When little Ropa Moyo was 4 years old in kindergarten in Zimbabwe, her class went on a field trip to a wildlife orphanage. There were two rhinos there. Ropa was a tiny child – her mum had to make her uniforms because they didn’t make uniforms that small – and when she looked up at the majestic rhinos, they looked so big. Ropa had never seen anything like them before. She was speechless.

But in her silence, curiosity grew.

After her rhino encounter, Ropa was too young to read books, but television gave her lots of information. She loved the TV series Flipper, not just because it starred a dolphin, but because it was set in a place that studied marine animals. Her country was landlocked so marine wildlife became fascinating.

As she moved up through primary school, her curiosity grew. In the classroom, lessons about the rhino featured a lot because in Zimbabwe, its extinction was a worrying possibility. Ropa was sad to think that if the rhino didn’t last, she would never be able to show it to her children and grandchildren. She hated to think her descendants wouldn’t get the chance to be as awestruck as she had been. She started to ask questions at school about how to save it.

After studying environmental science in primary school, by the time she got to secondary school, Ropa’s favourite subject was biology. Most of the learning was done in the classroom even though she wished her school had a nature club or at least, opportunities to go out into the environment. But still, the subject was about how living things worked, and because she loved the subject, she was good at it. She worked so hard, her biology teacher told the class, ‘If Ropa doesn’t get an A, there will be no A’s.’

Ropa was about 14 when she settled on marine biology. It was during a holiday and she was staying at her uncle’s farm in Zimbabwe. One day, when all the cousins were sitting around, her uncle asked each one what they wanted to be when they grew up. When it was Ropa’s turn, she said, ‘I want to be a marine biologist.’

Afterwards, her uncle called her dad and told him. Her uncle wondered where she got the idea from since their country was landlocked. Her mum was excited, but her dad was a bit sceptical about where she could work. Even so, her dad always said, ‘You can do and become whatever you want.’ He was an auditor for the government while Ropa’s mother was a midwife. Ropa’s mum loved biology too, especially insects – she was known for it and the other kids would even say, ‘There’s that weird kid who loves insects.’ But opportunities for women back then had been limited and she went into nursing. She always said that if things were different, she might have studied environmental science too.

Once she had made the decision, Ropa had to make her dream happen. She enrolled in mathematics and science subjects as well as biology at secondary school, then researched what subjects she needed at university. Ropa went to an all-girls school and most of her teachers were women. She was unaware to any gender bias towards STEM subjects, because at her school, every class, humanities or science, was only populated by girls. Indeed, some of her classmates would go on to become doctors, pharmacists, nutritionists, engineers and of course biologists. She spent her time studying hard, driven by the love of learning and curiosity. It didn’t always work though. Some of the subjects like bio-statistics were difficult and she only got 51% but as she was fretting before the exam, she realised that she just needed to pass and 51% was a pass. Funnily enough, later on when she worked in the field as a scientist, bio-statistics calculations became second nature and a natural part of her work. In the field they made much more sense than in the classroom.

Once Ropa finished her studies and gained two degrees, she began working in the field with animals. She didn’t get to work with the rhinos but did get to track buffalos and helped in the rescue of a baby elephant that was named after her. And of course, her understandings about saving endangered species changed. She realised it was as much about the people. You can’t save the animals unless you change the community.

Ropa left Zimbabwe after her dad passed away and followed her mother and older sisters to Australia. She had always wanted to do a PhD and had promised her dad she would get one by the time she was 30. While he was gone before she finished the PhD, her mother was at her graduation, proud of what her daughter had achieved.

Today, Ropa is working in Western Australia with indigenous rangers who are teaching her different ways of conservation. The western-world way of agriculture is about clearing the land, growing, and harvesting. The rangers are teaching her traditional ways where nature provides food within the landscape. They’ve show her how to harvest from nature in a sustainable way. She has tried bush tucker – she even tried a delicious honey ant recently. All of her education to date has been western science; now she gets to be fascinated by a new, yet ancient, way of thinking.

Dr Moyo was awarded her Bachelor of Science Hons. in Marine Biology from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. She graduated with a Master of Science in Zoology from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She then worked as an ecologist for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority before moving to Australia to complete a PhD in Geography and Planning with a focus on wildlife conservation and social development.

Dr Ropa Moyo suggests visiting the zoo, asking questions of people who work there about animals, habitat, and conservation. Are there any volunteer zoo jobs such as cleaning out cages? That’s a great way to get to know more about animals.

She also recommends community volunteer work such as cleaning beaches – preventing rubbish and plastic from going into the water is a great way of saving the animals in the sea. Some schools have programs where students can do this.