COVID-19 is not the only health crisis Africa is facing. According to new data from the United Nations, while the world’s population is projected to nearly stop growing by the end of the century, Africa’s population is predicted to triple.

In order to achieve long-term protection of wildlife and habitat, it is essential that local communities within Big Life’s area of operation are able to prosper in a stable and peaceful environment, including through reliable access to healthcare, education, and the empowerment of women and girls.

Big Life Foundation tackles all three goals across the 1.6 million acres of the Greater Amboseli ecosystem we protect, based upon the belief that if conservation supports the people, then people will support conservation. As such, we’ve been expanding our Community Health Volunteer (CHV) program to improve the health of local communities, promote sustainable family planning, and advocate for sexual and reproductive health and rights.

This past spring, the CHVs conducted a baseline health survey comprising 200 men and 200 women, which included questions about family planning. We learned that the average number of children per household is about 5, and additionally:

• 38% of mothers and 26% of fathers surveyed stated that their most recent pregnancy was unwanted at that time, highlighting an unmet need for family planning services.
• Over 80% of both men and women are misinformed to believe there are long-term negative side effects to modern contraception, with nearly 50% believing they will cause permanent infertility.
• On average, only 40% of men and women knew where they could go to seek family planning services, if wanted.
• 84% of men did not approve of their wives using a modern family planning method.

With our healthcare initiatives – including mobile health clinics, CHVs, and health education – we’re hoping to make positive changes for overall health as well as sexual and reproductive health and rights across the local Maasai community.

With human populations continually on the rise and no corresponding increase in available land or resources for people or wildlife, the timing is critical to educate and empower both men and women, enabling them to make informed choices that may lead to a brighter future for all.

We couldn’t do this critical work without the help of CHASE Africa, the Leila and Mickey Straus Family Foundation, Health Yetu Foundation, or our individual donors worldwide. We are grateful for your support.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

What do a crocodile, a leopard, and a pangolin have in common?

They’re all on the wanted list, sought after by those involved in the dark world of the illegal wildlife trade. It’s a huge business worldwide, valued at billions of dollars, and run by organized crime networks (some of which deal in other illicit products such as guns and drugs).

Big Life is working with the Kenya Wildlife Service to dismantle wildlife trade networks, from poachers in the bush to traders higher up the value chain. Our undercover intelligence network now covers most of southeastern Kenya, far beyond the area patrolled by our rangers.

Thousands of species are targeted each year, and in the last month our intelligence work has led to busts in which 21 traffickers were arrested, with species including ELEPHANT (for ivory), PYTHON (for skin), LEOPARD (for skin), PANGOLIN (for scales), OWL species (for eggs), and CROCODILE (for skin).

There is no good reason for these animals to die. Their parts end up either as tacky decor in someone’s home, or as an ingredient in bogus traditional medicines.

Please support Big Life in our efforts to catch those involved at the source of the trade.

But we are helping to put them out. With the rains long-since gone, it’s dry as a tinder box here in southeastern Kenya and the past month has seen near constant bushfires in Big Life’s area of operation.

In remote areas rangers are the first, and only, line of defense against fires, and Big Life ranger units have joined forces with the Kenya Wildlife Service and Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to tackle the devastating blazes.

Fires here get started for a variety of reasons. Sometimes accidentally, by honey hunters, trespassers, or farmers clearing farms improperly. But they’re also started on purpose: by herders (both legal and illegal) wanting to stimulate fresh grass growth for their livestock, or poachers doing the same to attract wildlife closer to their snares.

Through July and August, a total of 115 Big Life rangers from 16 units were involved in responding to 29 fire incidents, which consumed in excess of 10,000 acres, mainly in the Chyulu Hills.

Our efforts have been greatly helped by funding for fire-fighting equipment from the Chyulu Hills REDD+ project, and fire-fighting training provided to rangers by LEADRanger.

We know our supporters in the US are facing massive forest fires, and the horrendous air quality that comes with it. We hope the rains return and the skies clear soon, for all of our sakes. In the meantime, thank you for sending your support as we battle this threat to the habitats of the Greater Amboseli ecosystem.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

As the world grapples with how and when to send kids back to schools in the wake of COVID-19, Kenya’s government has decided that schools will not reopen until 2021. The reopening process will hinge on how the coronavirus pandemic plays out. 

While we applaud the focus on the health and safety of Kenya’s children, the length of the lockdown is worrying, especially with regard to remote communities and the impact this has had on the education of the children living in these areas. There is a very real risk of students experiencing serious, potentially irrecoverable, setbacks academically in remote areas where there is no electricity, television, newspapers nor libraries. Places like Big Life’s area of operation where there is only the bush, livestock, and wildlife.

In addition to learning, education is directly linked to a myriad of social and economic issues. For example, there are also very real worries that there could be a spike in unwanted pregnancies, forced marriages, and female genital mutilation resulting from girls being out of school. According to statistics from the Kenyan ministry of Education released in June, County (where the Amboseli-Tsavo-Kilimanjaro ecosystem is based) was fifth nationally for unwanted student girls’ pregnancies - 5,038 pregnancies from January-June 2020.

Big Life is trying to fill the gaps where we can.

Given school closures, Big Life did not pay any school fees for the second term, and will instead reserve and honor any donations for school sponsorships next year when classes resume. Tertiary level students may be able to take their courses remotely where internet is available. Big Life also employs 17 primary school teachers and has continued to cover their salaries during the shutdown.

In the interim, the local education committee has been assessing options for supporting students in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem while we wait for schools to reopen. A plan for distributing face masks, hand soap, and reusable menstrual pads to women is being developed, among other options for distance learning in the areas where such a thing is possible. The committee is also working to identify women across the ecosystem who can act as a point of contact for young girls in crisis and needing assistance.

While things may be starting to return to a new normal around the world, educators are wading through uncharted territory, including in Kenya. Thank you all for your support as we navigate this process.

Photo: Mattie Simas

After months of restrictions, Kenya is starting to move again, and so are the ivory traders.

COVID-19 has been tough on all businesses, the illegal ivory trade included. Border closures and increased border security, unpredictable changes to global transport schedules, and air travel restrictions have all made life difficult for wildlife criminals. That’s the good news.

The bad news is that it is possible that traders in both Africa and Asia have simply been stockpiling ivory and other wildlife parts, waiting to come out the other side of this.

Big Life has kept our intelligence network alive over this period but the movements of our intelligence officers have been constrained. With restrictions now lifting, we’ve had to hit the ground running.

In the last two weeks we’ve worked with the Kenya Wildlife Service to make four ivory busts, and confiscated a total of 156.9 kg of ivory.  The most recent (pictured here) was big, with tusks weighing a combined total of 94.5 kg in a single haul. These tusks almost certainly weren’t fresh, and looked to have been in storage for at least 4-5 months.

Whether this uptick continues remains to be seen. We’ve just seen a hugely positive move by Vietnam, a traditional transit country and relative safe haven for the ivory business, to ban the trade in wildlife – dead or alive. Everything points to a declining interest in ivory in China following its ivory trade ban, and prices have fallen over the last few years.

But clearly there is still a demand, and a problem, or we wouldn’t be making these busts.

No one likes to be a stranger. In the wrong neighborhood, it can be downright dangerous, particularly if you’re a male lion.

Lions are highly social cats, with strong bonds that span multiple generations in a single pride. It’s a cozy family picture until young males start to mature at 2-3 years, at which point life takes an unpleasant turn for them. Dad senses the increasing testosterone levels and kicks them not just out of the pride, but out of the territory entirely.

These young lions either end up alone or in small bachelor groups, trying to hunt for themselves and avoiding the territories of other dominant males. They often resort to killing livestock (much easier than wild prey), and in so doing come into conflict with human communities. Few survive this period, but the ones that do are important.

Sarng'ab (which means mud in Maasai, named by Lion Guardians after a particularly wet search for him) pictured here is one of the survivors. He was born on the western side of Amboseli National Park almost 6 years ago, but the Lion Guardians have since identified him in the Kimana Sanctuary, and more recently from this photo which was taken 70 km from where he grew up.

He was with a lioness at the time, and has perhaps found some space and an opportunity to build a pride of his own. He won’t know it, but Big Life is working to protect him from human threats as he moves, through the efforts of our community rangers and Predator Compensation Fund (PCF), which softened the economic loss for the owners of the cows that he killed.

Two decades ago, the Amboseli lion population was headed for local extinction, and in response Big Life worked with local community leaders to engineer the solution: PCF. The lion killing stopped almost immediately after starting the program, and it’s been a stunning turnaround since then. Our partners at Lion Guardians have monitored a dramatic increase in the Amboseli lion population density to more than seven times what it was 15 years ago.

It’s a demonstration that community-focused conservation solutions can create space for one of Africa’s most threatened and iconic species.

Could you ask for better news on World Lion Day? 

Photo: Jeremy Goss

It is now months into the COVID-19 global pandemic, and in Big Life’s area of operation, the fight against the invisible enemy remains in battle mode. Since March, Kenya has had a hardline response to COVID-19, closing schools, putting families in lockdown, and enacting curfews and strict restrictions on travel. The tourism industry, as well as many others, have ground to a halt while reports of new infections and deaths are still on the rise. Kenya has just exceeded 20,000 confirmed cases. As of this writing, 8,165 have recovered and 341 have died.

Back in April, we reported that our established network of 34 Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) were reaching out to communities in our area of operation, educating people on how the virus spreads, how to prevent it, and why staying home is so essential. These volunteers are a trusted resource, who typically work in the community to distribute information about many important health issues, such as family planning.

This work still continues and is as important as ever. Our CHVs have made 5,273 household visits reaching 18,306 people with vital COVID-19 and family planning information in the past 3 months. In addition, Big Life set up a series of 9 meetings with local chiefs, pastors and community leaders. The meetings were kept to limited participants and social distancing was enforced. Information about COVID-19, the means of transmission, symptoms, and prevention measures were discussed in detail. We are also providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), hand soap, and sanitizer for the CHVs and the 9 dispensaries across Mbirikani, Rombo, and Eselengei group ranches on a monthly basis. The nurses and community members alike have received this support with immense gratitude.

Local testing is minimal, so the virus is not yet affecting the community here in a tangible way. There have been 30 confirmed cases in Loitokitok, otherwise, local numbers are somewhat a guess.

As we look to brighter days, we thank our supporters, CHASE Africa, the Leila and Mickey Straus Family Foundation, and Health Yetu Foundation, as well as all our donors worldwide during this challenging time.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly people can adapt to changing conditions in a crisis. There are some traditions in Maasailand that I thought might be tough to change. And yet, just last week, I attended a meeting that was held out in the bush, in the shade of the 206 wing with folding chairs. My guests all sat 2 meters apart and we did not shake hands. It felt somewhat strange but in other ways, totally normal. Life moves on.

We’re still getting to grips with the impact on our diverse programs. You’ll see in our 2nd Quarterly Report that some programs are more heavily impacted than others. The courts aren’t in session, so our prosecutions work is paused. Tourism is obviously down as people quarantine at home, so paying visitors to Kimana Sanctuary is also down. Construction projects are on hold. Schools are not in session, although we are continuing to pay the teachers we support. Mobile clinics, which bring community members together, are on hold until it is safe to gather again.

But our rangers, able to isolate at their outposts, are continuing their critical work. In the 2nd quarter, 67 snares were found and destroyed. 16 suspects were arrested, for either bushmeat poaching or trophy possession. 520 kg of bushmeat was recovered.

