• Home
• About
• John N. Hare FI ‘98

John N. Hare FI ‘98

John Hare is on a mission to protect the world’s remaining wild, Bactrian camels. Whether it’s fieldwork, fundraising or advocacy, he’ll do whatever it takes to ensure their survival.
Mr. Hare made his first expedition into the Mongolian desert in 1993 with a group of Russian scientists. He has since returned six times to conduct surveys and assess the status of the wild Bactrian camels now critically endangered due to poaching. Not satisfied with documenting the problem, John Hare created the Wild Camel Protection Foundation in 1997, a UK registered charity which has helped to establish a large national park in the Gobi to protect the animals.  In 2004, the WCPF set up a captive breeding program to ensure the camels have a chance to survive well into the future. As a result of its success, the Zoological Society of London is now advising the WCPF on a release program.

To highlight the animal’s unique characteristics, John Hare set-out in 2001-2002 to cross the Sahara by camel from Lake Chad to Tripoli, a journey of 1500 miles which lasted three and a half months, and in 2006 he made the first circumnavigation by camel of Lake Turkana (660 miles) in northern Kenya. His books The Lost Camels of Tartary (1998), Shadows across the Sahara (2002), and The Mysteries of the Gobi (2009) are rousing stories of adventure documenting his work.

In 2004, John Hare was presented the Ness Award by the Royal Geographical Society for raising awareness on wild Bactrian camels and the Lawrence of Arabia Gold Memorial Medal for exploration under extreme hazard by the Royal Society of Asian Affairs. In October 2006, the Royal Scottish Geographical Society awarded him the Mungo Park medal for distinguished contribution to exploration.