Jaco Muller

On 19 September 2026 Muller, aged 53, died in a gyrocopter crash near Outjo while monitoring rhinos and wildfire flare-ups linked to fires spreading around the Halali area toward the south-eastern edge of Etosha National Park. According to the Namibian Police weekend crime report cited by Informante, he was flying at Farm Gorab in the Outjo District about 15:20 when the aircraft struck a tree, crashed and caught fire. The project's veterinarian raised the alarm when he failed to return; his son Tristan later tracked a cellphone signal to the wreckage. The Rhino Momma Project and Namibian outlets published tributes in the following days. Los Angeles Times / Mongabay carried a longer English-language obituary on 29 September 2026.

Public profiles associate Jaco Muller with northern Namibia and the town of Outjo in Kunene. Detailed accounts of his childhood and schooling were not widely published in English-language obituaries. He married Cheryl Muller; their son Tristan, as a teenager at a local high school, wrote a project proposing a large-scale white rhino breeding effort. The family later described that school idea as the spark for converting their antelope stud into a rhino programme. Muller also had a daughter and, by the time of his death, two grandchildren.

Before focusing on rhinos, Muller ran a family antelope breeding business (Muller Investment Corp and Muller Stud Namibia). In 2010 he redirected that enterprise toward white rhinos, buying animals in Namibia and South Africa to widen genetic diversity and expanding adjacent farms into large breeding camps. The first calf was born in January 2013. The Rhino Momma Project nonprofit followed in 2018 to fund anti-poaching patrols, feed during drought, and later dehorning. Kifaru Lodge opened to bring tourism income for security and care. By September 2026 the breeding programme reported 197 births. Muller spoke publicly for private custodianship, opposed poaching, and argued that a legal horn trade could finance protection, a view critics said risked laundering and higher demand. In 2024, 42 white rhinos from Kifaru Lodge were exported to Texas under permit.

Muller lived and worked near Outjo with his wife Cheryl and family. Colleagues and tributes described him as the driving force of the Rhino Momma Project and as devoted to the animals on the farm. He used a gyrocopter for daily checks over the reserve. Informante reported that he was survived by his wife, daughter, son, two grandchildren, his parents and his sister.

Muller is remembered for turning a teenage school project into a multi-property breeding and security operation that recorded nearly 200 white rhino births and moved animals under CITES rules within Namibia and abroad. Supporters credit the family with proving that private farms can expand herds when parks and budgets are under pressure. His advocacy for legal horn trade and overseas exports remains debated among conservationists. The Rhino Momma Project and Kifaru Lodge continue as the institutional face of the work he began with Cheryl and Tristan.