The challenges created by COVID were offset slightly by an abundance of rains last quarter, which kept the land lush and helped minimize conflict. But as we shift into the dry season, bush fires are becoming a huge threat. As I write, Big Life, Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, and KWS rangers are fighting a bush fire in the Chyulu Hills National Park, and an even bigger fire fanned by strong winds is moving across Tsavo West National Park. These are testing times for all of us.

As we have proven time and time again, Big Life’s rangers are up to the challenge.

Thank you all so much for making our work possible.

Richard Bonham
Director of Operations, Big Life Kenya

SEE THE FULL 2ND QUARTERLY REPORT

Popote Sapulai

Age: 37 years

Home: Kimana

Rank/ Position: Operational Commander

Team: Kimana Sanctuary

When did you join Big Life? 2018

How did your journey in Wildlife Security begin? As a young boy, I herded my father’s livestock close to the Amboseli National Park, and this put me in the front row to witness the Kenya Wildlife Service at work. I admired their bravery, and since then I had wanted to be a ranger. It was fascinating to me as a child to see people from other areas risking their lives to conserve wildlife, and I always wondered why our cultural warriors were not part of them, because I believed our community’s wildlife was our responsibility, so we should also take part in protecting them.

In 2003, my journey as a ranger started with another organization and now as another decade comes to an end, my journey has not been easy. I remember I once worked for two years as a ranger without a single pay and had to sell my livestock to get monthly food rations. That’s how much devotion and passion I have for my job.

How has conservation changed or transformed since you started? When we started, poaching was very high and we were very poorly equipped and not legally empowered to successfully apprehend or convict poachers. Human-elephant conflict was not very high, because at the time there were not so many farms close to the Sanctuary, but lion conflict was very high as warriors would retaliate and kill lions when they killed livestock.

In the past, the community was getting very little benefit from wildlife, and at times that benefit ended up in the hands of a selected few. When a lion would kill your cow, there was no compensation and retaliation was the only available option. 

Over the years, a lot has changed. Benefits generated from wildlife to the community have turned the hearts of the community towards wildlife, improving the relationship between the two iconic parts of the Amboseli Ecosystem.

The owners of the Kimana Sanctuary used to earn very little from the lease of the land in which this Sanctuary is formed, and many community members attempted to pull out and sell their land. Today, the leases from the Sanctuary has quadrupled and the community has seen the importance of wildlife. 

Our wildlife security operations have also improved tremendously. We are better equipped, well trained and wildlife legislation such as the Wildlife Act of 2013 has vindicated our efforts and made our results visible.

What does your job as an operational commander involve? I am in charge of 37 rangers spread across five ranger outposts strategically placed in the Kimana Sanctuary. I am responsible for their well-being, handle any conflicts among them, and ensure that they uphold the highest level of discipline.  Moreover, I oversee all operations undertaken by the team and involve myself with their daily routines.

What challenge do you face in your line of work?  Most of the time, we find ourselves between angry community members seeking compensation or revenge, and protecting a predator or an elephant that is responsible for the conflict. Illegal grazing is not allowed in the Sanctuary, so during prolonged droughts keeping livestock off the sanctuary is hard, especially when the livestock belongs to relatives. 

How have you benefited working for Big Life? I am a father of six kids and two wives, so my job has ensured that I put food on the table and my kids access education.

Photo: Bobby Neptune

 Big Life rangers face extremely difficult challenges on a daily basis, which have only increased amidst a global pandemic. Keeping our rangers properly funded to continue their vital work in the field is more important than ever for the future of the wildlife, wild lands, and people of East Africa. Please consider a monthly contribution to our Ranger Club to support these dedicated rangers. Any amount helps! And for those that sign up in July, or increase your existing Ranger Club membership amount, you will be entered to win a gift featuring Big Life-branded merchandise.

JOIN THE RANGER CLUB

Tarayia Manja

Age: 35

Home: Kimana

Rank/Position: Sergeant

Team: Kimana Sanctuary

When did you start working for Big Life? 2007

How did your journey as a ranger begin?  I first started out as a community informant, giving ranger teams information on incidences taking place, and after a while, I was recruited to become a ranger.

What does your job as a sergeant involve? I am in charge of an outpost with eight rangers, including Big Life’s female rangers.  I plan the team’s daily operation activities and respond to any issue that may need attention among my team.

How has the experience of working with female rangers been? At first, I was unsure of what to expect and how to work with them. My corporal, who is my second-in-command, is a female ranger and she has been very helpful in managing the team and handling some of the areas that she has more expertise on.  I have come to realize that they are equal to their male counterparts and we share duties regardless of their gender.

How has your experience been working as a ranger for Big Life?  I have been fortunate to work in different sections in Big Life’s area of operation. But the most memorable has been working in anti-poaching operations and human-elephant conflict operations that involve problematic animal control.

When elephants raid community farms, we are called to assist with driving them out towards the conservancies or protected areas. This is very dangerous since it’s at night, and most times farmer emotions are very high and so controlling such a situation is very hard. The noise and commotion sometimes irritate the elephants and they can charge at us. With so many people involved, it increases the risk of things becoming worse.

I have been fortunate to have been trained by Big Life in the use of a firearm. In anti-poaching operations, I am highly skilled in the laying of ambushes to catch poachers and my firearm also comes in handy to ensure the safety of my team, and at times to disorient armed poachers who try to put up a fight. 

What challenges do you face in your line of work? One cannot succeed as a ranger without passion or sacrifice, because our job is very demanding. Sometimes my team conducts daytime foot patrols and night patrols at night, so it takes determination to answer the call of duty each time you are called upon.

Not many rangers are armed, and sometimes I am torn between responding to anti-poaching operations or responding to human-elephant conflict. This becomes challenging because my presence can turn a bad situation better and my fellow rangers feel safer as they face myriad situations.

How have you benefitted from working as a ranger? I am a father to a house hold of five, and this job has secured their daily upkeep and provided them with access to education and a better quality of life. Additionally, working with female rangers has opened up my once limited world view on the potential of women and I can now without a doubt believe in the ability of my daughters to transform their lives and provide for themselves.

Photo: Bobby Neptune

Big Life rangers face extremely difficult challenges on a daily basis, which have only increased amidst a global pandemic. Keeping our rangers properly funded to continue their vital work in the field is more important than ever for the future of the wildlife, wild lands, and people of East Africa. Please consider a monthly contribution to our Ranger Club to support these dedicated rangers. Any amount helps! And for those that sign up in July, or increase your existing Ranger Club membership amount, you will be entered to win a gift featuring Big Life-branded merchandise.

JOIN THE RANGER CLUB

Johnson Salash 

Age: 27

Home: Kimana

Rank/Position: Constable

Team: Kimana Sanctuary

When did you start working for Big Life?  2018 

How did your journey as a ranger begin?  I had plans to join the Kenya Defense Forces after finishing my secondary school education, but my parents did not support my intentions and preferred that I work as a ranger, since I would be closer to them, and (according to them) the risks involved would be lower.

How has working as a ranger been? Working as a ranger has been fulfilling.

As a youth, what do you think is the place of young Maasai people in wildlife conservation in the Amboseli Ecosystem? Culturally the youth are the muscle of the Maasai community, they protect and defend the community’s resources. Today this remains the same, only the priorities have changed.  Today our biggest resource is wildlife and God has blessed the beautiful plains that are crucial for this wildlife; the benefit we generate from conservation has doubled the benefit we get from our livestock. Our brothers are employed, our sisters educated, and our parents more empowered because of wildlife. So today, even though I am not in the red cultural ‘shukas’ for warriors, I am still a proud defender of my community’s biggest friend: wildlife.

My father lived at a time when black rhinos would roam the Kimana Sanctuary, the same black rhinos that are endangered today. Big Life has been able to capture the strength and ability of Maasai youth by providing more wildlife-friendly ways to express courage and fulfill their original purpose.

A decade ago, we would gather to celebrate the courage of warrior who had killed a lion, but today we gather to celebrate the valor of a brother who has graduated from university through a wildlife scholarship offered by Big Life and other stakeholders in the ecosystem.

A decade ago, our sisters would be married off early, but today they have been given an opportunity to showcase their God-given ability and join us as rangers and different other professions, opportunities that were impossible for my mother. My 11-month-old daughter will grow into a better and more prosperous future, because conservation has strengthened our ability to transform our lives.

How have you benefitted from working as a ranger? I am now married to the love of my life because I am able to provide for our family, and our daughter is assured of a stable future because I have a steady income.

Photo: Bobby Neptune

 Big Life rangers face extremely difficult challenges on a daily basis, which have only increased amidst a global pandemic. Keeping our rangers properly funded to continue their vital work in the field is more important than ever for the future of the wildlife, wild lands, and people of East Africa. Please consider a monthly contribution to our Ranger Club to support these dedicated rangers. Any amount helps! And for those that sign up in July, or increase your existing Ranger Club membership amount, you will be entered to win a gift featuring Big Life-branded merchandise.

JOIN THE RANGER CLUB

Veronica Laanoi

Age: 20

Home: Rombo

Rank/Position: Constable

Team: Kimana Sanctuary

When did you start working for Big Life? 2019

What made you decide to become a ranger? After completing my secondary school education, I had no hopes of furthering my studies due to lack of fees, so joining Big Life was a silver lining in the storm I was going through at the time.

What has been the experience of working as a ranger? At first it wasn’t easy, having to withstand all the attention my male colleagues gave us since working with female rangers was relatively new to them too. Then I had to prove myself and earn their respect, because as a Maasai girl, our culture presents many barriers. I had to stand tall and demand to be treated as an equal.

My colleagues have grown to be very supportive and duties are divided amongst us without favor or assigning lighter duties to me because I am a girl. 

What has been the reaction of your peers or friends back at home? My mother was worried a lot. Her friends would accuse her of giving her daughter away to be used by men in the bush. Then I was taken for basic ranger training at the Amboseli Conservation Academy, and during my pass out/graduation ceremony, my mother couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw me marching with the other rangers. That was when she realized that I could take care of myself.

At first my peers were pessimistic, but after I told them stories of the work I do, they are now jealous and wish to become rangers.

What challenges do you face at work?  The work of a ranger is very demanding, both physically and emotionally. As a ranger, I can be called to respond to human-elephant conflict incidences at night, anti-poaching operations, and normal patrols daily. These become harder during my menstrual cycle and though I push myself so as not to have to explain myself to my superiors, it’s not easy.

How has your work impacted your life?  At first I was skeptical of what to expect, and unsure of what my life as a ranger would become. But today, I am able to support my mother and siblings through school and improve their quality of life.

As a girl from a culture that presents many barriers to girls, this job will open doors to many other girls who might believe they are unable to provide for themselves or don’t believe in their own ability. 

Photo: Bobby Neptune

 Big Life rangers face extremely difficult challenges on a daily basis, which have only increased amidst a global pandemic. Keeping our rangers properly funded to continue their vital work in the field is more important than ever for the future of the wildlife, wild lands, and people of East Africa. Please consider a monthly contribution to our Ranger Club to support these dedicated rangers. Any amount helps! And for those that sign up in July, or increase your existing Ranger Club membership amount, you will be entered to win a gift featuring Big Life-branded merchandise.

JOIN THE RANGER CLUB

Ezekiel Ntete Mohammed

Age: 33

Home area: Rombo

When did you join Big Life: 2019

Rank/Position: Driver

Team: Kimana Sanctuary

Where did you work previously before joining Big Life? Before joining Big Life, I worked in the public transport sector, driving a public service vehicle along the Rombo-Loitoktok route. This paid well, but it didn’t satisfy my urge to offer support to my community.  I was aware of the challenges the community was facing and as a driver in public transport there was little I could do to elevate their situation. So I quit my previous job and joined Big Life, because I had seen the vital role rangers have played in mitigating human-elephant conflict and preserving the natural heritage of Rombo.

