Tim is lucky to be alive. His huge tusks make him a huge target for poachers. But he faces more than just poachers: he’s also at risk of retaliation for crop-raiding and other forms of human-wildlife conflict. As habitat shrinks, and people and wildlife come in closer contact, Tim is forced to survive in an ever-changing and increasingly hostile landscape.

There are so few of the big bulls left, not just in Kenya but across all of Africa. Which is why Big Life’s rangers work night and day to protect Tim and his friends.

For World Elephant Day on August 12, please consider making a gift donation in honor of a loved one and support our efforts to keep elephants like Tim safe. When you give friends or family members the gift of becoming a Wildlife Warrior, we’ll send them a beautiful certificate featuring Tim that they can display with pride (either a print or digital version, your choice), information about our programs, and a special discount code for merchandise in our e-store.

Wildlife Warrior certificates make excellent gifts the whole year through, not just for World Elephant Day. And you can easily adjust the size of your gift by making an additional donation during the check-out process.

Your meaningful gift will support our work to protect some of the world’s most iconic and threatened wildlife species and their habitat. Together, we will create a world where conservation supports the people and people support conservation.

Click here for more information on our new Wildlife Warrior certificates. 

Or is it? As strange as it sounds, opinion is divided. The consensus has long been that there exists one species of giraffe, divided into nine sub-species, but recent genetic research disagrees, and there may actually be four species of giraffe.

While the discussion continues, so does the population decline, and regardless of whether you call it a ‘species’ or a ‘sub-species’, the Masai Giraffe is the latest to get a very poor prognosis.

‘Endangered’ to be specific, according to the latest assessment by specialists for the IUCN Red List, as a result of the more than 50% decline in the last three decades, from approximately 71,000 to 35,000. Things do not look good for the Masai Giraffe.

Unless, that is, you’re living in the greater Amboseli ecosystem. We are always proud to report that a variety of wildlife species living in Big Life’s operating area are bucking continent-wide trends, Masai giraffes in a rather dramatic fashion. Aerial counts indicate a 24% increase in the population between 2013 and 2018, which stood at 5,312 at the last count.

There is no shortage of threats – ranging from habitat loss (land conversion to agriculture and cutting of trees for charcoal) to poaching (giraffes are highly desired in the bushmeat trade) but thanks to the efforts of Big Life and our ecosystem partners, Amboseli has become one of the strongholds of this species (or sub-species).

It is likely that the continent-wide decline of all giraffe populations will continue, as suitable habitat is consumed by Africa’s fast growing human population. As this happens, healthy giraffe populations such as that of Amboseli become the buffer against extinction, making our work more important with each passing day.

Such work needs your help, and you can make a difference today by making a donation or by joining the Ranger Club with a recurring, monthly gift. Thank you all for your support.

There is almost nothing worse for a parent than to turn around and find that your child is missing. This was the awful situation one evening in a remote part of Big Life’s operating area. A four-year-old boy playing close to his home had ventured a little too far into the thick bush, and was swallowed up by the wilderness beyond.

The family searched, hopeful that the child had not strayed far, but as time dragged on, panic set in. Sunset came and darkness fell, and the alarm was sounded far and wide. Big Life rangers responded, as did everyone in the village. A small child is easy prey for a number of nocturnal wild animals, and the search parties didn’t sleep, but still there was no sign of the missing child.

Morning arrived, and with it came the Big Life tracker dog unit. The rangers started walking in increasingly large circles around the home until they eventually found tracks some 3 km away. The dogs and their handlers set off, trailed by more than 100 local community members. They followed the tiny footsteps for a further 5 km, as they wound disoriented through the thick bush and completely in the wrong direction.

The steps eventually stopped at a wall of sharp rock covered in thick bush. The child had clearly been confused by the obstruction, and the footprints zig-zagged this way and that, misleading human and canine seekers alike. This went on until the dogs stopped, as they would if the job was done, but there was nothing to see. The community members started to split up and search, desperate now. It was mid-afternoon, and if the child was still alive, it was unlikely that he would survive a second night.

Just then, a small figure rose from beneath a bush not 100 m away, frightened but unharmed. The young boy had tired of walking and laid down, and would likely never have been found were it not for the efforts of Big Life’s rangers and tracker dogs.

The resulting celebrations were just one example of many; in the last year alone, Big Life community rangers have found and rescued 17 people lost in the wild, usually the very young or very old. For a ranger, helping the people around you is just as important as catching wildlife criminals, and the support of our local communities is one of the central reasons for Big Life’s conservation success, so these victories are truly a win-win.

As we look forward to World Ranger Day, we thank those men and women who dedicate their lives to protecting not only animals, but also the people who share the same beautiful spaces.

Please show your support for Big Life rangers by joining our Ranger Club. A monthly donation, no matter how small, helps provide consistent funding our rangers can rely on.

New Ranger Club members during the month of July (or existing members who increase their giving level) are eligible to receive a limited edition Big Life tote bag.

It is always a surprise this time of the year to realize that we’re halfway through it already. In the bush, there’s a steady stream of incidents to respond to, wildlife to assist, and community issues to help sort out. The seasons are marked by the rains, or sometimes lack thereof, and the green landscape that hopefully comes with them.

We got some rain in the second quarter, but not enough. The land has already shifted back to dry season conditions, and with it have come the usual complications. We can only hope that the abundance of rain from last year will carry us forward. In the meantime, the watering holes are looking a bit crowded.

Speaking of crowds, we are practically tripping on lions. If the pun can be forgiven, I’m quite proud of the large prides we’re now seeing on Maasai community lands. Twenty years ago, a lion sighting was an extremely rare thing; retaliation by local community members was high for depredation of livestock and ingrained social norms, so the lions kept their distance. The handful of lions that survived these retaliatory attacks hid in the lava in the hills around my home.

Now with predator compensation available for local livestock owners, and shifting attitudes thanks to the Maasai Olympics, as well as the work of our local partners, our lion population has rebounded to upwards of 200 in the ecosystem today—roughly 10 times as many as when we started. And quite a few them enjoy the grassy fields that are my back yard, much to my dogs’ dismay.

We’ll be hearing a lot about lions in the coming weeks thanks to a certain movie I hear is being released. We are grateful to our partners at the Disney Conservation Fund for using this opportunity to support lion conservation. Maybe someday soon I can enjoy this re-envisioning of The Lion King, with vistas inspired by Big Life’s area of operation, with my own children. If I leave the bush in time to make it to a theatre, that is.

In the meantime, Big Life’s rangers will keep protecting the wildlife and wild lands of this magnificent ecosystem for the benefit of us all. To all of our supporters who make this possible, thank you.

Richard Bonham
Co-Founder and Director of Operations, Big Life Kenya 

Read the full 2nd Quarterly Report