When people can’t get to the hospital, you bring the hospital to them.

Across Big Life’s area of operation, many remote Maasai communities lack access to basic healthcare services. Expecting people to care about wildlife conservation isn’t realistic if we don’t care about them in return.

In May, a male lion named Lemurt was speared after entering a livestock enclosure near the Nairrabala Conservancy.

The local community alerted our partners at Lion Guardians, who contacted the Kenya Wildlife Service veterinary team. Lemurt was treated the following day. Despite the severity of his wounds, no major arteries or bones had been damaged, and his prognosis was good.

That’s where our rangers came in.

For the next two weeks, Big Life’s Nairrabala rangers monitored Lemurt every day, sharing photos and video with Big Life, Lion Guardians, and the KWS veterinary team so that his recovery could be closely followed. By June 1, his wounds had healed well enough that daily monitoring was no longer needed.

And recently, we got the update everyone was hoping for: Lemurt was photographed as seen here healthy, successfully hunting, and with his pride—which includes three new cubs.

Conservation successes like this rarely belong to any one organization. They depend on communities sharing information, conservation partners coordinating their response, veterinary teams providing expert care, and rangers maintaining a watchful presence on the ground.

We’re grateful to Kingspan (whose lion logo feels particularly fitting for this story!) for supporting Big Life’s Nairrabala ranger unit through its Planet Passionate program. Their partnership helps keep rangers in the field, contributing to the network of people working together to give wildlife like Lemurt a future.

Sometimes protecting lions really does take a pride. 

📸: Joshua Clay

A new short film from Big Life explores what community-led conservation has made possible, and what it will take to protect the Greater Amboseli Ecosystem for generations to come.

For decades, Big Life has worked alongside local Maasai communities to protect one of the world’s most extraordinary landscapes.

Spanning nearly two million acres in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, the Greater Amboseli Ecosystem is home to some of East Africa’s most iconic wildlife, including one of the continent’s most important elephant populations and some of its last great tuskers. It is also a living landscape, shared by wildlife and the communities who have called it home for generations.

Our new five-minute film, Amboseli Forever, tells the story of this place, the people working to protect it, and what decades of partnership have made possible.

[youtube url="https://youtu.be/4QF1MThpo-U"]

Today, more than 600 Big Life rangers, field staff, nurses, educators, and local experts work collaboratively across the ecosystem. Together with local communities and conservation partners, they have helped drastically reduce poaching and human-wildlife conflict, expanded access to education and healthcare, and built a powerful community-led network of nature protection.

But the future of Amboseli depends on more than protecting individual animals.

As pressures on this landscape grow, securing and connecting habitat is increasingly critical. Elephants and other wildlife need room to move. Communities need healthy rangelands that can continue to support people and livestock. And the connections between Amboseli’s protected areas must remain open if this ecosystem is to continue functioning as it has for generations.

Amboseli Forever is both a celebration of what has been achieved and a reminder of what is at stake.

The film was created with acclaimed wildlife cinematographer Toby Strong, a 2026 Emmy Award winner for cinematography, whose extraordinary imagery captures the scale, beauty, and life of Amboseli.

We hope you’ll take five minutes to watch and then share Amboseli Forever with someone who should know this remarkable place and the people working to protect its future.

Conservation succeeds when communities lead.

Three leopard skins, eight carved elephant tusks, four ivory sculptures, and four ivory bangles lay under the midday sun at Machakos Police Station.

It was an unusual haul.

Elephant poaching in Kenya has remained at relatively low levels in recent years, and many ivory seizures have involved unworked tusks believed to have been held for some time. So, these carved items seemed like relics from an even earlier era. But until our intelligence team knew more, they had to be treated as evidence of a potentially recent wildlife crime.

The investigation soon revealed a different story.

Two of the suspects had worked as housekeepers for a foreign national who left Kenya more than five years ago. The residence and its contents had remained largely untouched until earlier this year, when the third suspect persuaded the two housekeepers to try to sell the illegal wildlife items.

