Thus began the career of the man who would become Africa’s greatest hunter - and much much more. He would learn his craft from the greatest teacher of all, experience, spending much of the next four decades in the mostly uncharted regions of Southern Africa; his travels taking him through what are now Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, and South Africa. Once there, he explored and hunted, learning everything he could about Africa and the people, plants and animals that inhabited it. He had a natural talent for keeping detailed records of his observations and experiences - mostly though, of his hunting adventures.

He would eventually author nine books, including "A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa”, "African Nature Notes and Reminiscences” and “Travel and Adventure in South-East Africa”, all now classics; first hand accounts of his explorations and adventures.

A dedicated naturalist, he would send, over the years, some 5000 specimens of African flora and fauna to the British Museum of Natural History, including an extraordinary array of butterflies, still an important part of the Museum's collection, and where, in 1920, a bust honoring him was dedicated in the main hall of the Museum, where it stands today.

In 1890, Cecil Rhodes commissioned him to guide the first column of settlers north into Mashonaland, and later, when former US President Teddy Roosevelt embarked upon his famous Safari in 1909, Selous served as one of his guides. In 1892 he was awarded the Founders medal by the Royal Geographical Society in recognition of his achievements.

After living for a time back home in Great Britain, he would return to Africa at age 63, to fight for the British against the Germans in the First World War, ostensibly as a Captain in the Royal Fusiliers. In truth, he assembled his own unit of guerrilla fighters, made up in part of professional hunters, French legionnaires, American cowboys, and an assortment of other characters, including an acrobat and a Honduran General. And when the fighting slowed, he still hunted and netted butterflies.

But a snipers bullet would end his career and his life in Beho Beho, Tanzania, on January 4th, 1917. By then, at age 67, he was already a legend. Even the commander of the opposing forces that had killed him expressed regret over the circumstance of his death, calling it “Ungentlemanly”.

In 1922, his memory was honored when Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve, Africa’s largest, was named for him, and later, Rhodesia’s Special Forces, the Selous Scouts, bore his name. And though the Selous Scouts fought on the losing side in Zimbabwe's war for independence, there are even today busts of Frederick Courteney Selous in The Bulawayo Museum as well as the Queen Victoria Museum in Harare.

Teddy Roosevelt said of him "There was never a more welcome guest at the White House than Selous. He told us stories of his hunting adventures. He not only spoke simply and naturally, but he acted the part, first as himself, and then of the game, until the whole scene was vivid before our eyes. He led a singularly adventurous and fascinating life, and he closed his life as such a life ought to be closed, by dying in battle for his country while rendering her valiant and effective service."

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