Travis is the Time Safari leader, who explains the rules regarding their expedition to the past to hunt a Tyrannosaurus Rex and elaborates on the importance of following his exact instructions during their trip. Travis explains the "butterfly effect" to Eckels and warns him about the devastating consequences of accidentally altering the past environment or creatures in some way. After the hunting party arrives sixty million years in the past, Travis and his assistant, Lesperance, lead Eckels, Billings, and Kramer to the specific location, where they come face-to-face with an enormous Tyrannosaurus Rex. When the Tyrannosaurus Rex appears with red paint on its chest, Eckels flees and Travis and the others end up shooting the beast before a large tree falls on it. When the party returns to the Time Machine, Travis thinks about making Eckels remain in the past before making him dig the bullets out of the dinosaur's...
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corpse. When they arrive back to the present, Travis realizes that human history has been dramatically altered and fires his gun. The story is open-ended and the reader is left to wonder if Travis killed Eckels or committed suicide.
The safari is actually a time safari - the hunters use a time machine to travel into the past and hunt animals that are extinct in the modern era. While we might imagine that the time period and the intended target might influence the conduct and composition of the safari, we are told that the expedition generally involves a hunter and some number of safari leaders and assistants. Evidently both positions are dangerous, as several safari leaders and hunters have been killed recently.
Travis is the safari leader for Eckels' trip to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Travis presents himself as an impatient but disciplined professional - he explains answers to Eckels' many questions but appears aggravated that Eckels can't figure these things out for himself.Â
At the conclusion of the story, Travis shoots Eckels as a sort of revenge or justice for Eckels having altered the timeline through his own carelessness during the safari.
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