It’s been another fast-paced year here in Amboseli, and the momentum is really starting to build for the Maasai Olympics Finals on December 14th. After fierce local competition, team selections have been made and the regional competitions are complete. Everyone is now looking towards the upcoming finals, when warriors will try to leap, hurl, or sprint to glory.

This time, the warriors are not just competing against their fellow age-mates, but also against the incoming generation of warriors, for whom this will be their first Olympics. It is a significant milestone, because it marks the transfer of knowledge and understanding about conserving lions to the next generation, exemplifying the multi-generational impact the Maasai Olympics has made.

Twelve years since the first Maasai Olympics, and the lion population of the Greater Amboseli Ecosystem is stronger than ever, boasting more than 250 lions. It is a dramatic reversal from the double-digit counts when the games first began. The focus on ending lion killing has been so widespread, that discussions at Olympics-related meetings and regional events are now able to address additional challenges facing conservation in local communities, including habitat protection for lions and other animals, in order to reduce the human-wildlife conflicts that arise.

We’re honored that the games this year will be hosted yet again on Kimana Sanctuary, thanks to our partners at Angama Amboseli. And we’re grateful for the support of our sponsors: Chester Zoo and Play for Nature / Parc Animalier d'Auvergne.

Through our Predator Protection Programs like the Maasai Olympics, we hope that both local communities and lion populations will continue to win – today, tomorrow, and far into the future.    

An ostrich chick looks like an odd combination of a hedgehog, a serval, and a velociraptor.

This delightful scene is currently unfolding here on the plains below the Chyulu Hills: a brood of 18 ostrich chicks.  

While they are quite obviously adorable, the odds do not favour these little balls of fluff.

Less than one in ten nests hatch, and of those that do, only 15% of chicks make it to one year. They have all manner of natural predators, including other male ostriches trying to breed with the mother.

If these chicks make it to adulthood, they could live for several decades.

But what use will that be if their habitat no longer exists?

Like many grassland species, ostriches need SPACE. The Greater Amboseli ecosystem has been a stronghold for the Masai ostrich because it has remained open and interconnected, where many others in Kenya have become choked by fences, farms, and human development. As the land around Amboseli is subdivided into tens of thousands of tiny plots, the risk of habitat loss is a serious one.

Big Life is striving ensure that this ecosystem remains interconnected for generations to come by working with communities to lease land for conservation, establish protected areas and conservancies, and maintain open wildlife corridors.

Keeping the grasslands open will give these baby chicks, and all those to come, a chance to thrive.

Video: Joshua Clay

In September, you helped us name our new Malinois tracker dog puppies: Holmes and Watson.

Two weeks ago, they hit the paws button and travelled to the prestigious Kuru Dog School in Arusha, Tanzania. There they will be trained under the watchful eye of master dog trainer Will Powell. Will has a long and decorated career training land-mine detection dogs in conflict zones across the world, including Rwanda, Cuba, Afghanistan, and South Sudan. He has also trained conservation dogs in six countries across Africa. If there is anyone capable of transforming our pups into crime-fighting canines, it’s Will and his team.

It is still too early to tell when Holmes and Watson will be ready to return to Big Life, but we are pleased to report that they are already growing both in size and ability.

In the meantime, Clyde is holding down the Tracker Dog Unit at our headquarters in Mbirikani, supporting our rangers as needed with operations.  Image: Joshua Clay

It is counterintuitive to have negative consequences following good rains. But what was a blessing at the beginning of 2024 became a ticking time bomb by mid-September. Because good rains result in long grass, and long grass becomes bonfire material by the peak of the dry season.

Fires are part of the natural cycle of the Chyulu Hills. If managed properly, they can be beneficial, and many of the plant and tree species that thrive here are fire-resistant.

However, fires that are too frequent and too strong can be harmful to this landscape. When our teams received word of an enormous line of flames rising from the farms to the east of the hills, it required rapid attention.

In this remote region, rangers are the first and only defense against such fires. More than 60 Big Life rangers and 3 aircraft, along with teams from the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, the Kenya Wildlife Service, and The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, worked day and night to stop the blaze.

Funds from the Chyulu Hills REDD+ Project were used to secure an Air Tractor in the past year, a plane capable of dropping more than 1,000 gallons of water at a time, which made a huge difference in controlling the fire.

This one fire burned an estimated 12,000 acres. If it wasn’t for the dedicated combined efforts of our rangers, the teams from our conservation partners, and the new aircraft, the damage would have been a lot worse.

Two weeks later, and green shoots have already started to appear across the blackened hillsides, highlighting the resilience of this ecosystem, and offering a sense of hope as we look once more to the beginning of the cycle and the start of the rains.

🎥: Joshua Clay