WATCH. WAIT. ARREST. 

For some, the job stops when an elephant dies.

For others, that’s when it all begins . . .

We still have no idea how many elephants they killed. 

The syndicate was operating across a large area of southern Kenya. Other than the poisoned arrowheads in the bodies of the elephants, these were professionals who left little trace. They were only loosely affiliated, but with two things in common: their method of killing, and their ivory dealer.

At first, we thought it was an isolated one-off ivory sale. But further digging revealed a nest of criminals, all in the business of profiting from dead elephants.

Aware of the complexity, Big Life’s intelligence officer backed off. This was going to take time, diligence, and the support of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

So we watched and waited. Poking, prodding, looking for weakness. We knew the poaching gangs were supplying a dealer who was selling to a buyer much higher up the chain. One mistake could bring everything tumbling down. We had to be careful. 

Eventually, the opportunity came. Big Life intelligence personnel had been working with KWS to track the buyer as he prepared to complete an ivory deal. KWS made the arrest.

From there, the cards started to topple, as Big Life informants supplied KWS with the information necessary to arrest one gang in an ambush. This was followed a month later by the arrest of a second gang.

It was the culmination of four months of difficult and dangerous work. 

But the impact of dismantling an ivory supply chain is incalculable.

When Big Life started our conservation work in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem, we focused on what was in front of us: catching the poachers responsible for dead elephants. We had early success at this, and poached elephant carcasses became increasingly rare in our area of operation. 

But our intelligence networks (which were very basic at the time) told us that there was still ivory moving through the ecosystem. 

This was not Amboseli ivory. We were watching the beating artery of a supply chain, channeling ivory back and forth across our area of operation. All part of a global network that takes ivory from a dead elephant, onto motorbikes down dusty dirt tracks, to deals made in small-town backstreets, then into vehicles bound for holding facilities in larger cities, before exiting Africa’s international ports, usually in a shipping container destined for the east.

Wildlife trafficking is thought to be the third most lucrative illicit commerce in the world, after drugs and weapons, worth an estimated $10 billion a year, according to the U.S. State Department.

From the moment the ivory leaves the elephant, the race is on. If it gets to port before we intercept it, we’ve lost.

We started small, working with KWS to first dismantle the local trading networks. But each lead took us further from home. Our intelligence department grew in response, following the information outward. With increased reach came increased impact.

In 2013, we confiscated 11.5 kg of ivory in 2 busts. 

In 2018, due to expanded reach, KWS and our intelligence officers confiscated about 1,000 kg of ivory in 32 busts. 

Over this six-year period, our joint efforts with KWS have resulted in the confiscation of more than 2,000 kg of ivory in undercover operations. Over two tons of this has been recovered in the last two years, with operations often taking place many hundreds of kilometers away from our core operating area of Amboseli.

The rapid increase in the weight recovered does not necessarily represent a greater number of elephant deaths, or amount of ivory moving. It’s simply that our improved efforts are intercepting more of it. 

And it’s not just about elephants. We have eyes and ears on the lookout for all wildlife products. Everything from leopard skins to owl eggs to pangolin scales.

Just as important as taking illegal wildlife products out of the supply networks, we are removing the human links that hold the chain together. In the last two years, we have assisted KWS in arresting more than 150 suspects on charges relating to ivory trading.

And knowing that every system has cracks, we don’t stop there.

Big Life employs a Prosecutions Officer who tracks every court case, attending the important ones in person, to ensure that each case is handled according to the law. The Kenyan government has done its bit, drastically increasing sentences and fines for wildlife-related crimes. And the courts are following through.

Back in 2012, penalties were highly variable, and some ivory traders were getting off with as little as a $300 fine. Now, convicted ivory traders are sentenced to up to five years in jail or a fine of up to $50,000.

The price of ivory has dropped dramatically across the board. Where once poachers were getting paid up to $180/kg of ivory, that’s now down to as little as $60/kg. The same has happened on the demand side, with prices of raw wholesale ivory in China having declined from a peak of $2,100/kg in 2014 to $730/kg in 2017. 

This is all heading in the right direction. But the incentive to trade clearly remains. 

KWS reported that only 80 elephants were poached across Kenya in 2017. The Big-Life-supported ivory confiscations alone in that year could not have come from elephants that were exclusively poached in Kenya. 

The majority of ivory we confiscate is coming in from outside the country, as well as from stockpiles of previously poached tusks.