What does your current work entail? I hold one of the most important roles and get to handle a myriad of responsibilities. As a driver, I ensure rangers get to incidences safely and swiftly; in some instances, this can be a matter between life and death. I also offer logistical support to the other ranger outposts in the Sanctuary with a supply of water for the most remote ones and emergency medical assistance whenever it is needed.  Moreover, I offer emergency assistance to the community in medical crises.

What is the most challenging part of your job? I am not an ordinary driver, because my work is not ordinary, and is impossible to plan ahead or anticipate. The most challenging part is night operations / patrols, which mostly are in response to human-elephant conflict or anti-poaching operations.

The Kimana Sanctuary is surrounded by farms on all sides, and so elephant raids on farmer’s land are frequent, and we are called to drive them off back into protected areas. In such situations, my team relies on me to offer logistical support and sometimes use the vehicle as cover when an elephant retaliates and charges at them. It’s very dangerous and we are dependent on one another to keep the team safe. After driving them off, we also check to ensure all elephants are safe before heading back to our stations.

In anti-poaching operations, I also offer logistical support and in a high speed chase, my vehicle gives my team an advantage since it’s tailored to handle such tough terrain. It easily gets them ahead of poachers, who mostly use motorbikes.

What benefit have you gained from working with Big Life? Before joining Big Life, I was a normal driver putting his life at risk to earn a few shillings, but today I have a bigger purpose. I am more skilled because of the many trainings I have received from Big Life, and also I am more informed about the Amboseli Ecosystem.

My family has also largely benefitted, because through my pay their standard of living has improved. I have acquired livestock and my future is clearer since I have a stable income.

Photo: Bobby Neptune

Big Life rangers face extremely difficult challenges on a daily basis, which have only increased amidst a global pandemic. Keeping our rangers properly funded to continue their vital work in the field is more important than ever for the future of the wildlife, wild lands, and people of East Africa. Please consider a monthly contribution to our Ranger Club to support these dedicated rangers. Any amount helps! And for those that sign up in July, or increase your existing Ranger Club membership amount, you will be entered to win a gift featuring Big Life-branded merchandise.

JOIN THE RANGER CLUB

Amos Saab

Age: 33 years

Home: Kimana

Rank/Position: Constable, Monitoring and Evaluation Ranger

When did you start working for Big Life? 2018

Team: Kimana Sanctuary

What drove you to become a ranger? I come from a very humble background, and my dreams of higher education were cut short when my family wasn’t able to raise my secondary school fees. After that, I worked in casual jobs until I heard of the recruitment of rangers to work at the Kimana Sanctuary. Since then, this job has changed my life.

What role do you play in your team? In every ranger team there is a ranger designated with the collection and recording of data using both digital and paper-based monitoring and evaluation tools. This data is used in our operational reports and is vital in making informed security decisions.

What challenges do you face in your line of work? Every day we conduct foot patrols and come across diverse species of wildlife with only our bush-craft skills to protect us, this puts us at risk but our resolve keeps us going each morning.

Being able to balance family and work is also a challenge. Over the years, I have learned that this job requires a lot of sacrifice. It’s always difficult to leave your family.

What benefit have you gained from working for Big Life? When I joined Big Life I didn’t have much to my name, but I have a stable income to support my family of three kids and one wife. 

Photo: Bobby Neptune

Big Life rangers face extremely difficult challenges on a daily basis, which have only increased amidst a global pandemic. Keeping our rangers properly funded to continue their vital work in the field is more important than ever for the future of the wildlife, wild lands, and people of East Africa. Please consider a monthly contribution to our Ranger Club to support these dedicated rangers. Any amount helps! And for those that sign up in July, or increase your existing Ranger Club membership amount, you will be entered to win a gift featuring Big Life-branded merchandise.

JOIN THE RANGER CLUB

A new and sobering report out of Africa shows that across the continent, elephant poaching has either improved little or worsened since 2011. Previous reports had showed elephant poaching was generally on the decline. But when scientists dove into the statistics and models used, they found that when different regions were analyzed separately, one region was solely responsible for driving down the elephant poaching statistics as a whole: East Africa is the only place in all of Africa where a clear decrease in poaching has occurred.

Big Life is by no means solely responsible for this, but we are very proud of the work that our rangers and other East African conservation organizations have done to help buck the continent-wide trend on poaching.  And it clearly validates the conservation model that Big Life, along with our many partners, supporters, and community members, have worked so hard over the past decade and more to create meaningful change for the future of wildlife, wild lands, and people of East Africa.

We will continue our vital work in Kenya and Tanzania, global pandemic or not. It’s clear that our work now is more important than ever.

We can’t stress enough how much we appreciate everyone who has donated to Big Life and how each and every one of our caring supporters makes a meaningful impact in the special place that is the Greater Amboseli ecosystem.

Full scientific report: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66906-w

Photo: Jeremy Goss

Amboseli is no place to lose a three-year-old. Away from urban areas, pastoralist homesteads are often human islands in a sea of wilderness, a wilderness that is unforgiving in its capacity to swallow up anyone who takes too many steps in the wrong direction.

A toddler on Eselengei Group Ranch recently did just that, and at the worst time of day. It was evening when his family discovered that he was gone, but there was no immediate alarm. After all, how far is a three-year-old really going to venture? As day turned to night however, the search became more frantic, and to no avail.

The search parties eventually had to give up for the night, and notified the Big Life mobile ranger unit that works in the area. Big Life sent two mobile units to join the search at first light, and the rangers soon found the child’s tiny footprints. Unlike a poacher, the child was doing nothing to hide his tracks and a few hours later the teams found the boy, 4 km from his home. The community expressed their thanks by calling in a local religious leader to bless the rangers.

Most people think of rangers as armed men-in-green, engaged in a daily battle against poachers. And yes, that is big part of it, but the true job description of a community ranger goes much further. These men and women spend their days protecting wildlife AND their communities. In 2019, Big Life rangers assisted in the search and recovery of 24 people lost in the wild, many of them children.

Big Life’s conservation model recognizes human community needs as central to the long-term future of wildlife, and our response to a missing person is no different to an injured elephant. All species share this landscape, and all are equally important.

Things tend to go quiet after our rangers are successful arresting poachers. Our recent fundraising appeal tells the story of the surge in giraffe poaching here in the Amboseli ecosystem, and how Big Life rangers recently caught some of the poachers responsible. It was a strong warning to others, and there has been little killing in the weeks since.

But we knew the quiet would not last. Poachers have struck again, this time in the far north of the ecosystem. They used the same horrible method of killing the giraffe: blinding it and cutting its tendons so that it could not run away.

Big Life rangers were able to respond quickly. Following a tip-off, rangers from our Eselengei unit and the Kenya Wildlife Service surprised the poachers in a night-time ambush at the scene of the crime. One poacher was arrested, and the killing tools and 400 kg of giraffe meat were confiscated, including the giraffe’s head, which was collected for evidence.

We are heading into the dry season here in southern Kenya. It’s always a difficult time of the year for people, which is going to be made much, much worse as a result of COVID impacts on the economy. People will be looking for cheaper sources of protein, and bushmeat costs less at market. Poachers will be gearing up to meet that demand.

But we are gearing up to meet the poachers. Our intelligence network is on high alert, and nights will find Big Life rangers awake on patrol somewhere in the ecosystem. Our high arrest rates are a huge deterrent for would-be poachers in the ecosystem, and we intend to keep it that way.

Big Life’s strength and effectiveness is only possible because of our donors and partners worldwide. We hope you consider supporting our appeal for funds to keep our rangers in the field, and ready to tackle this increased threat of bushmeat poaching. Your help couldn’t come at a more critical time.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

There are few ways through a snare line. Poachers will string up dozens of these simple killing devices across commonly-used wildlife corridors, and like fishing nets spanning a river, one of them will usually catch something.

It’s as cheap and easy a way to poach wild animals for bushmeat, as it is ruthless and indiscriminate. If your head fits through the hole, you’re in trouble, as this camel recently discovered.

Snares are usually set to catch victims by the neck as they walk through. Wild animals will struggle to break free, pulling the snare tighter and tighter and often strangling themselves in the process. This camel, obviously used to being tied up, adopted a far calmer approach to the problem and simply lay down to wait for a human.

Luckily some came along, in the form of rangers conducting a de-snaring sweep of the area. This was part of a bigger operation over the last couple of weeks, where Big Life rangers partnered with the Kenya Wildlife Service to patrol a large area in the far reaches of Big Life’s operating area, along the western edge of Tsavo West National Park.

Community informers had reported an increase in snares in the area, and rangers have now pulled out and destroyed 45 (and counting). We are receiving more and more of these reports, particularly on the borders of our operating area, which suggests that bushmeat poaching is on the increase.

It is as we’ve feared. The economic impacts of COVID-19 are being felt in Kenya as they are across the world, and it seems that many are turning to poaching. We hope that this COVID-19 storm will pass quickly. Until it does, our entire ranger network is on high alert.

At the water hole, a herd of elephants gathered for a drink. A tiny baby elephant attempted to join them, but was repeatedly pushed away. Eventually, the herd started to move on, and when the calf attempted to follow, he was rejected again, pushed back and abandoned, all alone. 

At this point, the owners of the Amboseli Bush Camp, who had been observing the interaction, realized that something was very wrong and called Big Life for help. Nearby rangers were dispatched immediately on a motorbike to survey the area, and they confirmed that the baby elephant was lost, and that his family was nowhere to be found.

He was very thin and looked less than a couple of months old, still pink behind the ears. The Kenya Wildlife Service was alerted, and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust was called in for assistance. Big Life’s rangers and Head of Security Craig Millar stayed with the calf until their support helicopter arrived, keeping him calm and safe.

He was feisty and strong throughout the rescue process, refusing any of the water offered. But once in the care of the highly experienced keepers at the Sheldrick’s Kaluku Field Headquarters, he took four bottles of milk. He’s been named Sabuk, meaning big/large in Maa, as they believe that he’s only 4-6 weeks old and quite big for his age.

Big Life rangers have since done a thorough search of the area and found a female elephant carcass not too far from where the baby was discovered, but it’s impossible to say for sure if this was his mother. We’re just glad he was discovered before lions found him, and hopefully he’ll recover and eventually be rehabilitated back into the wild.

This year has not gone according to anyone’s plans. We have never experienced a situation quite like Covid-19 has handed us, but our rangers, our staff, and our programs are resilient and very well prepared to handle the challenges we’re currently experiencing.

In the wake of the pandemic, tourism has evaporated across Africa. We feel it acutely in Kenya, as the economy of the ecosystem where Big Life operates is so heavily reliant upon it. Those now out-of-work are looking for other ways to make ends meet, which is why our wildlife security programs are more important than ever. We will not tolerate poaching activity in our area of operation, and the poachers know it. To minimize their exposure, our rangers are staying with their outposts and receiving fresh provisions remotely.

Our headquarters is quiet these days but not closed. Only limited, senior personnel are based out of the office, and those who can are working remotely.

Our community programs have been impacted the hardest. Schools of course are closed. Unfortunately, our corner of the world is not set up yet for remote learning. Our mobile health clinics are also on hold, due to the fact that hundreds gather on such days. There’s simply not enough PPE to hold the clinics safely. But our community health volunteers are out in force, disseminating information about how to prevent the spread of the virus, and are provisioned with soap and facemasks.

