DIV DE VILLIERS is a very tall man. Like in the Victor Matfield mould, all 120kg and 6 foot 6 inches of him.

Put it this way, you’d rather be a bunny-hugger than a game or fish poacher when he approaches.

The reason is that 47-year-old De Villiers is the head of environmental law enforcement agency the Green Scorpions in the Eastern Cape – the scourge of poachers, owners of illegal cottages and dumpers of medical waste, and the nemesis of 4x4s and quad bike owners who go dune-bashing along the Wild Coast.

What is, however, not widely known, is that an author ’s heart beats inside that huge frame. This week De Villiers launched his second book, aptly titled The Poacher and Other Hunting, Fishing and Conservation Stories.

The book is a no-holds-barred collection of De Villiers’ experiences during his quest to protect the environment. It is a sure bet that many who have tangled with him and the Green Scorpions will earnestly check the pages to find out whether their names have been recorded for posterity.

De Villiers is a former officer of the old SA Defence Force’s 31 battalion in the Caprivi, where his relationship with the Khoi people cemented his love for the land, which was nurtured at an early age by Northcliff Primary School headmistress Jane Frasier’s educational trips into nature.

Normal civilian life bored De Villiers, and his rabble-rousing student life – wine, women and song – in Grahamstown soon got him kicked out of Rhodes University while studying for his BSc degree in 1982.

His exit from academic life, however, opened another door.

“I successfully applied for a job with nature conservation and started working in its law enforcement division.”

It must be added that, once he calmed down in later life, he obtained his masters in zoology at the erstwhile University of Transkei.

Over the years he has served the Department of Economic Development and Environmental Affairs in Port Elizabeth, Kokstad and East London. It was in Kokstad that De Villiers worked under regional director Harris Majeke. In an e-mail to say farewell to friends and colleagues after he had been appointed ambassador to India in 2009, Majeke described his first meeting with De Villiers at the department:

“On my arrival I found a very big Boer in khaki shorts. He was really a policeman. I thought, ‘Whaa, what place is this? Who is going to shoot first?’ It turned out to be that my fellow Boer was a sweet and very gentle man with whom working became a pleasant experience.”

In 2005, the Game Rangers Association of SA acclaimed De Villiers as its Game Ranger of Year. The following year he received the SA Breweries’ environmental journalism award for his first attempt at serious writing, Mkambali and the Wild Coast, a coffee table book which he co-authored with Port St Johns’ conservationist John Costello.

The Poacher and Other Hunting, Fishing and Conservation Stories could almost be described as a family affair. His daughter Lauren, a pupil at Stirling High School, did the drawings.

Div and his wife Annette also have two sons. Ryan, newly crowned Mr Stirling, has applied to study at Rhodes , while Keith is in the stock- broking business in Cape Town.

De Villiers says that although he aimed to bring out humour in most of the stories in his book, he also hoped to convey a serious conservation message.

“We need a huge effort in the province to stop the decimation of our forests and the killing of wild game such as rhinos.”

At the first sight of the big man in his khaki shorts, poachers would be wise to heed his message. - By EDDIE BOTHA

eddieb@dispatch.co.za