Over the past three decades, living as a conservationist here in East Africa, I have seen the repeated necessity of adapting to and tackling unforeseen challenges. 2021 threw two such wild cards at Big Life – the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and Maasai land subdivision. We managed to get through the ongoing COVID pandemic relatively unscathed: none of our 500+ staff had to be furloughed and somehow we managed to adapt and continue with the same vigor and impact as pre-COVID. The second wild card was land subdivision across our area of operation becoming a reality: communally-owned land being converted to privately-held plots.

For several decades, we have been partnering with community members and leaders of the local group ranches, which are essentially 300,000-acre blocks of communally-owned land. This land tenure structure has been turned on its head, with the group ranches dividing the land into 2-to-60-acre parcels of individually owned properties. This scenario, if not managed correctly, has all the ingredients to implode the ecosystem.

I am happy to report that, with your help, that will likely not be the case. The communities involved have, with little exception, embraced the principle that hosting wildlife on their land has to be taken into account as part of the process. As I write, we have negotiated over 300,000 acres that will be set aside for wildlife needs, and are in the process of earmarking other tracts of crucial wildlife habitat to remain undeveloped.

I truly believe the willingness of the communities involved to set land aside for wildlife is the result of the work Big Life has done over the years, proving wildlife is an asset rather than a liability. This is underpinned by providing education, mitigating human-wildlife conflict, offering employment, and pursuing other wildlife-based income streams for locals. For now, this change of land tenure represents a conservation opportunity to provide long-term security of wildlife habitat. But with it comes the challenge of ensuring the landowners realize meaningful benefits and payments for the ecosystem services they are providing.

I need to recognize the huge and invaluable roles Craig Millar, now Chief Operating Officer, and Benson Leyian, our new Chief Executive Officer, have played not only in navigating us through the complex daily operational challenges, but also leading the way responding to land subdivision so positively and successfully.

Richard Bonham
Executive Chairman, Big Life Kenya

After a two-year delay caused by COVID, we’re excited to announce that the Maasai Olympics are back on track. The finals have been scheduled for December 10, 2022.

The last Maasai Olympics were postponed in 2020 while we watched a global pandemic unfold. In 2021, it became clear that we would need to wait a bit longer to keep our communities and athletes safe, and so the decision was made to cancel the games and resume on our traditional timetable, starting now.

The Maasai Olympics is more than just a single day. Events run through most of the year, starting with conservation education meetings. In May, the first level competitions to select the warrior athletes for each of the 4 participating teams normally occur, and regional competitions then run from July through September, culminating with the finals in December.

The Maasai Olympics were born out of conversations and collaboration with the Menye Layiok, or Maasai “cultural fathers,” and warrior chiefs to devise an alternative to the long-held tradition of hunting lions as a mark of manhood, bravery, and prestige. Instead, local warriors compete for medals by participating in events that mimic their traditional warrior skills: rungu and javelin throwing, high jump (Maasai style, from a standing position), and 200m, 800m, and 5000m races. The inaugural games were held in 2012 and have happened biennially until 2020. The Maasai Olympics includes categories for female athletes as well.

As we gear up for an exciting season celebrating the incredible athleticism of the Maasai and the recovery of the local lion population, we want to thank our event sponsors: National Geographic Society’s Big Cats Initiative, Chester Zoo, Disney Conservation Fund, and Play for Nature/Par Animalier d’Auvergne.

It’s easy to get depressed following the death of an iconic and much-loved elephant such as Tolstoy and be angry at the fact that he died at the hands of man. But there is an antidote to those thoughts, and that is to look around us here in Amboseli.

Tolstoy’s death as a result of human-wildlife conflict is tragic, and we will be mourning his loss for some time. The good news, however, is that such deaths are increasingly rare in Amboseli. Through the whole of 2021, we recorded only 3 human-elephant conflict-related deaths in our area of operation (out of a population of approximately 2,000 elephants).

Big Life’s crop-protection fence has been hugely successful, coupled with the extraordinary commitment of rangers who spend their nights protecting farms from elephant crop-raids in areas that are not yet fenced. Without this fence or these rangers, Tolstoy would have fallen victim to conflict years ago.

The elephant population of the Amboseli Ecosystem is the highest it’s been in 50 years of monitoring. This is remarkable given the threats that the species faces. Furthermore, Amboseli is still home to what is arguably the highest density (relative to overall population size) of large-tusked elephants in Africa. Craig is one of the biggest, and this picture of him was taken just days ago in the Kimana Sanctuary, where he arrived after Tolstoy’s death.

There are many others that will grow to this astonishing size if they are protected, including many of Tolstoy’s offspring. And there are a lot of people working hard to afford them this protection. We appreciate all of our ecosystem partners, including the Amboseli Trust for Elephants. It is thanks to their incredible research work that we know the life histories of Amboseli’s magnificent tuskers, as well as the richness of the social bonds that bind this special population together.

Thank you to everyone who sent messages following Tolstoy’s death.  We truly appreciate it. We are still sad, but as focused as ever on protecting the rest of his kind here in Amboseli, by working together with the communities that share space with them.

Photo: Shaun Mousley

“This is so painful.”

These few words spoken by ranger Daudi Ninaai describe well how we are all feeling at Big Life. Tolstoy, one of Africa’s biggest ‘tusker’ elephants, and an icon of the Amboseli ecosystem, has died at 51 years old.

He was speared in the leg 6 weeks ago, almost certainly by a farmer defending his crops from one of Tolstoy’s nighttime crop raids. The wound was treated, but the resultant infection has ultimately had the worst possible consequences.

Big Life’s rangers in Kimana Sanctuary have been monitoring Tolstoy since his treatment. Yesterday morning, they found him lying down. This was not unusual for an elephant who took frequent horizontal naps despite his enormous size, but upon getting closer, the rangers could see signs of his failed struggle to stand up. They knew that this time was different.

Tolstoy was still alive and two Kenya Wildlife Service vet units (both funded by the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust) responded. He was given further treatment, but getting him on his feet again was unlikely from the start. For hours the rangers and vets tried to pull him up with vehicles and ropes, with no success. A front-end loader was called in as a last desperate attempt, but Tolstoy was just too weak to stand.

With the rescue team running out of ideas, and night fast approaching, Tolstoy finally ran out of strength and died, surrounded by the rangers who have looked over him for so long.

Ranger Job Lekanayia is one of these: “Today is the saddest day in my job as a ranger, having lost one of the elephants that I treasured the most. We tried everything that we could. I thought he would wake up, but he just couldn’t lift himself up.”

After 50 years on earth, there isn’t much that Tolstoy hadn’t seen. And there isn’t much that looks the same. His home has been transformed by the human species, and it is the consequences of rapidly expanding farmlands that eventually killed him.

His death is a reminder of the vulnerability of even the largest of animals, as well as the urgent need to protect habitat for wildlife and manage the interface between wild animals and human activities. There are solutions, and we are making progress despite a tragic setback such as this.

Over his long time on this planet, Tolstoy had a positive impact on countless people, and will be remembered as a calm and gentle giant. As ranger Lekanayia says, “All I can say is: rest in peace Tolstoy, we will miss you.”

Top photo: Josh Clay

Bottom photo: Jeremy Goss