We’re disappointed as well to have to postpone the Maasai Olympics until 2021. The games add positive energy to our community, something we could all use more of right now. But it’s the only safe thing to do, and as always, the safety of our community comes first.

I’ve been running conservation initiatives in the Chyulu Hills area for 30 years, 10 of those under the mantle of Big Life. I have seen unspeakable tragedies committed against our wildlife but today, there are real, measurable successes across the ecosystem, beyond what I could have ever imagined when we got started. We will not lose momentum in the face of this virus. We will not slack in our commitment to protect the wildlife and wild lands for the benefit of us all.

Thank you, as always, for your support.

Richard Bonham
Director of Operations, Big Life Kenya

SEE THE FULL 1ST QUARTERLY REPORT

Photo: Jeremy Goss

Every scavenger that visits an elephant carcass wants something. But only one is interested in the elongated white shapes that emerge from the skull.

This particular scavenger thought that he was alone. It was a reasonable assumption, given that the giant bones lay strewn miles from anywhere. The old elephant apparently died after getting stuck in thick mud, and with access to the swampy area impossible during the past rainy season, no-one had found the carcass yet.

As a result, and unusually, the two tusks were still embedded in the skull. The man took note, a plan forming in his mind. He returned to his livestock, but didn’t notice another pair of eyes watching him. A second herder, just far enough away to remain unseen.

The second herder later went to see what had been of so much interest to the first. He also took note of the tusks and returned to his herd, but with different intentions. He planned to return the following morning without his livestock, collect the ivory and hand it into Big Life.

On his return early the next day, he realized immediately that something was wrong.

One tusk was missing. Someone had beaten him to it, and the first herder was the obvious suspect. So to Big Life he delivered one tusk and information.

Undercover informers kept a close eye on the first herder, waiting for a suspicious move. Days went by and he did nothing with the tusk. As is often the case with opportunists, the ivory scavenger had taken the tusk without a plan, and had no immediate buyers to sell to.

Rather than risk losing the ivory into the supply chain, and knowing that this was an opportunist and not a wanted poacher, Big Life made the decision to confront the man. With a hint of a wry smile, he cooperated and immediately gave up the tusk. As with all ivory recoveries, it was handed over to the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) together with the first tusk.

Catching poachers is important, but it is only by keeping all ivory out of the trade that we can strangle it completely. Thanks to a huge effort in which Big Life has played a central role, elephant poaching has been controlled across the Greater Amboseli ecosystem. But elephants still die from a variety of causes, and the ivory must be recovered and kept from falling into the wrong hands. Thanks to our extensive ranger and aerial patrols, and intelligence operations like this one, over the last five years we have worked with KWS to consistently maintain an 80%+ ivory recovery rate in our core area of operation from elephant carcasses.

When it comes to elephant tusks, the old adage of “finder’s keepers” does not hold true. Those who decide to take the chance should know that in Amboseli, there is always someone watching.

Lions and owls would have little to discuss. They share a preference for night-time activity, but don’t otherwise have much in common. Food, however, changes everything.

This very unusual image, of a lioness and a Verreaux’s Eagle Owl, was captured by a remote camera trap left at the carcass of an antelope, exposing a world not usually seen by human eyes.

Both species polarize human opinion. While some people travel thousands of kilometers to see lions in the wild, others would happily kill every last one to remove the threat to their livestock. Owls are revered by some societies as a symbol of wisdom, whereas in Maasailand they are a bad omen, and if one lands on your roof then it is seen as a harbinger of death for someone that you know.

Owls are not only feared. In Kenya, they are also now threatened by the illegal trade in their eggs for witchcraft. Ridiculously, owl eggs are claimed to have all-encompassing healing powers, including the ability to cure cancer and HIV. As these myths have spread, owl egg prices have skyrocketed, which is not good news for the birds’ ability to reproduce.

Big Life addresses conservation threats to both species. Our Predator Compensation Fund balances some of the economic losses incurred when lions kill livestock, thereby minimizing retaliatory killing. Meanwhile, our intelligence network monitors the illegal wildlife trade in all species, and Big Life rangers work with the Kenya Wildlife Service to arrest those involved. We have seen some indications of a local owl-egg trade, but by arresting those involved we hope to have discouraged any others from following.

We are working for a future where 100 years from now, one could leave a camera trap in exactly this spot, and catch the descendants of this lion and owl having a similar encounter.

There was just a sliver of moon, and the rangers sat quietly on either side of the path. They had already found the fresh track of a motorbike going in one direction, just as the informant had said. Now they were waiting for its return.

The motorbike eventually followed its headlight back out of the darkness, slowing at the corner and the obstruction in the road. The rangers took their chance, and surprise was on their side. Even had they wanted to, the two poachers had no time to reach for their pangas.

A dead impala was in a sack on the back of the motorbike. To save time, they had simply cut off the lower legs and head, and the rest of the carcass was intact. The poachers were from Tanzania, and that’s where the bushmeat was headed.

This sort of cross-border poaching is a continuing threat in Rombo, in the far south-eastern corner of Big Life’s operating area. Poachers use the international boundary to their advantage, moving back and forth through the invisible barrier that it creates for law enforcement.

Ordinarily, these men would be booked at a Kenyan police station and held until their first court hearing, but things have changed with COVID-19. In order to reduce the load on the courts, and limit congestion in jails, suspects arrested for crimes deemed “less severe” are still booked at a police station, but are then released until their first court appearance. In the case of bushmeat poachers, the courts have little chance of tracking them if they choose to run.

To prevent that from happening, we worked with the Kenya Wildlife Service to make arrangements for the handover of the suspects to the Tanzanian authorities, and the rest of the justice process will continue in Tanzania. For other bushmeat poachers who are arrested and might be temporarily released in the future, the Big Life intelligence network will track them until their court hearings, and assist police in their re-arrest if they choose not to appear.

Arrests like these are an important deterrent for others who might be considering poaching, particularly in this highly unusual time. As COVID-19 slows local economies, and cash runs out, it is likely that some will look to the wildlife trade for income. It’s too early to predict for sure, but we are expecting an increase in poaching, and our rangers are ready for it.

How USAID works with the Maasai communities to conserve Amboseli elephants like Big Tim

There is no easy way to kill an elephant with a spear, and only two reasons to attempt this crazy feat: one is for ivory and the other is from rage.

That rage can come from a steady accumulation of costly nuisances — water pipes broken, fences destroyed, and crops ruined. These were the issues that sparked a rage among a crowd of people in southern Kenya one hot afternoon. For every transgression, they believed elephants were to blame. Frustrated by the lack of other solutions, people reached for their spears. In the end, five elephants lay dead and many others injured.

There are no villains in this story, just people defending their livelihoods. Elephants and other animals can cause economic losses, which rural communities cannot afford.

Human-wildlife conflicts are common across Africa as human populations grow and compete with nature for space. The Amboseli area in Kenya has large human and elephant populations, and is thus a microcosm of this increasing conflict. Amboseli is the subject of the world’s longest-running elephant behavioral study. It is also well-known for the Maasai people who are the predominant human inhabitants. They are pastoralists who depend on natural resources to sustain their livestock.

Protected areas comprise only a small part of the two million acre ecosystem. Elephants and other animals rely on movement corridors through communally owned Maasai lands. Amboseli National Park, and its iconic wildlife populations, would collapse in isolation. The support of surrounding communities is key to its survival. Similarly, a healthy ecosystem is key to the culture and livelihoods of the Maasai people. The habitat and people are inextricably linked.

That is among the reasons USAID and Big Life Foundation, a local partner, established a community ranger unit in the 200,000-acre Eselengi Group Ranch, an area in the north of the Greater Amboseli ecosystem that is a core wildlife roaming area and a prime area for poachers. The communities in that area are not friendly to wildlife. In fact, this is where the elephant-spearing incidents took place.

The community ranger unit’s job is to protect wildlife and support local communities. All the rangers are locals. They know the landscape better than anyone. They are equipped with an off-road vehicle to respond to human-wildlife conflicts and poaching threats. Finally, someone to call when conflicts arise.

USAID’s Kenya and East Africa and Big Life continue to support 14 community rangers on Rombo Group Ranch, another important area in the ecosystem.

Involving local communities in conservation efforts is critical. “Wildlife is our biggest resource and today these programs ensure that the residents of Eselengei benefit from it fully. Were it not for such programs we will only be getting losses from living with wildlife and we would have been its biggest threat,” says Eselengei resident Jackson Mereisi.

Everyone — people, elephants, and rangers — are learning to adapt to a changing world with less usable land.

From a high of 275,000 in the late 1970s, Kenya’s elephant population fell to just 20,000 in 1989. The current elephant population is 35,000. USAID and its partners’ conservation efforts have reduced the poaching of elephants in Kenya by 78 percent.

Efforts must continue, but for now these and other initiatives are working. In 2019, zero elephants were poached and only one elephant was killed as a result of human-wildlife conflict across 1.6 million acres.

This February, Africa’s last remaining big tusker elephant, Big Tim, died at the age of 50 in Amboseli. His long life is not the norm for African elephants. Elephants like Tim are more likely to die from poaching than from natural causes.

USAID and Big Life are optimistic that with increased efforts there will be many Big Tims with giant tusks roaming Kenya for years to come.

...

About the Authors

Jeremy Goss works for Big Life Foundation, a Kenya-based non-profit protecting over 1.6 million acres of wilderness in the Amboseli-Tsavo-Kilimanjaro ecosystem of East Africa. Albert Mwangi and Sarah Carta Samuel are Development Outreach Communications Specialists in USAID’s Kenya and East Africa Mission.

Link to the original article.

The women of Big Life Foundation are critical to the success of our conservation programs - whether it’s working in administration, finance, education, serving on the Board of Directors, in the radio room, or within our ranger units.

Today, on International Women’s Day, we celebrate each of these leaders, and especially our female rangers.  Because when we talk about our community rangers, we don’t just mean men. Big Life currently employs 8 female rangers, with another two in training soon to join the ranks. It’s a small number, but a growing one, and especially significant within the Maasai culture, which is largely patriarchal. 

We’re extremely proud of these women. They have all overcome significant odds and today enjoy steady employment and financial freedom previously inaccessible to them. Due to their positions as rangers, Linet was able to help fund her brother’s education, Agnes has been able to purchase her own home and livestock, Veronica supports an aging mother, Joyce was able to keep her family together when her husband became unemployed, and Ann is able to put money aside for her daughter’s future.

When we say that conservation must support the people in order for people to support conservation, this is what we mean. The ripple effects and benefits of all of our programs start with employment and empowerment at the local level, and these women are powerful examples of that.

We are honored on International Women’s Day to celebrate the achievements of women the world over but especially our staff and rangers. We’re grateful, as always, for your support in making it happen, and especially grateful for our partners at The Thin Green Line and Intrepid Travel, who have supported the development of Big Life’s female ranger program.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

It’s the end of a grueling day working in the fields, prepping for a harvest by the end of the week. You’re just letting your eyes close, drifting off to sleep, when you hear a distinct rumble. In the dark, you grab a flashlight and a spear and head out in the pitch darkness to confront a 7-ton animal that is happily grazing on your hard work. Hard work that may mean the difference between your kid going to school, or not. Between being able to feed your family, or not.

To tourists and animal-lovers the world over, this would be a joyful experience. But to farmers in the Greater Amboseli area, it’s a fearsome reality of life. And a dangerous one. Because elephants are not gentle, and they are giant.

