Elephants Walking Through Grass, Amboseli 2008. Leading Matriarch Killed By Poachers, 2009
Big Life Rangers with tusks killed at the hands of man, Amboseli 2011
WELCOME TO BIG LIFE FOUNDATION
Big Life was co-founded by photographer Nick Brandt and award-winning conservationist Richard Bonham in September 2010.
Since its inception, Big Life has expanded to employ hundreds of Maasai rangers—with more than 40 permanent outposts and tent-based field units, 13 vehicles, tracker dogs, and aerial surveillance—protecting 2 million acres of wilderness in the Amboseli-Tsavo-Kilimanjaro ecosystem of East Africa.
Big Life was the first organization in East Africa to establish coordinated cross-border anti-poaching operations.
by Big Life Rangers
1595421
2139Arrests since 2011 |
3177Poaching tools seized since 2011 |
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$250
...will pay for the salary and upkeep of one ranger for one month.
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$300
...will keep the Super Cub plane in Kenya in the air for one hour of aerial monitoring.
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$350
...will equip and replace equipment for a ranger for one year.
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$450
...will purchase a camera trap in the rhino habitat area.
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$1000
...will purchase a hand-held Radio for rangers
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$1500
...will cover fuel costs on one vehicle for one month.
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$3000
...will cover the costs of the informer network for one month in both countries.
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$3000
...will pay for a set of Night Vision Surveillance equipment.
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$3000
...will pay for one month of both tracker dog units in Kenya and Tanzania.
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$4000
...will pay for one lightweight mobile camping unit.
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$55,000
...will cover the cost of a new anti-poaching vehicle.
Big Life Endorsements
We are very honored that two legends of the African conservation community, Iain Douglas-Hamilton and Cynthia Moss, have endorsed the work that Big Life is doing in the Amboseli ecosystem...
NEW! Big Life Launches Ranger Club
Join the Ranger Club, our monthly giving program, at a level appropriate for you, and become a part of our community. Your generosity will help to fund our programs throughout the year, including the seemingly never-ending work of our rangers. By joining, you support more than just our rangers, who work tirelessly to protect elephants, rhinos, lions and other animals from poaching and retaliatory killing due to human-wildlife conflict.
Learn more, and sign up to join the Ranger Club today.
A YEAR OF TWO OLYMPICS
As athletes across the world start to finalise their preparations for the Rio Olympics later this year, another set of athletes is preparing for a very different Olympics…the Maasai Olympics.
Big Life News
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AN ELEPHANT CALLED TIM (& A SPEAR THAT CAME SO CLOSE)
Tim. In hindsight, not the best name to have given to the calf that grew into Amboseli’s greatest elephant. But Tim, in all his current glory, the biggest tusker in the ecosystem, is his name. It is because of the size of Tim’s
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BEYOND POACHING
THE NEXT PHASE: A TRANSFORMATIONAL LIFE SAVER We didn ’ t think that it would get to this point so fast. In the 2 million acre ecosystem patrolled by Big Life’s rangers, we currently have poaching almost completely under
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SPEARED ELEPHANT TREATED IN RECORD TIME
The message went out at 11am this morning - a huge bull elephant at the Ol Donyo Lodge waterhole with a deep gash on his face. Big Life rangers moved in to watch him, and track him if he left the water.
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8-YEAR-OLD GIRL ROOTS OUT POACHERS
You wouldn’t expect to catch a poacher on a walk to your grandmother’s house. But that’s exactly what happened after 8-year-old Manei discovered something suspicious while walking through the bush to her grandmother’s house last weekend.
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FROM IVORY TO ASHES
When I was confronted by the 105 tons of ivory, stacked up on the pyre awaiting cremation, I was at first emotionally unmoved, because it was simply too much to take in. Then I thought of the elephants I have known...
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247 REASONS NOT TO POACH
You might think that there’s not much worse than facing an armed poacher with your pants down. But there is, and that’s facing an armed poacher and not knowing what to do about it. Big Life recognizes the huge importance of training Rangers to prepare them for the challenges they face because...
Bush Journal
SPEARS FLY IN AMBOSELI
Another week, another huge bull elephant with a spear in it. This time his name was Ulysses, an elephant well known to the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE). After receiving the call from ATE Big Life got a plane in the air and was
Radio Room
4 July 2016
KENYA: Giraffe carcass found with machete cut to back of the leg, rangers investigating // Eland and giraffe moved from farms // Suspect arrested for illegal sand harvesting, released by officials
3 July 2016
KENYA: Giraffe carcass found in pit // Lion killed 2 lost cows, community calm // 2 farms raided by elephants // Eland and giraffe moved from farms
2 July 2016
KENYA: Elephant calf found and taken to Sheldrick orphanage // 2 water pumps illegally pumping water to farms were confiscated // Zebra with cut on the back leg, suspected to be from machete, possible bush-meat attempt // Cow killed by lions // Elephants raided 2 farms
1 July 2014
KENYA: Elephant calf reported alone, KWS responding // Elephants raided 2 farms // Rangers moved elephants, zebra, eland, giraffe away from farms
30 June 2016
KENYA: Elephants raided 3 farms and eland 1 farm // Rangers moved zebra, eland, giraffe, and impala away from farms // An elephant killed a goat
