Richard Leakey was a champion of animal conservation and parliamentary democracy

RICHARD LEAKEY, who died on January 2nd aged 77, was the heir on both sides to a dynasty of palaeontologists who helped prove that Africa was where humankind emerged—a notion that was controversial to many until the 1970s. But it was as a rousing advocate, first in the service of wildlife conservation and then of multiparty democracy in Kenya, that he forged his own way.A pugnacious temperament helped. His friends called him egotistical, arrogant and brash; his enemies worse. Useful too was a boundless self-confidence and seemingly unlimited energy. On hearing of his death, one friend said: “He always reminded me of Bugs Bunny crashing through a wall, leaving behind him a Bugs Bunny-shaped hole in the bricks.”