To get to Amboseli, of course! Negotiating manmade obstacles like this is daunting for any wild animal, but in the case of this road there is simply no way around it.

To complicate matters, this is not a quiet backroad. It’s the main access into the Amboseli ecosystem, heavily trafficked by trucks carrying goods to and from Tanzania, and agricultural produce from the slopes of Kilimanjaro destined for markets in Nairobi.

Human development has expanded along this commercial artery, severing historic wildlife movement routes in the Kimana area as buildings and fences have sprung up along the highway. In the nick of time, just as the last open route was closing in late 2018, Big Life was able to secure a lease with the landowner to keep a narrow gap along the highway free of development.

Big Life’s crop-protection fences now keep wildlife out of urban areas and farms, and safely funnel animals through this 70-meter-wide “Kimana Crossing” as they journey between Amboseli National Park and the community-owned lands in the east of the ecosystem. The crossing has been carefully engineered with speed bumps and fencing to protect the people traveling along the road, and the animals crossing over it through this narrow gap.

Most wildlife use it at night, because that’s when the road is quietest, but excited passers-by have recently had a number of daylight elephant sightings, including this bull crossing in this video. It’s another example of how local wildlife is adapting to a changing environment, one where they must coexist with their human counterparts.

It is inevitable that Amboseli will continue to develop, but we believe in a future that has space for wildlife too. Big Life is working with landowners, with support from Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, to protect important wildlife habitats outside of national parks, like the “Kimana Crossing.” Protecting the critical wildlife corridors that hold the whole system together benefits both wildlife AND humans.

I’m sure I speak for us all when I say “good riddance” to 2020. It was a year filled with unimaginable challenges. And if it was hard for us, then I’m sure it was equally difficult for our supporters around the world. I am overwhelmed with gratitude that we were able to keep our rangers in the field and our core operations running at a time when so many could not. It would not have been possible without our supporters and partners.

We had some tremendous successes in spite of the odds. Reviewing our numbers, I have to pinch myself: it’s another year with ZERO elephants and ZERO rhinos poached in our area of operation. These 10 plus years building up our anti-poaching programs with our community rangers have really paid off. 

Our rangers excel at being nimble and adapting to rapidly changing conditions. In the 4^th quarter, they also arrested 10 suspects for bushmeat poaching and 26 for trophy possession, removed 95 snares, prevented 25 crop-raids by elephants, prevented 4 lions hunts with our partners, and responded to 23 bushfires.

But our rangers aren’t the only ones who had to make dramatic changes to their operations on account of COVID-19. Our community programs also took a huge hit. Since it wasn’t safe for people to gather at clinics, we instead organized back-pack nurses to provide remote assistance. And our community health volunteers were able to safely conduct household visits, reaching more than 21,000 people with information about both COVID prevention and family planning. Schools are also starting to reopen, which is so critical for the student’s development and the health of the community overall. 

New challenges await us of course, especially as we fight to keep habitat safe from development for wildlife and livestock to continue to use. We’ll keep you posted as everything unfolds.

In the meantime, from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU for seeing us through 2020.

Richard Bonham

Director of Operations in Kenya and Co-Founder

SEE THE FULL 4TH QUARTERLY REPORT

This was no holiday. Two men had travelled to Tanzania on an illegal shopping trip.

After crossing the border, they didn’t have to go far to find what they were looking for on the black market – dead lions. Or rather, parts of dead lions. 42 ribs, 8 canines, and 21 claws to be exact, plus 2.8 kg of elephant ivory.

They then returned to Kenya planning to sell the items at a higher price to make a tidy profit. If not for Big Life’s intelligence network, it may have worked. An undercover informer found out about the items for sale and made contact with the men. They were immediately arrested with support from the Kenya Wildlife Service, contraband in hand.

Big Life’s intelligence department has been involved in a flurry of recent arrests related to trafficked lion parts, and we are still unsure whether it represents a real increase in the number of items being traded, or if it is simply that our intelligence networks have unraveled threads that lead from one trader to the next.

However, there is no doubt that the demand for lion parts is a threat to vulnerable wild populations, and the signs point to a growing trade. Lion teeth and claws are believed to have uses as charms in traditional “medicine” both locally in Africa and in Asia, and the bones are now being used as an alternative to tiger bones (which are rarer and more expensive) in Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM).

The fact that some countries, notably South Africa, still issue quotas for the legal export of captive-bred lion skeletons is likely to be fanning the flames of demand, and providing a legal cover for illegal trade. As we have seen with past experiments of legal trade in elephant ivory and rhino horn, this ends in disaster.

We hope that sense will prevail, and trade in ALL lion products will be declared illegal in the near future. In the meantime, we will continue our work to combat the illegal trafficking in the borderlands region of Kenya/Tanzania, through intelligence gathering and on-the-ground enforcement by community rangers.

A waterhole can be a cruel thing. Depressions in the landscape that at certain times of the year store life-giving water can become death traps as they dry up and turn to thick, sticky mud.

Big Life rangers were recently called out to a horrible scene at one such waterhole in the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area, on the Tanzanian side of the Greater Amboseli Ecosystem. There were three giraffes, all stuck in the mud and completely unable to move. Local community members suspected that they had run into the mud to escape lions.

Sadly, two of the giraffes were already dead, but there was life yet in the third. The rangers and community members worked together to reach the giraffe, a challenging feat in itself. With great effort, they secured a rope around it, and were able to pull it out with a vehicle.

Giraffe numbers are struggling across Africa, so every life saved is significant. Across the continent, there are around 110,000 giraffes. The local population in the Amboseli ecosystem is about 5% of that total – around 7,000 individuals. While that may seem like a small number, but it’s double what it was 10 years ago before Big Life’s anti-poaching programs kicked into high gear.

Thankfully, this lucky giraffe still had enough strength to stand up on its own, and was cheered on its way by the team.

Safari njema, twiga!