In 2015, we lost 8 elephants in our area of operation to human-wildlife conflict. In 2016, the number jumped to 14. The issue was quickly becoming a crisis. Which is why Big Life has made such concerted efforts at mitigating conflicts between humans and elephants. Second only to poaching, habitat loss and the resulting human-wildlife conflict are the next largest threats to elephants in Africa.

Since 2016, we have been working with local communities and partners on an ambitious solution to crop-raiding: an electric fence that establishes a hard boundary between farmers’ crops and hungry elephants. To date, we’ve built 100 km in the area with the highest number of incidents. A recent survey of farmers affected by conflict demonstrates dramatic success of the project as well.

We now know that from 2015 to 2019, attitudes towards both wildlife and elephants has improved. In 2015, 51% were positive about wildlife in general, and 25% were positive about elephants. But in 2019, those numbers jumped to 84% and 72% respectively. The number of respondents who said they had felt fearful of elephants fell from 96% in 2015 to only 24% in 2019. This is certainly a direct result of fewer human-elephant encounters in farming areas that have been fenced.

Incidents are down. There has been around a 90% decrease in the number of elephant crop-raids in the areas protected by the fence. 99% of those surveyed felt that the fence had reduced crop-raiding by elephants specifically. 98% felt that the fence was successful at protecting their crops.

The crisis is far from over and we have much to do, but for the moment, it feels good to know that this thin, electrified line is making a measurable difference. Thank you to our many partners including U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Rees-Jones Foundation, and the Loke Foundation, as well as many generous private donors, for making this work possible.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

It’s been over a week since we received the call that Tim had been found dead, and we’re still mourning his loss. But if there’s good news to be found in this tragedy, it’s this: he died from natural causes.

The post-mortem diagnosis, which took most of the day to confirm, as Tim had to be flipped over first, was that he died from a twisted gut. The theory is that this might happen due to a build up of gas from overly green vegetation, which Greater Amboseli is rich with at the moment following plentiful rains. It’s a painful way to die, but there’s nothing we could have done. And we take comfort that his death it wasn’t at the hands of man.

They’d certainly tried. His appetite for local crops made him a target of angry farmer’s spears, and his immense tusks put him in the crosshairs of poachers.  We all knew his tusks likely exceeded a hundred pounds, but no one knew their true size. Now we know they measured an impressive 160 and 134 pounds, making him truly one of the last great tuskers.

His loss has been felt across the ecosystem. The local community had grown to respect and admire Tim, as he spent most of his time outside Amboseli National Park and was frequently spotted on community land heading towards Kimana Sanctuary, where Big Life’s rangers worked to keep him safe. He was an integral part of the ecosystem, and a powerful demonstration that it is possible for humans to coexist with megafauna.

This is a loss for those who lived near him, for those who protected him, for those who traveled far-and-wide to see him and photograph him, for those who studied him, and for the elephants he spent his time with, particularly Tolstoy.

Lala salama, Tim.

Photo: Johan Marais

With the holidays behind us, we’re already well into our operations for the New Year, pursuing our mission to protect wildlife and wild lands for the benefit of us all. Even still, it’s important to reflect on the last year and see where we rose to the challenges faced, and where we can do better.

There is one statistic in our report with a big fat zero next to it that I am particularly proud of. In 2019, we saw ZERO elephants poached in our area of operation. That is a tremendous success which we’ll dig into more separately, but I want to commend the community, my staff, and especially Big Life’s rangers for their diligence. 1.6 million acres is not a small area of operation, and the impressive tuskers that move through it are no small target to protect.

We’re also quite proud of the growing lion population, now well over 200 according to our partners at Lion Guardians. But of course where you have apex predators in close proximity to people and livestock, there are going to be challenges. The growing population has put new stresses on tolerance, and not every lion survived. Five were lost in a single incident in violation of our compensation terms last quarter, and the penalties applied. We’ll be working closely with our partners to mitigate these conflicts as best we can.

Entering 2020 feels a bit surreal. We’ve been at it for 30 years now. The first community rangers that we hired were in the early 1990s, under the mantle of the Maasailand Preservation Trust. Then we joined forces with photographer Nick Brandt in 2010 and are now celebrating our 10^th year as Big Life Foundation. Our evolution through it all has been one firmly rooted in supporting the local community. We have tested and proven time and time again that if conservation does not support the people, in very real and meaningful ways, then people will not support conservation.

I’m proud of what we have accomplished and look forward to sharing more with you throughout the year.

In the meantime, thank you, as always, for your support. And belated wishes for the New Year to you all.

Richard Bonham
Director of Operations, Big Life Kenya

Read the full 4th Quarterly Report

Photo: Jeremy Goss

Things you would never see in Kenya: buffalos being milked, elephants being ridden, or rhinos leisurely walking through town. And yet these were just some of the remarkable sights that Big Life rangers recently experienced at the World Ranger Congress in Nepal.

Big Life’s Commanding Officer, Francis Legei, along with 5 other community rangers, traveled to Nepal to attend the Congress and represent Big Life in November, thanks to support from Thin Green Line Foundation and LEAD Ranger. For many, it was their first experience traveling outside of Kenya.

The goal of the World Ranger Congress, the 9^th such event organized by the International Ranger Federation, is to celebrate the contributions of all rangers worldwide, as well as to bring rangers together to collaborate on the issues affecting them and the threats they face during their day-to-day duties.  The Congress also provides a unique opportunity to all rangers to share their knowledge and experience with each other, as well as honor the rangers who have fallen in the line of duty.

Legei says the experience was profound, and was impressed by the success the Nepalese rangers have achieved protecting their rhino population. Visiting Chitwan National Park was particularly illuminating. Said Legei, “The trip was beneficial to all of us rangers worldwide. What I have experienced and seen is that our work is more important than ever and we have been recognized at the Congress for the challenges we are experiencing protecting wildlife, as well as the challenges that wildlife is facing from human threats and habitat destruction.”

Rhino image credit: Ranjan Ramchandani

Is it worth saving something today, if it won’t survive tomorrow? There are limited global resources available for conservation and this is an important question; we don’t want to waste time or funds. As a result, conservation efforts must involve not only the conservation leaders of today, but those of the future.

Big Life has always invested in education, largely through conservation scholarships within the Greater Amboseli ecosystem. We are currently supporting, through funding partners, scholarships for 268 children. Now we would like to amplify that impact for further conservation good.

Thanks to the initiative and support from the Mellmann Foundation, a new “peer counseling” program has been created. Forty-four scholarship students will become positive influencers in their communities, disseminating information on relevant topics such as female genital mutilation (FGM), environmental conservation, and health and hygiene. Students will select the issues they are most passionate about and become a member of a relevant ‘topic club’.

All of the students have received public speaking training and will work with parents/elders and an officer from Big Life to organize meetings in their communities to discuss their chosen topics. Students will work in their topic clubs during school holidays to disseminate information amongst their peers, families, and neighbors.

These students are bright, educated, an integral part of their communities, and perfectly placed to be “gamechangers” across multiple issues. They are the potential conservation leaders of tomorrow, but there is no reason that they can’t start having a positive impact today.

It was the 24^th day of December. As people around the world prepared for their Christmas celebrations, four groups of men across southern Kenya were making plans of a different sort.

The first had two hundred pangolin scales for sale. The second, eleven dik-dik antelope carcasses ready for delivery to bushmeat markets. The third and fourth groups both had killing on the mind, and giraffes were the target.

All planned to take advantage of what they expected to be lax anti-poaching and law enforcement over the Christmas period. It was an error of judgement.

Working with the Kenya Wildlife Service, in two different regions outside of our core area of operation, Big Life intelligence officers set-up the busts that caught the pangolin scale sellers and dik-dik poachers. Six people were arrested.

Back in the Amboseli area, Big Life’s USAID-funded mobile ranger unit on Eselengei Group Ranch had been tipped off about an incoming pair of giraffe poachers. The rangers knew enough to be in the right area, but unfortunately not enough to save the giraffe. The poachers thought they had gotten away with it but rode straight into the waiting ambush, on a motorbike loaded with 200 kg of giraffe meat.

In the last incident on this eventful day, Big Life rangers came across human footprints while on a routine patrol. Not far away they found the butchered carcass of a giraffe, with only the skin remaining. The rangers tracked two men leaving the scene, but lost them into an area disturbed by other human and livestock traffic. This was the only group that got away, for now, but our intelligence network is hard at work to ensure that we catch them.

All of these successes are a result of incredibly hard work done behind the scenes by the men and women of Big Life. A huge thank you to all of our dedicated rangers who manned their posts while much of the world was on holiday, and to our donors and supporters who make it all possible.

It’s been a year since we last caught traders trying to move ivory under our noses. Our intelligence network of community informants doesn’t sleep, and the risk of being caught is just too high for most. But there are always exceptions.

Perhaps the four were new to the area; none of them were Maasai. They were trying to sell ivory in the local town of Kimana, and a Big Life informer picked up the news quickly.

Big Life informers pretended to be brokers interested in facilitating the sale, and we worked with the Kenya Wildlife Service to set up the bust. The ivory sellers walked right into it at 7 PM one night, and were arrested with 20 kg of ivory that they were trying to sell.

The traders were attempting to sell for approximately $60/kg. While this may seem like a lot of money, it is only 30% of the $180/kg that low-tier traders were asking at the height of the illegal ivory trade. This reflects the great success of anti-poaching and wildlife trafficking interventions, as well as demand reduction campaigns and action by the governments of high-demand countries.

There are clearly still those that are looking to make quick money off the trade, but arrests like these send a strong message that there is a high price to pay.

A year ago this week, one of the Greater Amboseli ecosystem’s most iconic tuskers, Tim, managed to get himself thoroughly stuck in the mud. What could have been an unbearable tragedy instead became a remarkable success story, due to the cooperation of so many partners refusing to give up on the old bull.

It took an entire day, a 300 m reinforced tow strap, a tractor, two Land Cruisers, Big Life’s rangers, our partners at the Kenya Wildlife Service and Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, and help from the local community to rescue him. The tow strap snapped and was repaired five times, and the 6-ton animal had to be dragged 25 m before he reached mud shallow enough to stand. But finally, in the twilight hours, he rose, slowly, and made his way towards the Kimana Sanctuary, where he could recover in safety under the watchful eye of Big Life’s 23 stationed Kimana rangers.

Today, Tim is alive and well and Big Life’s rangers continue to keep close tabs on him. And we know as well that in the last year he went into musth – hopefully passing on his incredible genes. Tim is in his fifties now, but we are doing everything we can so that the world can have many more years with him.

Read the full, harrowing tale: https://biglife.org/news-events/big-life-news/unearthing-tim-the-battle-to-rescue-an-amboseli-icon

“Lions will fight, hyenas will run, and leopards will hide, but killing cheetahs is easy. It’s a game for boys and their dogs.” - Maasai elder

The cheetah is the fastest animal on land, but it’s a creature that has evolved to hunt, not to flee. And given that this is an animal that frequently kills livestock, there is no shortage of people that would be happy to send their boys after them.

Cheetah also need vast amounts of space to survive. Individual home ranges in excess of 3,000 km² have been recorded, and scientists estimate that a viable cheetah population needs 4,000 – 8,000 km² of contiguous suitable habitat. There are not many protected areas of that size remaining in Africa. As a result, 77% of the global population is believed to roam outside of protected areas.

With as few as 7,100 cheetahs alive on the planet, what arises is a conservation conundrum. It is clear that protected areas alone will not save the species, because it is outside of protected areas where the animals come into frequent conflict with humans.