So the job is far from done. Time and again, the ivory trade—and the elephant poaching that feeds it—has gone to sleep, only to awaken years or decades later. This time, we need to end it for good.

Big Life has an entire department dedicated to this work. These are people who you will never see, and we will never name. People risking their own safety to insert themselves in the cogs of the ivory trade, trying to bring it to a grinding halt. 

We need funds to keep these undercover teams in the field, chasing ivory and other illegal wildlife products. 

Each intelligence operation costs money to run, and the biggest busts can total up to $15,000, taking as long as six months from start to finish. 

The budget below shows our annual costs for this work, covering Big Life’s actions from the moment the ivory is cut from an elephant’s body, all the way through to the landing of the judge’s gavel.

In the nine years that Big Life has been operating, we have never made a public appeal for our intelligence operations. 

We hope that you will see the extraordinary value of this vitally important work and help keep our teams in the field. 

Please donate today

Thank you as always for your support. 

Richard Bonham, Craig Millar and Nick Brandt

We are so proud of the work we accomplished in 2018, and you should be too. Because without you, none of these successes would have been possible. Together, with your support, we are laying the groundwork for a world in which people are able to coexist with wildlife, and vice versa.
 
Our 2018 Annual Report is a testimony to the impact we have ALL had in East Africa and the Greater Amboseli ecosystem.
 
Among our many accomplishments, together we confiscated 1 TON of ivory, removing it from the black market; prevented 124 crop-raiding incidents, reducing human-wildlife conflict; lost ZERO rhinos and celebrated the birth of a new baby Eastern black rhino; arrested over 380 suspects in 167 incidents; and lost ZERO lions to retaliation in areas where our Predator Compensation Fund exists.
 
As we work with the local community in East Africa to protect wildlife for the benefit of us all, we THANK YOU for helping to make this critical work possible.

Cover photo credit: John Marais

Last weekend, Maasai warriors from across the Greater Amboseli ecosystem came together to compete in a day-long sports competition: the 4th Maasai Olympics Finals.

The games represent a history-changing shift from killing to conservation. At the behest of the the Menye Layiok, or Maasai “cultural fathers,” Big Life Foundation established this organized sporting event in 2012 based on traditional Maasai warrior skills to replace the long-held tradition of hunting lions as a mark of manhood, bravery, and prestige.

In an ecosystem where the local lion population was once virtually extinct, to have Maasai warriors competing for medals instead of hunting lions is nothing short of revolutionary.

As with past Maasai Olympics Finals, the day was filled with excitement, tension, and joyous energy:

The high amount of rainfall received in the lead up, although incredibly welcome, meant that the event itself was uncertain. Team selections this past spring had to be delayed due to rain, but would the season end the same way? In the end, the weather cooperated right until the finish of the last event, when everyone had to dash for cover to escape getting drenched.

By then however, the four teams had established their spot on the score board. Athletes from Mbirikani, Eselengei, Kuku, and Rombo Group Ranches, both men and women, brought their best for a series of competitions that were all hotly contested.

The final event, the high jump, is always the highlight of the day, and this year was no exception. Heading into it, the top two teams, Mbirikani and Kuku, were tied for first place. From a standing position, the warriors defied gravity jumping higher and higher, until ultimately the prize went to Mbirikani for an unbelievable height of over 9 feet.

And thus, Mbirikani’s team won the day, taking home the prize bull and top honors for a third time. They had lost to Rombo in 2016 and were elated to take their title back.

Rombo Group Ranch did take home the Chester Zoo Conservation Prize, for a year where no lions were killed on the ranch, and for not retaliating against an elephant that had tragically killed a man earlier in the year.

There is another winner of these games. The lion population in Big Life’s area of operation continues to grow, with some of the largest prides of lions recorded in years.

Through initiatives like the Maasai Olympics, our hope is that both local communities and lion populations continue to win – now, and far into the future.    

The success of the Maasai Olympics was only possible because of our wonderful partners, sponsors, and friends.

The games were overseen by the event’s patron: gold medal Olympian, 800m world-record holder, and fellow Maasai, David Rudisha.

Also in attendance were many special guests, including the Governor of Kajiado, the area Minister of Parliament, various other local leaders, and conservation partners. We’re so grateful to everyone who joined us!