That’s when they came onto the radar of Big Life’s informer network.

After a series of exchanges, a meeting was arranged. Kenya Wildlife Service officers intercepted the vehicle, recovered the illegal items, and arrested all three suspects. They are now awaiting court proceedings.

Based on the information available, there is no indication that the ivory came from recently poached elephants. The leopard skins also appeared visibly old and sun-damaged.

The distinction is important, but so is the seizure.

Recent large ivory busts elsewhere in Africa and Southeast Asia have renewed concerns about the illegal ivory trade.

We haven’t lost a single elephant in our area of operation to ivory poachers since 2018, but that success is not a reason to become complacent. It’s a reason to keep the systems that helped achieve that success strong.

Old ivory can resurface. But the ongoing demand for it suggests elephants are still at risk.

Our rangers, as always, remain vigilant.

The second quarter of 2026 was one of both momentum and reflection for Big Life. During the quarter, we shared our updated mission and vision – reaffirming our commitment to partnering with local communities to protect iconic species and conserve habitat across the Greater Amboseli Ecosystem, while working toward a future where nature thrives and communities prosper. These aren't new ambitions, but they reflect more clearly what has always been at the heart of our work: that conservation succeeds when communities lead.

That philosophy is evident throughout this report. Our Drone Unit continued to prove its value, providing rapid aerial support for wildlife emergencies, conflict mitigation, and veterinary operations that would have been far more difficult – or impossible – to accomplish from the ground alone. We also celebrated meaningful progress in education, including new classrooms that will expand learning opportunities for local students and the installation of solar power at one of our partner schools, creating brighter futures both inside and outside the classroom.

As this report was being finalized, the third quarter began with the loss of another iconic elephant: One Ton, a magnificent bull who, like Craig before him, died of natural causes after a long life. His passing was a sad moment for all of us who knew him, but also a testament to decades of successful conservation. In a world where so many elephants never have the chance to grow old, the lives of big tuskers like One Ton remind us why protecting habitat, supporting communities, and maintaining a strong presence on the landscape matters so deeply.

Every achievement in these pages reflects the dedication of our rangers, field teams, community partners, and supporters around the world. Thank you for standing with us as we continue building a future where both wildlife and people can thrive together.

With gratitude,

Craig Millar
Chief Operating Officer
Big Life Kenya

READ THE FULL Q2 REPORT

📸: Joshua Clay

Since our last update on July 30, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has continued its investigation into the unusual cluster of elephant deaths in the Amboseli ecosystem. Sadly, since then three additional deaths have been reported, bringing the total under investigation to 18.

Preliminary testing continues to point toward exposure to a toxic substance, with cyanide identified as a likely factor, though this is still being verified. The source of the substance and the circumstances surrounding the elephants’ exposure has yet to be determined.

KWS recently announced that four people were detained as persons of interest following the recovery of potentially toxic substances during their investigation. These individuals were questioned and released without charge, and the substances are currently being tested. Authorities have emphasized that their detention and the recovery of these materials do not establish a link nor criminal responsibility at this time.

Another theory being explored is natural cyanogenic poisoning by a grass native to Amboseli, which grew prolifically after unusually high rainfall earlier this year, and has reportedly killed elephants elsewhere before.

We know there has been considerable speculation surrounding these deaths, particularly online. We are equally concerned, but we urge caution about drawing conclusions before the investigation is complete.

Big Life continues to work closely with KWS and other relevant authorities, providing information and support from our teams on the ground. Our rangers are also maintaining heightened vigilance across the landscape.

Amboseli remains home to one of Africa’s best-protected elephant populations, and we will continue doing everything we can alongside our partners and local communities to keep it that way.

We’ll share verified information as it becomes available. In the meantime, we are so grateful for your support.

Photo: Jeremy Goss