Big Life has a solution, the Predator Compensation Fund. We pay pastoralists a portion of their economic losses to wild predators, provided that they can prove to us the circumstances of the death and predator involved, and so long as no predators are killed in retaliation.

Through October this year we have compensated for a total of 319 livestock killed by cheetah, with an estimated associated economic loss of $20,750. After penalties for poor husbandry, Big Life has paid livestock owners $13,256 (64%) of this amount.

Despite these losses, we haven’t recorded a single cheetah death across the areas where we run the program.

There are many other threats to cheetah, including loss of habitat, poaching for body parts, and the illegal wildlife trade. We are also working on these issues, by leasing land for wildlife conservation and running intelligence networks aimed at dismantling local wildlife trade networks.

As human populations continue to grow and expand across Africa, it is crucial that we develop incentives to keep habitat available for cheetah, and mechanisms to mitigate conflict between this elegant predator and humans. There is much to do, but here in Amboseli on International Cheetah Day, we feel like we’re on the right track.

We’re grateful, as always, for your support.  

Photo: Jeremy Goss

A toilet should not stand in the way of an education. And two toilets certainly should not stand in the way of 605 educations.

It was an urgent situation for Loirero Primary School on Eselengei Group Ranch. The unpleasant ratio of two pit latrines for 605 students had led to such significant hygiene concerns that the school was threatened with closure by the Department of Health. The timing could not have been worse, with end-of-year exams approaching.

The parents at the school made contributions for new toilets but the total fell short and the school reached out to Big Life for help. Thankfully, we were able to contribute the balance to fund the construction of a new ablution block, with two more toilets, in order to keep the school open.

Unfortunately, this situation is common in the Amboseli ecosystem, and this is the third time we have had to respond to such a request in as many months. The local human population has grown rapidly over the last two decades, as has the demand for education, and the limited number of schools are accommodating far more children than they were designed to.

Most children have no choice but to attend whichever school is closest to them, but many achieve against the odds. As the head-teacher of Loirero says, “This school is the pulse of this community. Each year we celebrate the university graduations of students who once walked barefoot from their homes and sat in the crowded classes of this school, and it was sad that we might have to stop serving a community we have served for two decades.”

Supporting the local communities who live with wild animals is at the core of Big Life’s ethos. Members of these communities typically deal only with the costs of human-wildlife conflict, and by supporting community needs we can generate much-needed goodwill for conservation efforts.

Thank you for supporting us with your donations, so that we can support the communities who own the land that is so important for conservation in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

Big Life’s community rangers protect the Greater Amboseli ecosystem 24/7, 365 days a year. Be part of the action throughout 2020 with a gorgeous calendar featuring images of local wildlife and our rangers. An overview of our programs and area of operation is included. The calendars are printed on thick recycled paper and make great holiday gifts. Check them out, and more items, in our online store.

No one likes digging holes. Just imagine digging 70,000 of them.

Luckily, we didn’t have to. We planted about 70,000 tree and grass seed pods across our Amboseli area of operation in the last year, while hardly breaking a sweat. How did we do it, you might ask?

In an effort to make it easier to plant trees, Seedballs Kenya have created little balls of magic, aptly named ‘seedballs.’ These are indigenous tree and grass seeds encased in small balls of charcoal, created from the charcoal dust and chips that are the waste product of the charcoal industry.

The unassuming balls are designed to be spread across degraded areas and then left alone, protected by their charcoal casings while lying in wait for the rain. With moisture comes germination, and the charcoal then provides a nutrient boost to send the seedling on its way.

Our global climate is changing at an unprecedented rate, and human activities are the cause. Changing course is a huge challenge (particularly with the denialism perpetuated by certain interest groups), but every tree helps, and it’s something that each one of us can do. Here in Amboseli, we are trying to restore woodland areas that have been degraded through logging, charcoaling, and excessive pressure from herbivores.

The result will be a more productive, diverse ecosystem, and hopefully a small contribution to the tree cover of our planet. We are grateful for our partnership with Seedballs Kenya, whose network has distributed an extraordinary 7 million seedballs across East Africa since 2016.

You can learn more about Seedballs Kenya over at their website. As always, we are grateful for your support.

Photos: Shaun Mousley

The sellers wanted US $10,000, and that’s what they got. Not in hard cash as they’d hoped, but as the amount set for their bail.

The two thought they had a neat plan: purchase a live pangolin and try to sell it on for this extraordinary figure. What they hadn’t counted on was Big Life’s intelligence officers watching their every move.

Working with the Kenya Wildlife Service, our intelligence teams designed the trap and bust, and the two men were caught red-handed. They are now behind bars awaiting trial, each unable to make bail. The pangolin has been released back into the wild where it belongs.

Only days later, we caught another pangolin seller in our intelligence net, and he was subsequently arrested by the Kenya Wildlife Service. This time it was a Tanzanian national, who made the mistake of thinking that Kenya was a good place to sell pangolin scales. He pleaded guilty, and will be in jail for seven years.

Trade in all eight of the world’s pangolin species is illegal, but the demand in the east remains strong, as the scales used in traditional medicine and the meat is considered a delicacy. As Asian pangolin populations have been over-exploited, the demand for African species has increased.

Pangolins are a sad barometer of humanity’s current exploitation of the world’s animals. A recent study found that almost 20% of terrestrial vertebrates are traded on the worldwide market, an ‘industry’ that is worth billions of dollars.

This global wildlife trade is one of the most significant threats to biodiversity on the planet, and tackling it is a daunting challenge. But we can all take action. Wherever you are, you can lobby your local government to restrict trade in wild species, and you can personally avoid exotic pets and animal parts.

Demand reduction is critical in the long-term, but in the meantime we will continue to fight wildlife crime here in East Africa. We know how to do it through a combination of effective intelligence networks, partnerships with national government agencies, and high, well-enforced penalties. Each successful bust is another warning to would-be traders.

Please support Big Life and help us in our efforts to dismantle illegal wildlife trade networks.

Big Life monitors 1.6 million acres of the Greater Amboseli ecosystem. This area is a unique region that includes community-owned group ranches, conservancies, sanctuaries, and national parks. The network of roads for tourists to access wildlife viewing areas is a zig-zagging patchwork that’s not clearly marked, so it’s important to hire local guides. But even local lodge operators can sometimes turn up the wrong path, as happened recently. 

A tourist staying at one of the local lodges was out on a game drive, using motorbikes. His guide, following animal tracks in the dusty road, was heading in what he hoped was the right direction to spot one of the local lion prides. He edged further and further into unknown territory, the road turning from dusty to rocky.  And in doing so, they got a lot more than they bargained for.

What they did not realize was that they had crossed over the invisible line into rhino territory, the Chyulu Hills National Park, and were being monitored from afar. As they made their way further into the park, Big Life rangers moved to intercept. Tourists more commonly use open safari vehicles, not motorbikes. Regardless, a tourist would have paperwork showing they’d paid their park entrance and conservancy fees and would be allowed to continue on. But a poacher could pretend to be a tourist in order to escape.

After finding no receipts, the group was taken to Big Life’s headquarters for questioning. When it comes to the security of the rhino population in particular, you can never be too careful.

A call to the lodge and everything was sorted out in short order, and the group sent on their way to enjoy their sundowner. The operator was reminded to carry the correct documentation, and to inform local ranger units of their activity in the area, to prevent misunderstandings the future.

As for the tourist? It turned out he was a donor to Big Life, and was impressed with the professionalism and effectiveness the rangers demonstrated.  He certainly had a story for dinner that night, and the reminder that conservation is serious business. And our rangers take their jobs VERY seriously.

Dust. If I had one word for the third quarter, that would be it. It settles everywhere, inside the sealed car, and other places you’d rather not find it. But the dry conditions are more than an annoyance, when tensions run high. Lack of rains across the ecosystem (a normal occurrence during this period) means a lack of water, and these days that means a scarcity of food and resources for wildlife and people alike.

As a result, we saw some of the usual struggles we see in the dry season, when natural resources are scarce. An increase in bushmeat poaching incidents, a surge in snare confiscations, fires to be put out in grassland areas. Elephants continued to raid neighboring farms on a frequent, although decreasing, basis thanks to strategic protective fencing we’ve implemented.

But given all that, in an unexpected twist, we did not have a single elephant death in our area of operation this past quarter. That’s very good news, as our crop-protection fence project extends and our ranger units continue to mitigate human-wildlife conflict across the ecosystem. 

Our efforts to expand wildlife conservation programs to the north in Eselengei are on track, despite hitting a hurdle this quarter. The cultural shift, from one of conflict with lions to one of peaceful coexistence with lions, does not happen over night. And so we lost a lion in violation of our Predator Compensation Fund for the first time in a few years. We are increasing our efforts there, and the community seems prepared to adapt to and accept the new rules going forward. Time will tell. As the lion population continues to grow, so too will these pressures.

The rains have, blessedly, appeared to return. The Chyulu Hills around my home are rapidly shifting to become green and lush again. Dust is replaced with mud, and grasses rapidly recover ground. It’s a relief as we enter the fourth quarter.

On a final note, our US team has been awarded the highest marks—a 4-star rating—by Charity Navigator, a trusted and respected organization which vets American charities. We hope you’re proud, as we are, to support a nonprofit that has demonstrated transparency and effectiveness to such an impressive degree.

Thank you, as always, for your support.

Richard Bonham
Director of Operations, Big Life Kenya

Read the full 3rd Quarterly Report

Photo: Shaun Mousley

When it comes to conservation, measuring ‘meaningful impact’ can be a tricky thing to do. Sometimes it’s easy, for example when Big Life goes a year without any rhinos poached. Sometimes it’s more complicated.

We expected one of our programs, designed to shift Maasai cultural practices, to be one of the harder things to measure, but we’ve been pleasantly surprised.

At the request of the Maasai cultural “fathers” in 2008, the Maasai Olympics was conceived and first held in 2012, in the Amboseli ecosystem. It was designed to provide a culturally appropriate alternative for young Maasai warriors to traditional lion hunting. Rather than killing lions to demonstrate their bravery and impress women, they could instead compete in a series of sports competitions based on traditional warrior skills.

Each year, we’ve seen the participants, and spectators on the sidelines, increase. Athletes who win in any of the six events receive prestige, medals, as well as cash prizes. The winning team takes home a trophy and prize breeding bull. And the team with the best conservation track-record in the year is awarded the Chester Zoo Conservation Scholarship Award.  

But is this event actually changing the hearts and minds of the local warriors? Are they more concerned with protecting lions today, than they were killing them in years past?

In one word: yes.

In the months following each Maasai Olympics final, a survey of local warriors is conducted to assess changes in attitudes and behaviors toward lions. The most recent games were in December 2018, and of the 138 warriors that were surveyed, we found:

- 78% of warriors said they had never taken part in a lion hunt, up from 61% in 2017;
- 75% of warriors said they think it is important to protect lions, up from 70% in 2017;
- 95% of warriors knew about the Maasai Olympics, up from 86% in 2017, and 95% said the goal of the event was to protect lions, up from 53% in 2017;
- 70% of warriors said the games have raised awareness about lion conservation in their community; and
- 73% said they wanted the Maasai Olympics to continue, and when asked why, the most frequent answer was to protect lions.

We are thrilled to see such positive responses, and measurable change, year after year. The next Maasai Olympics will happen in December of 2020. Thank you for your support to make it happen.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

Only a very bold (or very hungry) predator will take on a full-grown elephant, but a calf wandering alone in the darkness is easy prey. It would have been a long and stressful night for the baby, but somehow he survived.