And a very special thank you to our 2018 Maasai Olympics sponsors, including: National Geographic Society, Charles and Judy Tate, Dan and Pam Baty, Chester Zoo, Born Free Foundation, Zoo Basel, Disney Conservation Fund, Great Plains Conservation, Great Plains Foundation, Marleen Groen, and Safari Professionals of the Americas.

Mondays don’t start much worse than this: a report received of a big bull elephant stuck in the mud deep in the Kimana swamp. Our hearts sank. Given the size, there was a small number of elephants it could be, and a small chance of a successful rescue.

An aerial view confirmed the worst: it was Tim, an icon of Amboseli and one of Africa’s largest and most magnificent elephants. He was stuck in a section of deep mud, surrounded by farms and a growing crowd, and clearly in serious trouble.

Big Life rangers responded immediately, but the outlook wasn’t good. Tim was up to his neck in mud and fully immobilized, with zero chance of escaping on his own. Nor was there a way for any kind of vehicle to get close enough in the swamp, either to pull him out or to dig around him. Failure—Tim’s death—was suddenly an even more real possibility.

Regardless, everyone got to work. This was a challenge of physics: how to pull a 6-ton object out of a suction pit, when that object is alive, thrashing, and has no idea the people around him are trying to help. Tim was understandably aggressive and stressed, and tiring fast. Exhaustion alone can kill an animal, and it became a race against the clock to try something, anything, to save him.

The first step was to loosen the mud, so rangers knocked a hole in a concrete agricultural furrow upstream. Water flowed in, and the mud slowly started to release its grip. Tim could move a bit more, and it was helping, but it wasn’t going to solve the problem.

Luckily, additional support was on the way from all over Kenya. A Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) tractor had been steadily chugging in from Amboseli since the alert was sounded, and our friends at the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT), drawing from their wealth of experience, were also wrapping their heads around the tools needed to pull Tim out. The answer was going to be a very long tow strap, but that is easier said than done. We needed something 300 m long! A team got to work in Nairobi, stitching shorter straps together and then urgently sent the final product down on a private chartered flight. Meanwhile, the KWS vet, along with the DSWT mobile vet unit, were on their way from Tsavo West National Park.

Things were happening, but would the plan work? The tractor got as close as it dared, which was a farm about 100 m away. The team struggled to get the straps onto Tim, somehow persuading him to lift his head and then slipping the straps underneath. Finally, they were ready. The tractor pulled, and the wheels spun… and spun… and spun. The ground was too soft, and it wasn’t going to work. Another approach was needed.

The tractor set off around the swamp to try and approach from the other side. The land there was drier and firmer, but the closest point of approach was now more than 300 m away from Tim. Time ticked by as the tractor slowly drove around, and an hour later, things were in place again. Now there was space to add some extra horsepower, and two Big Life Land Cruisers lined up in front of the tractor to assist. Together, the three machines pulled, the tow strap went tight, Tim shifted slightly, and then… the strap snapped.

It was disappointing, but there was still a ray of hope. Again the vehicles pulled, again there was a slight shift, but again the strap snapped. Eventually, five strap breakages later, Tim had been repositioned and pulled out of the deepest section. Everyone was exhausted by this stage, human and elephant alike. Ten hours in the baking sun had taken its toll, but adrenaline kept the teams going. Victory felt possible; our work would not be in vain.

After more pulling, and even more strap breakages, the tractor and vehicles finally managed to pull Tim 25 m across the muddy ground and onto firmer footing. Once there, he was too worn out from the ordeal to even stand.

The vehicles kept pulling slowly, trying to help him up, knowing that his life depended on it. And finally, in the last light of the day, Tim stood up. Met by cheers from everyone present, he shrugged the tow straps off before slowly heading back toward the Kimana Sanctuary. The rangers stayed with him until 11 pm, ensuring that he was safely back on protected land, before calling the long day over.

Rangers have been keeping an eye on Tim today, and he appears to be fine, but following two prior encounters with farmers’ spears, it is clear that he has not been deterred from living dangerously. We’re not quite sure how many lives Tim has left, but we’ll continue doing our best to make sure that he lives each of them to the fullest!

A huge thanks, as always, to KWS and DSWT, for helping to turn this incident from a potential tragedy into a remarkable success story.

And to our supporters around the world, thank you! If not for your ongoing generosity, stories like these might not have such a happy ending. As we enter the season of giving, please consider supporting Big Life Foundation and our critical work to protect and secure the Kimana Sanctuary. This valuable area of habitat gives Tim, his fellow elephants, and other wildlife a safe place to call home.