We want to end the week on an uplifting note.

Last November, we shared the exciting news of a new baby rhino calf in the Chyulu Hills area. It was tiny and vulnerable and we had lost many at this age before, so our hope was also tempered by worry.

Big Life and KWS rangers kept close tabs on the camera traps in the area it had been seen, and tracks were also helping us keep tabs on it. Then the signs dried up, and weeks went by. It wasn’t necessarily bad news, but it was concerning.

So imagine our excitement in spotting it on camera again: bigger and still very much alive.

The Eastern black rhino is critically endangered. There are estimated to be fewer than 1,000 remaining, so this calf is a major event, taking our resident population from 7 to 8. The calf is still young, but every day that it survives, it gets stronger and more likely to make it to adulthood.

These are some of the last wild and unfenced black rhinos in East Africa and the remnants of a population that we intend to re-establish as a stronghold for the species in Kenya.

Thanks to Big Life’s rangers, working in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service, we haven’t lost a single rhino to poachers in more than 8 years, but births have been rare in such a small population.

These are the successes that make it all worthwhile. Thank you to all who support our rhino program, particularly USFWS and Chester Zoo, as well as our partners at Royal African Safaris.

There aren’t many ways to stop a bullet and Kevlar armor doesn’t come in ‘Super Tusker’ size. We’re hoping a tracking collar will be the next best thing because Esau needs it.

Esau is extraordinary. Only 34 years old, his tusks are already past the 100-pound mark, putting him in the rare company of Super Tuskers, of which as few as 50 remain across Africa.

Esau is the nephew of Echo, one of Amboseli’s most famous matriarchs. We know his life story thanks to the amazing work done by Amboseli Trust for Elephants.

Their data shows that at least 20% of Amboseli’s elephants cross the border into Tanzania, including Esau. Until now, he has had little to fear thanks to cross-border anti-poaching operations, but a new threat lurks across the invisible border.

After more than two decades, trophy hunters have started hunting elephants in this area of northern Tanzania again. Three have been killed since last September, at least two of them reported to be Super Tuskers. Esau would be a prime target.

Hearing this, our friends at Mara Elephant Project provided a tracking collar through their partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service and Wildlife Research and Training Institute. During the planning phase, Esau received an injury to his trunk, likely during a fight with another bull, and the opportunity to treat it added further impetus to the exercise.

Timing was everything. Rangers followed his movements on both sides of the border, and when he crossed into Kenya, the teams were ready.

Save the Elephants sent specialists to assist with the collar fitting and the operation was an extraordinary display of cooperation and transboundary commitment to protecting these bulls. Nine entities were involved, including Big Life-supported rangers from the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area in Tanzania.

Esau's collar will provide invaluable data on the movements of a male approaching his breeding prime, but more importantly it could save his life, as research animals are 'off-limits' for hunters.

Special thanks to Kenya Wildlife Service, Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Olgulului Community Rangers, and IFAW in addition to those already mentioned. Photo & Video: Jeremy Goss

A third elephant has been killed by trophy hunters in northern Tanzania, in a part of the Greater Amboseli Ecosystem.

Previous hunts took place late last year and both elephants killed were reported to be Super Tuskers (with one or both tusks weighing 100lbs or more). All carcasses were burned, making identification impossible, but the three are almost certainly from the cross-border Amboseli population.

Decades of research has shown this area of northern Tanzania, including the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area where Big Life supports community rangers, to be an integral part of the Greater Amboseli Ecosystem. The border is open and at least 20% of Amboseli’s elephants cross into Tanzania each year.

Our understanding is that these hunts were legal. While we respect Tanzania’s right to choose how it manages its natural resources, we believe strongly that there is no justification for hunting such rare and valuable animals.

There are about 10 Super Tuskers left in the Amboseli Ecosystem, and likely as few as 50 across Africa, and these males are especially important.

Old bulls are not past their reproductive prime, as hunters contend. Research has shown that elephant bulls only reproduce consistently by age 40, by which time 75% of them will have died. So older bulls are in fact disproportionately important for breeding.

Old males play an important social role, keeping boisterous young males in check, curtailing their aggression.

Living elephants are also extremely valuable to local economies. A study found that an average elephant attracts $1.6m in tourism spending over its lifetime, but this value is much higher for a Super Tusker.

Finally, there are ethical questions about hunting elephants that are extremely habituated, having grown up near people, and the violation of ‘fair chase’ principles.