We don’t know how he was separated from his family. He was first seen late Sunday evening by a community member from Rombo Group Ranch, an area bordering Tsavo West National Park in a far corner of Big Life’s operating area.

Early the next morning, the same man bumped into the elephant in the bush again, and this time there was enough daylight for him to walk to Big Life’s mobile camp in Rombo and tell the rangers. It was 6 am.

The ranger unit set out immediately to where the elephant was last seen and found it soon after arriving at the spot. The tiny elephant, less than two-months-old, was seemingly responsive to any kindness and happy to walk with the rangers as they guided it back to their camp. The next calls, to Kenya Wildlife Service and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, were made at 6:49 am.

By 8:30 am, there was a SWT helicopter and team on the ground, and they sedated the calf and bundled it into the helicopter. From Rombo it was a short hop to the SWT HQ at Kaluku, where the calf is reportedly doing well. He will join the other elephant orphans in the care of SWT, and hopefully one day be released back into the wild.

Incredibly, the whole rescue operation took less than three hours. This sort of response is only possible because of our extensive ranger coverage (made possible by you our supporters, and Zoo Basel and USAID in particular on Rombo), the much appreciated partnership with SWT, and a community that cares. We all have an important part to play.

Luxury handbags, sparkling gold sneakers, and now conservation in Africa. It’s an association we would never have dreamed of, but fashion brand Gucci has just invested in conservation in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem.

The Chyulu Hills lie on the eastern side of Big Life’s operating area and include diverse habitats ranging from expansive swathes of grassland to towering cloud forests. This array of natural environments is home to an astounding level of biodiversity, including a small and rare population of 8 critically endangered Eastern black rhinos that Big Life helps to protect.

Just as important, the area is critical for carbon storage. When Gucci was founded almost 100 years ago, the protection of a remote natural space in Africa would have been of little relevance to the Italian fashion house. But the link is one that becomes stronger, and clearer, every day. Protecting nature, no matter where in the world, is good for the planet, and therefore good for everyone.

A REDD+ project allows anyone to contribute to the protection of the world’s carbon stores through the purchase of carbon credits, which offset the impacts of carbon-dioxide producing activities. The money from these credits is invested in habitat and conservation projects, as well as community empowerment. If the forests disappear, so does the income stream, so local communities are motivated to participate. It’s a local payment for a global good.

We are very pleased to share the news that Gucci has made the decision to purchase 350,000 carbon credits from the Chyulu Hills REDD+ project, as part of their effort to become a carbon neutral company.

Gucci is now the second major company to purchase credits from the Chyulu Hills REDD+ project, following two purchases made by Tiffany & Co. We are optimistic about the future seeing such large-scale, for-profit companies taking positive steps towards acknowledging climate change, and doing something to tackle it. We hope many more companies start to follow their lead, for everyone’s benefit.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

Wildlife protection comes in all shapes and sizes.

This is especially true of Big Life’s Rapid Deployment Unit (RDU). Although the team comprises only a single vehicle and nine rangers, they are highly trained and armed, in case of encounters with armed poachers. The team is nimble by design and able to react quickly – day or night – to poaching and other high-risk incidents across the ecosystem.

While the RDU is primarily focused on elephant protection, they are also called to intervene during a myriad of situations.

Over the last several months, the RDU has been busy. They have recovered elephant ivory, found and destroyed 19 snares targeting wild animals of various sizes, arrested suspects for bushmeat poaching and habitat destruction, mitigated elephant-human conflict by helping to steer hungry elephants away from farms and communities, and helped in the rescue of a gazelle suffering from multiple bite wounds, which was later released into Kimana Sanctuary.

There is no debate. The RDU’s impact is larger than life. We’re grateful to our supporters and partners, including La Passerelle Conservation and Parc Animalier d’Auvergne, for keeping our RDU in the field.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

The Amboseli landscape is a sea of neutral hues – greens, browns, greys. Maybe a pop of color in a starling or a weaver, but otherwise an ecosystem where prey has evolved to hide from predators. Everything blends in.

The Maasai however, stand out. Amongst this neutral landscape is a vibrant human community, heavily adorned with beads and colorful garments of bold reds and blues. The people are as synonymous with the ecosystem today as the elephants and lions with whom they coexist.

The Maasai have lived in the ecosystem that Big Life works to protect for centuries. As their communities have grown, so have their interactions with wildlife. Their involvement in the conservation of the animals they live with is essential, which is why Big Life’s ethos has always been to support the local people, in very real and meaningful ways, so that the people will support conservation. Whether it is through employment, education, search and rescue assistance, or building crop-protection fencing, our mission is one that is shared: to protect nature for the benefit of all.

The vivid fabric they wear is called a shuka. Shukas come in a variety of patterns and colors, and are worn by men and women alike. While the history behind the cloth is a bit of a mystery, the shuka has become a cultural symbol unique to East Africa and the Maasai, and you’ll see them in most of our photos that feature community members.

If you’re interested in having a shuka for yourself, to wear or use as a blanket on these chillier fall days, we’ve made a limited number of them available on our online store.  We sourced these from a shop near our headquarters in Kenya and you won’t find these available on your local high street. Even better, the proceeds will help to fund our operations in Kenya protecting wildlife and wild lands. 

Thank you, as always, for your support.

Photo: Shaun Mousley

The figures chased each other back and forth through the dust. Surrounded on all sides, not one of the cheering onlookers dared to cross the line onto the rectangular battlefield. Somewhere obscured in the middle was the reason for the spectacle: a dirty white ball.

This was the Maasai Olympics, but unlike any game we’ve done before. The Maasai Olympics athletic competition has become a celebrated event across the ecosystem, held every two years. But two years is a long time for young, ambitious athletes to wait. While we conduct outreach throughout the ecosystem in the interim, an event was organized to fill in the gap and keep enthusiasm high.

Enter: the dirty white ball. Football (or soccer, depending on where you’re from) is arguably the world’s most popular game and passion for the sport extends to all corners of Africa, Maasailand included. The local warriors have long told us that a football tournament would be a welcome addition to the Maasai Olympics, and so this year we made it happen.

Following the same format as the athletics competition that results in the biennial Maasai Olympics Finals, each of the four warrior villages in the ecosystem put forward a team. Those teams played against each other in a round-robin tournament, culminating in a finals day with two games: one game for the 3^rd and 4^th positions, and a second to determine the much anticipated winner.

No one could have scripted these final games better. The playoff between Rombo and Eselengei was drawn, and Rombo won a penalty shootout for 3^rd place. In the final, Mbirikani took an early two-goal lead and looked to be heading for certain victory, before Kuku scored two late goals that sent their supporters into a frenzied celebration. It was another draw at full-time, and headed for a penalty shootout.

In the end, Mbirikani edged ahead on the penalty count, taking home the football trophy (as well as a prized breeding bull) to add to their win last year in the Maasai Olympics final.

As the teams all head home and start to think about the athletics competition starting again in 2020, we have seen yet again that sport is the perfect way to engage the young people of the ecosystem, and provides a broad-reaching platform for conservation outreach.

Photo: Jeremy Goss

Four years ago, almost to the day, we lost a young black rhino called Bahati. His name meant “good luck,” as he had previously survived a poacher’s attack against unbelievable odds, yet he was ultimately caught in a poacher’s snare and captured on camera trap after snapping the cable free from its tether. It was a desperate show of strength and courage.

After days of tracking by our rangers, who were racing against the clock to find him, a vet finally managed to dart Bahati, but infection had weakened him to the point where he wasn’t able to survive the operation. Bahati’s untimely death shook us all, and made us that much more determined to prevent something like this from happening again.

Four years later, on this World Rhino Day, we are immensely happy to report that we have managed to achieve just that. Since Bahati’s tragic death, we have not lost a single rhino to poachers from the small population that Big Life works so hard to protect. This matters not just for individuals such as Bahati, but also in the bigger picture.

At the start of the 20^th century, it’s estimated there were several hundred thousand black rhinos across Africa, a robust and healthy population that once thrived. By the end of the 20^th century, however, fewer than 2,500 remained. The rhino population in Big Life’s area of operation was believed to have been extinct for decades. Until the mid-90s, when one of Big Life’s first community rangers, Nderu Loormunyei, noticed something very peculiar while on patrol: rhino tracks.

It took years to capture photographic evidence of their presence, but we were thrilled to confirm that a tiny population of this critically endangered species had managed to hide in the dense lava and thick vegetation that covers the Chyulu Hills, a range covering just a few hundred kilometers.

They’re significant for many reasons, but especially due to the fact that they are one of the only unmanaged populations of black rhinos left in East Africa today, having retained their original genetics.

At the end of 2015, there were 886 Eastern black rhinos in all of Africa, 678 of which were in Kenya. And 8 of them live wild and free in the Chyulu Hills today, including a calf born last year that has successfully survived its most vulnerable time under the protection of our rangers.

The thick bush that kept the rhinos hidden for decades also hides their biggest threat: poachers. In response to this threat, Big Life has continually intensified patrols, increased manpower, and improved infrastructure. We now have 51 rangers, 9 ranger units, 29 camera traps, and 7 outposts all dedicated to rhino protection in partnership with Kenya Wildlife Service. As a result, zero rhinos have been poached in the last 4 years.

Our hope is to continue growing this small but important population, and we are working with the Kenyan government on a plan to do so.

In the meantime, we’re grateful for your support today on World Rhino Day. Please consider making a donation in support of our efforts to extend our four-year streak of rhino protection, and in loving memory of Bahati; may his name bring good fortune to all those who survive him.

The ultimatum was unimaginable. Either find the funding to pay for school fees, or be forced into an early marriage.

A girl in Big Life’s area of operation, we’ll call her Sarah to protect her privacy, had entered secondary school with high hopes of completing her education. However, a change in her family’s circumstances meant that they could no longer afford her school fees, and seeing no other option for additional income, Sarah’s father initiated plans for her to be married.

But just before her fateful deal was sealed, a plea was made to Big Life. Through a grant from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Big Life was able to provide Sarah with a one-year scholarship to continue her studies, as part of Big Life’s Education and Scholarship program. Big Life’s team in Kenya say of Sarah that her “outlook on life is now bright and she has been strengthened to face the future.” 

In addition to sponsoring Sarah’s education, Big Life currently supports 262 students (133 girls and 129 boys) with long-term scholarships, and pays the salaries of 22 teachers. This support is particularly important for girls, since education is one of the most powerful weapons in preventing child marriage. The longer a girl stays in school, the less likely she is to be married before the age of 18 and have children in her younger years, among countless other benefits.

This truly life-changing work would not be possible without Big Life’s amazing donors, including the IMF, the Ann Lurie Revocable Trust, the Highland School and Families, Michael and Jane Agg, the Capricorn Foundation, The Foundation for the Promotion of Individual Opportunity, the Mellmann Foundation, the Stoneleigh Charitable Fund, and dozens of inspired individuals.

As back-to-school time has arrived in the US, Big Life wishes students worldwide a bright and strengthened future.

It’s human nature to defend the things we value. It matters not whether that value is placed on an idea, a place, or some tangible object. When these values are shared, they become the cornerstones of our societies and communities.

It is not possible to implement conservation programs in human-populated areas without understanding the values that drive human behavior, and to respond and adapt accordingly. The success of Big Life Foundation’s programs in East Africa is a reflection of this ethos: that if conservation supports the people, then people will support conservation.

Most of the land in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem is owned collectively by Maasai communities. The wild animals that live here are, for the most part, not protected by wildlife reserves or National Parks. Big Life helps to fill the gaps in these ‘unprotected’ spaces, by working with local communities to implement conservation initiatives.

