed guards, who by then had dropped their weapons in fright and were legging it at haste towards the safety of the support vehicles some way away.

“If you run from a lion or a rhino you’ve got no chance,” Bob explained. “They expect you to run. A lion’s prey runs. Your best bet is to stand still. It confuses them.” Mind you, saying it and having the courage to do it are two different matters.

Naturally, he is immensely proud of the conservation work done both at Bewdley and Ongava and the awards and acclaim the safari park has received over the years. At Easter it opened its gates for a new season and by the end more than 750,000 vehicles will have passed through. And to think it all started with a pair of guinea pigs.