We join all concerned parties in urging authorities to formalise the historic moratorium on elephant hunting in areas near the Kenya-Tanzania border, to protect this special population.

We thank our partners at Amboseli Trust for Elephants and Elephant Voices for the data here and a joint statement can be read on our websites. Photo: Jeremy Goss

In 1994 there was international outcry when four individually known elephants, subjects of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project, were shot by trophy hunters on the Tanzanian side of the border. In 1995 a moratorium on trophy hunting of this cross-border elephant population was agreed between nations. In late 2023, however, two adult males with tusks reportedly weighing over 100 lbs. were shot south of the border in Tanzania, ending a 30-year trophy hunting moratorium. A third elephant was shot in the same area in late February 2024 and, as of 10 March, a further three licenses are said to have been granted raising alarm and putting the integrity of the Amboseli elephant population in jeopardy.

The Amboseli elephant population is a cross-border population inhabiting both Kenya and Tanzania. The ecosystem includes Amboseli National Park and the surrounding conservancies and lands in Kenya (~8,000 km2) and the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area and beyond in Tanzania. There are currently ~2,000 elephants using this ecosystem. For 51 years these elephants have been closely studied by the Amboseli Elephant Research Project (AERP). It is the longest, continuously running study of elephants in the world and one of the longest studies of any animal in the world.

Each elephant is known individually and has a code number or name and is documented photographically. Birth dates for all but a few of the older individuals are known as well as the mother and the family and, in some cases, the father. A detailed database contains every elephant identified over five decades, including births and deaths and numbers over 4,000 individuals. A linked database houses every recorded sighting. The Amboseli data is an extraordinarily rich and important body of knowledge. Each individual, each record is a building block that underpins this immense scientific achievement gained over the past half a century. Indeed, much of what we now know about elephant behavior, communication, social structure, demography, reproduction and genetics, has resulted from this study.

There are 63 elephant families in the Amboseli population of which 17 families, consisting of 365 members, regularly spend time in Tanzania. In addition, approximately 30 adult male elephants, over the age of 25 years, use the Enduimet area and beyond in Tanzania as part of their home range. For half a century Enduimet has been a favourite area for a particular set of adult males who make use of it as part of their “bull area”, which is an area they use when they are bulking up for their next reproductively active period. When they are active they return to central Amboseli in search of mates.

Satellite tracking by Iain Douglas Hamilton in 1995-98, as well as extensive tracking of more than 30 individuals by Alfred Kikoti based in Tanzania, and more recent tracking by AERP reveals that elephants regularly move back and forth across the border and south into Tanzania, including in some cases across to Lake Natron. A map, Figure 1, illustrates AERP’s recent (2019 to present) tracking results of eight young males from known Amboseli families. It is reasonable to assume that any elephant found in this area of Tanzania is part of the cross-border population and has been captured by AERP's long-term study.

The Amboseli population includes adult males with some of the largest tusks on the continent due to the particular genetic makeup of these elephants (the largest tusks ever collected and displayed in the British Museum come from this population) and to the years of protection from trophy hunting and poaching they have been afforded.

Tim was one of Amboseli's lucky males, because he was able to reach the age of 51 before he died of natural causes. Tim fathered many calves and his offspring will pass on the genes for everything that made him magnificent and a major tourist attraction.

Male elephants grow throughout their lifetime, as do their tusks. The males with large tusks that are targeted by trophy hunters are the older males in the population and the primary breeders in elephant society. Far from being “dead wood,” males who live to an old age produce a disproportionate number of offspring. Older, larger males are dominant to younger males, have longer musth (sexually active) periods and are preferred by females. By selecting older individuals, hunters not only have a damaging effect on elephant lives and society, but are negatively influencing the genetic future of the Amboseli population, not to mention the ecosystem’s tourism potential.

Our position is that the Amboseli cross-border population should be protected from trophy hunting because it is unique and highly valuable as a scientific base of knowledge of elephants. In addition, it represents one of the last gene pools for large tusks. A successful moratorium held for 30 years. Surely, conservation alternatives can be found to conserve in perpetuity this cross-border population that should be viewed as a World Heritage. We appeal to the Tanzanian and Kenyan governments to work together to protect this cross-border population, to recognize its immense scientific value and to ensure that these treasured elephants are not the target of trophy hunters.

Figure 1. Tracking data of eight young males from the Amboseli cross-border population from 2019 to the present. Each male comes from well-known central Amboseli families.