Chris Boshoff lives by, and takes his cue from nature. With his motto, ‘if you observe it, you will conserve it’, he successfully manages a unique educational operation; educating and encouraging people, from all walks of life, to seek the answers to a successful way of life from the environment.

 A parent and grandfather Chris Boshoff was born in Kitwe, Zambia, spending the first ten years of his life on a farm in Mazabuka, Zambia. Schooling was at Dale College, King William’s Town. Born into a family of engineers, his desire to become a veterinary surgeon specialising in poultry was not well received. Under pressure he agreed to do an apprenticeship - working for one day as a tradesman before resigning to join a large poultry company.

Chris Boshoff spent a major portion of his working life in this industry, being exposed to most sectors of the poultry industry. Initially a farm and hatchery manager, he advanced to production manager with a staff of more than 400, and then moved into sales and marketing. All these positions were held at a senior management level. For four years he held an R and D managers position for a veterinary company specialising in poultry.

Having a passion, not only for wildlife, but also for communication with people, Chris Boshoff won the ‘best sales presentation award’ with the USA based, Kemin Group of Companies at their Fifth International conference, and beat out the competition from 13 other countries. In 1991, while holidaying in USA, he developed a life threatening and incurable illness, which will be with him for the rest of his life.  With the new set of health circumstances he had to live with, Chris decided to venture out and do the work he had always yearned to do. His choice was to take his animals to businesses, schools, homes for the disabled and to folk who needed to be educated about, and motivated by, animals.

This field was not only new to him but also the world. In addition to interactions with school learners, annual lectures are presented to the final year students of Johannesburg College of Education (now WITS University) on his educational work. Chris Boshoff regularly lectures to the Ethology students under the leadership of Prof. J. Odendaal of Pretoria Technikon. Chris has been a guest on Talk Radio 702 as well as numerous SABC Radio, SABC-TV and MNET appearances. Utilising his managerial skills and experience, as well as a variety of unusual, tame and mainly hand-raised animals, talks have been presented on: EQ (emotional intelligence), self-motivation, management, team building, sales and marketing.

 Among the animals he uses to illustrate his talks are:
Crocodile – Stress Management
Python – Fear Factor
Bush Baby – Communication Skills
Meerkat – Team Values
Hedgehog – Time Management
White-faced Owl – EQ vs IQ

Talk Topics are:
Running the Rat Race with Rat Relatives
Meerkat MBA
Apart from taking care of his animals on a smallholding in Randburg, as a hobby he also breeds, shows and judges poultry. Chris is the only person to be a registered as an all-breed poultry judge in more than one country, namely South Africa and USA. In 1994 he had the honour of being the only foreign judge to officiate at the American 150 Year Poultry Championship Show in Columbus, Ohio. Chris is also Life President of the S.A. Show Poultry Organisation.