This is traffic not driven by the start or end of the workday, but by the rhythm of life itself.

Big Life’s camera traps capture every animal moving between Amboseli National Park and the Kimana Sanctuary, and the pictures show how these movements vary with the seasons. The tens of thousands of images also illuminate an extraordinary conservation success…

The giraffe is one of our world’s most iconic mammals, yet it faces an uncertain future.

While their improbable elegance has enchanted humans for as long as we have been able to depict them, it is perhaps this same timeless quality that has led to them being overlooked.

Giraffe Conservation Foundation estimates there could be as few as 140,000 giraffes left in Africa. And just over 14,000 of those live in Kenya.

Giraffes are large, long-lived, and breed slowly. This makes them particularly vulnerable to human activity, and here in Amboseli they are targeted for bushmeat and sometimes die from becoming entangled in wire fences.

Giraffes benefit from living alongside pastoralist communities who also need vast open landscapes. The best way to protect these African icons is to ensure they still have large areas of intact habitat, and to reduce pressure from poachers and illegal fencing. Big Life actively works to resolve all three of these issues.

Working with communities, we have protected more than 100,000 acres of wildlife and livestock-compatible conservancies in the last two years, to ensure the Amboseli ecosystem stays open and connected. We have arrested 540 bushmeat poachers in 301 incidents since 2015, and we promote pastoralism by paying an average of $114,000 a year in compensation to livestock owners for losses incurred by predators.

Our approach is working. Amidst declining population statistics elsewhere, Amboseli’s giraffe population has been slowly increasing.

It’s a remarkable achievement, but to keep this momentum, we need your support. So the next time you see an image of a giraffe, please remember their plight, and consider donating to Big Life.

Photo: Joshua Clay

The first time I saw Craig, he took my breath away.

He’s an awe-inspiring presence—one of the last remaining great tuskers of East Africa. Towering above the savannah with tusks that sweep the ground and a deep, subsonic rumble that resonates across the plains, Craig is a living relic of another era.

Each of his tusks weighs more than 100 pounds. Only around 25 elephants like him remain in all of East Africa. Ten of them call Big Life’s area of operation home.

Craig has survived for more than 50 years—through drought, shifting landscapes, and the brutal legacy of ivory poaching. Today, he shares his home with nearly 200,000 people. And like all elephants, Craig must migrate across vast distances to survive. But the paths he once roamed freely now cross highways, farms, and densely populated areas.

That’s where Big Life comes in.

Across the Greater Amboseli ecosystem, Big Life’s 400+ community rangers are working every day to protect elephants like Craig. Their efforts include preventing poaching, mitigating human-elephant conflict, and keeping vital migration corridors open and secure.

One of those critical pathways is the Kimana Corridor—a narrow but essential strip of land connecting Amboseli National Park to Kimana Sanctuary and beyond. This corridor allows elephants and other wildlife to move safely between protected areas. Without it, Craig and countless others would be cut off from the resources they need to survive.

The corridor is just 46-meters-wide at its narrowest point. But it supports some of the most remarkable wildlife movements in the region. Since its creation, more than 85,000 wild animals have used the corridor—including giraffes, zebras, warthogs, and of course, elephants.

Big Life’s rangers are stationed throughout the corridor and the surrounding landscape. Their presence is a constant safeguard—not just against poachers, but also to reduce conflict between people and wildlife. And innovative solutions, like a solar-powered crop-protection fence, help keep both elephants and farmers safe.

Craig’s tusks aren’t the only thing that make him vulnerable. His habitat is at risk. Land across Greater Amboseli is being sold off and developed at an alarming rate. The open savannahs that Craig was born to roam are disappearing.

In partnership with local communities, Big Life is working to address this crisis—supporting land management, habitat protection, and sustainable livelihoods to ensure that conservation and community can thrive together.

Because elephants like Craig deserve more than survival—they deserve space, safety, and a future. You can help protect Craig and his habitat. A small gift helps fund the rangers, corridors, and community-led efforts that keep him safe. 

Craig Millar
COO, Big Life Kenya

Images top to bottom: Jeremy Goss, Joshua Clay, and Axel Fassio

Protecting the environment isn’t a choice — it’s a shared responsibility.

Thriving ecosystems rely on the connections and relationships between all of the living beings within them.