With only two weeks left until the Maasai Olympic finals, it’s all stations go as we get ready for the 10th of December. Invitations have been sent out, posters have gone up in all the local towns, and the warriors have been practicing hard.

While some parts of the ecosystem have started to see rain, it has not been enough, so everyone and everything in this region is still holding their breath.  Whether or not the rains arrive, one thing is certain: the Maasai Olympics are going ahead. This event has already been delayed by two years because of COVID-19, and while the drought has raised concerns about hosting it this year, we believe that the games are precisely the occasion to bring all the communities in the Amboseli ecosystem together after such a difficult year. It is an opportunity to celebrate Maasai culture, while taking everyone’s minds away from the drought, even if just for one day.
 
We are also extremely excited to share that our guest of honor for the past four Maasai Olympics is returning to make it five out of five. The two-time Olympic gold winner and 800m world record holder, David Rudisha, will be attending this year’s games. If ever there was a person that could lift the spirits of everyone in this region, then it is David.

 
The Maasai Olympics would not be possible without our generous partners and sponsors including: National Geographic Society’s Big Cats Initiative, The Disney Conservation Fund, Chester Zoo, Great Plains Foundation, Zoo Basel, and Angama for letting us host the games in Kimana Sanctuary.

We are also very grateful to our newest Maasai Olympics sponsor this year, Play for Nature, whose philosophy is to reconcile the protection of nature with human activities. Thank you!

Photos: Jeremy Goss

Mbirikani is a typical rural Kenyan village with a small assortment of shops along a single avenue, and a population of only around 200, yet these photos show just how much plastic waste this tiny community produces in just under six months.

Like much of rural Kenya, there is no formal rubbish collection here. Everything from plastic bags, bottles, and clothes gets discarded out in the open. Plastic bags and wrapping get caught in bushes and trees and the rest can be seen almost everywhere. While some gets burned, this does little to put a dent in the ceaseless stream of waste.

Single use plastic bags were banned in Kenya several years ago, which definitely helped the situation, but has not solved waste problems entirely.

As part of Big Life’s community work program started this past summer, local women who would not otherwise have had any income as a result of the drought are being paid a modest amount per week to do jobs like picking and sorting the plastic, glass, and metal waste from where they live for recycling. They have also been digging bunds – small, semi-circular 1m x 2m pits that capture rainwater and encourage rangeland restoration.

These women spent almost a week sorting plastic into various categories before it was collected by the Tsavo Heritage Foundation and taken to be recycled in Nairobi. This is a promising new collaboration and one of the first tentative steps towards addressing one of the biggest problems affecting Kenya’s rural areas.

The past few months, Big Life has been steadily recording the sobering tally of wildlife that has succumbed to drought, been poached for bushmeat, or perished for various other reasons relating to the lack of rain.

While the death toll has been steep, there are many more animals that Big Life has been able to save, and last week provided one such example.

Despite moving so gracefully, giraffes aren’t always as nimble on their feet as you might expect. With their eyes so much higher than their feet, they can sometimes miss low-lying objects like wire fences intended to contain livestock. We suspect this was the reason why this male giraffe was having difficulties walking.

Fortunately for him, he was spotted by community members near Mbirikani town, who alerted Big Life. A car was soon at the scene to monitor the giraffe, while a team of KWS and Sheldrick vets were called in from Amboseli to treat it. The giraffe was administered with antibiotics, had his ticks removed, and his wounds disinfected and doused with a healthy splash of iodine. He was back on his feet ten minutes later and his future now looks a lot brighter as a result.

We’re grateful to our partners for helping this lucky, lanky giraffe get back on his feet.

Video: Josh Clay

A typical Amboseli scene: a family of elephants led by a seasoned matriarch through a parched landscape in their eternal search for food and water.  The drought is really starting to bite, but this matriarch knows these ancient paths well.  She has traversed them for many years, and she knows what lies at the end of this one: an idyllic scene of a water source for her family to find respite, Kilimanjaro looming beyond.

But this is not an infinite nor untouched bush, but rather a landscape containing farms, power lines, roads, cars, and people. This is reality, and this matriarch’s journey is anything but idyllic in a rapidly transforming landscape.
 
The growth of the region’s human population and infrastructure means that space for wildlife is contracting. As the surrounding group ranches go through their land subdivision processes, these once open and contiguous areas are set to contract even further.

But all is not lost. Successful negotiations between Big Life and the owners of parcels in the Kimana Corridor mean that this crucial pinch point will persist for at least the next 50 years. Big Life is working with many other landowners to negotiate further corridors and rangeland for wildlife, ensuring this ecosystem’s iconic wildlife will continue to follow their ancient paths.  They just might have to pass a few tomato fields along the way.

And so this scene concludes with an elephant family safely crossing the road and entering Kimana Sanctuary, where crucial permanent water sources that help sustain this ecosystem’s wildlife are located.  While elephants had been using the crossing primarily at night, they’re feeling safe enough to cross with their families in broad daylight, under the watchful eyes of Big Life rangers, like Daniel Kutata, who filmed this scene.