The primary reason that many of these areas are still home to wild animals is that they have historically been compatible with the predominately pastoralist livelihoods of the Maasai people. And at the core of traditional Maasai values are: cows. A Maasai will know each individual in his herd, and the character of each. A person’s cattle can have multiple values, ranging from a symbolic demonstration of status and wealth, to the actual economic value gained from sales.

So understandably, anything that threatens these valuable cows is immediately perceived as an enemy, wild predators included. Try to imagine what it would be like to have a lion jump into your homestead at night and kill one of your animals. The anger is intense, and the natural response is to reach for a spear.

The challenge then is to understand these daily realities of the people who live alongside wild animals, and work with these communities to support coexistence.

In the case of livestock predation, we do this by mitigating some of the associated economic losses through compensation, via Big Life’s Predator Compensation Fund. Despite our success with this program, there are occasional setbacks, such as the recent incident in which a lioness was speared for killing two cows. But even when this happens, it does not help to place blame. Rather, we should channel that energy into understanding why the incident happened, and what can be done to prevent it happening again, which is what we will continue to do.

There are always two sides to the story. These are difficult discussions that require empathy and understanding on both sides, or we will never find mutually agreeable solutions. The end goal is to protect nature for the benefit of all, humans and wild animals alike.  

This past summer, a team from New Zealand visited Big Life’s area of operation and were so impressed with our programs that they decided to give back in two meaningful ways: creating a short film about our work and donating proceeds from the sale of their product.

We’re very grateful to have the support of a new corporate partner, Part Time Rangers. They’ll be contributing 10% of profits from the sale of their African Elephant Vodka to Big Life in the next financial year. The company produces a variety of hard sparkling waters that are currently for sale in stores across New Zealand.

So to our friends in New Zealand, we hope you enjoy a sundowner and raise a toast to our rangers protecting elephants in East Africa. And to everyone else, please enjoy this short film…

A few weeks ago, Big Life Foundation’s Predator Protector Program Coordinator Daniel Ole Sambu visited our partners at The Elephant Society in Hong Kong for a 4^th time to raise awareness, this time for lion conservation. The Lion Week included a gala fundraiser dinner, radio interviews, and a special screening of the George Adamson film “Born Free.” But Sambu spent most of his time visiting local schools and sharing stories about successful lion conservation efforts in East Africa, where he manages Big Life programs such as the Predator Compensation Fund.

The Maasai Olympics is another critical predator protection program that Big Life manages, an initiative that is culturally-based and helping to change the long Maasai history of killing lions for social recognition.

Explained Sambu to young listeners in Hong Kong, “If the Maasai are able to change parts of their culture for a good cause, like protecting lions, then maybe it’s also possible for the Chinese to change parts of their culture, and stop using lion bones and rhino horns for medicine.”

The local school children were inexplicably excited about the Maasai Olympics and the incredible warrior skills demonstrated. All of the excitement lead to an unbelievable idea: could we bring the Maasai Olympics to Hong Kong?! Could the Chinese compete against Maasai warriors in the high jump?!

And so, plans are underway to send some of the winners from the 2018 Maasai Olympics to Hong Kong, visas and logistics permitting. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be able to bring this idea into reality in November and of course will keep our supporters updated.

In the meantime, thank you for your support.

There is one less lion in Africa.

It’s a familiar story; two cow calves were separated from their herd during a day of grazing in the thick bush. A group of warriors went out to look for them, but the lions got there first. Enraged, the warriors took off after the lion tracks and killed one lioness with spears, as retribution for the loss of their cows.

This happened on Eselengei Group Ranch, where Big Life recently initiated our Predator Compensation Fund (PCF). The agreement was standard for the PCF program, with commitments from both the community and Big Life.

Big Life agrees to manage a program that will pay livestock owners a portion of their verified losses to predators. The community pays 30% of the compensation costs. There are penalties for non-performance, which includes bad livestock husbandry and the retaliatory killing of predators.

We are approaching one-year since the PCF agreement was completed, and this is the first lion that has been killed by a member of the Eselengei community in retaliation for livestock predation since then.

So, now what? It’s always a test. Communities will gladly accept compensation, but enforcing penalties is never as palatable.

The death of the lion sparked a series of meetings between all stakeholders to evaluate what happened and what should be done in response. After much discussion, the final decision adheres to and honors the PCF agreement. The community will pay a fine equivalent to 6 cows, and the community members living in the area where the lion was killed will not receive compensation payments for a two-month period.

Lions have been killed in the past, and will likely be killed again in future. The response following each death has an important impact on the chances of it happening again. In this case, the community will respect the agreement that governs Big Life’s livestock compensation payments. Aside from that lion still being alive today, we could not ask for more.

South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe will NOT be allowed to legally sell their stockpiled ivory on the international market.

The highest level of international trade restrictions applied to the Zambian elephant population will NOT be relaxed.

And African countries will NOT be allowed to continue to wrench baby elephants from their families in the wild and send them into caged confinement in distant countries.

These are just three of the hugely positive outcomes on proposals that were considered this last week by CITES, and we would like to thank everyone who has done their bit in helping to achieve these successes. New agreements have also been reached on increased protections for a number of animals, including giraffes and some shark species, against the threats posed by international trade.

There was apparently intense debate at the conference as southern African countries pushed hard for permission to trade in elephants and elephant products, such as ivory, but thankfully, common sense prevailed.

Some countries continue to argue that due to their healthy elephant populations (for which we applaud them), they have a right to benefit financially from the value of their stockpiled ivory. But we know from experience that the last time that experiment was tried, what followed was one of the worst periods of elephant poaching in history, and it should not be repeated.

Having worked hard to virtually eliminate elephant poaching in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem, we are incredibly happy that the world has decided not to take any steps backwards.

Decisions made in the next ten days will determine the fate of the African Elephant. It sounds dramatic, and it is.

Currently, there is a group of people gathered in Geneva, representatives from countries across the globe, who hold great power. This gathering is the meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP18), also known as the World Wildlife Conference.

But before we dissect the current conference, let’s wind back the clock, because history matters here. A century ago the African elephant population was estimated to be greater than 10 million, albeit already hugely reduced from the time when Europeans first arrived on the continent. Over the following decades the killing continued, and by 1979 the continental population was further reduced to an estimated 1.3 million.

CITES was established in 1973, becoming the global entity to control and regulate the international trade in elephant ivory that was driving much of the slaughter. For twenty years, from 1977 to 1989, the trade in ivory was allowed but regulated by CITES, yet the killing continued. As a result, in 1989 CITES moved the African elephant onto Appendix 1, affording the species the strictest CITES protection, resulting in the international ivory trade becoming illegal.

As the CITES protection took effect, some elephant populations started to recover. However, certain countries, including South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe continued to lobby for permits to sell ivory, arguing that the resulting income is necessary for supporting conservation efforts.

A ‘one-off’ sale of ivory was first allowed in 1999; 34 tons of stockpiled ivory sold by Namibia and Zimbabwe to Japan. Following this ‘success’ southern African countries continued to lobby for further sales, and against very strong advice from conservationists, a second larger sale was permitted in 2008. This involved a sale of approximately 107 tons to Japan AND China. Alarm bells rung worldwide.

What followed was a dramatic surge in poaching, as the ‘legitimized’ ivory trade led to an increase in demand for elephant ivory as well as a cover for poaching and illegal trafficking. An estimated 100,000 elephants were killed between 2010 and 2012 alone.

Since then, the world has come together to stop the poaching of elephants, to great effect. The work on demand-reduction in China, combined with China’s commitments to end the ivory trade, has resulted in an estimated 65% drop in the wholesale price of ivory in Chinese markets from 2014 to 2017. This reduced economic incentive, combined with greater investments in anti-poaching and elephant protection, has controlled poaching to some extent. Indicators tracking poaching rates in Africa suggest that poaching peaked in 2011 and declined until 2017 when it stabilized.

Despite the continued threat represented by poachers, African elephant populations are beginning to recover once again. But, because history tends to repeat itself, there is a group of countries that continue to pursue the permission to sell ivory, despite the evidence of the dramatic negative effects. This week, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe will once again be advocating for changes to the CITES laws, allowing them to trade raw ivory for commercial gain.

Despite the various experiments, it is now obvious that there is no way to effectively regulate the trade in ivory, such that the impact on living elephant populations is minimized. The ivory trade cannot work, and Big Life stands strongly with the Kenyan delegation that is working with other states to effectively propose a complete ban on all forms of ivory trade across the world.

These are enormous decisions that have the potential to shape the future of the African elephant. We hope that CITES acts in support of conservation this week, using its great power and responsibility to help ensure the survival of wildlife worldwide.

Thank you to all of our supporters who make our work possible! If you are looking for one more way to support and spread awareness about the work we do, check out Big Life’s new collaboration with Popsockets. 50% of the sale of every phone grip on Big Life’s charity page (link below) will be donated to Big Life, helping to fund our conservation efforts.

Happy shopping for a cause: Big Life Popsockets

When a lioness named Nelowua’s satellite tracking collar stopped moving for a week, we knew that something was either really wrong or really right. She was dead, or had given birth.

Her last location was deep inside thick bush, preventing easy access on foot. We waited a few days, and small movements meant that she was still alive. But we had a to wait a few months to finally see what Nelowua was hiding.

There was much excitement last week as we sifted through a night of camera trap photos, to find an image of Nelowua with three tiny cubs in tow. This is her second litter in two years, and some of you might remember a similar story of her going ‘missing’ in September 2017.

These three young lions have been born on community land, and there will be challenges ahead, but Big Life and our partners are working hard to make sure that they survive them. Thanks to initiatives such as Big Life’s Predator Compensation Fund, which protects lions from retaliatory killing following livestock depredation, their chances are certainly better now than they were a decade ago.

Our lion conservation partners Lion Guardians have measured a QUADRUPLING of the core Amboseli lion population over the last decade, and illegal killing of lions is virtually non-existent. To put this success in perspective, over the last two decades the Africa-wide lion population is estimated to have declined by greater than 40%, and these magnificent cats only roam in 6% of their historic range.

Amboseli is proof that lion populations can and will recover if they are protected and given the opportunity to breed. Lions are receiving unprecedented attention through the recent re-release of ‘The Lion King’, and continental initiatives such as the Lion Recovery Fund (of which Big Life is proud to be a grantee). Now is the time to act and there is certainly hope, represented by these three new cubs, on this year’s World Lion Day.

Thank you as always, for your support. 

The service is being led by seven people, all wearing white coats. Two hundred people sit in the pews, all waiting expectantly. But on this occasion it’s not for help of the spiritual kind. This is a pop-up clinic.

Maasailand is vast, and much of it is empty. Villages are often remote and their inhabitants live without many of the basic services that much of the world takes for granted, such as accessible healthcare.

What does this have to do with a conservation nonprofit, you might ask. Big Life Foundation is a holistic conservation organization, and this means that our fundamental approach is to work with communities to achieve conservation goals. But why would humans pursue a conservation goal, if other basic needs are unmet?

They won’t, and this is one reason why we are partnering with the Kajiado South Sub-County government Department of Health, with support from CHASE Africa, to provide community members with access to basic healthcare. This is achieved through mobile pop-up clinics that visit a different community each month, backpack nurses who visit remote locations on a motorbike in between the clinics, and a team of 14 Community Health Volunteers, whose role is to sensitize their communities on the importance of family planning for family health, women's rights, and sustainable use of resources.

In the last 18 months, these simple outreach methods have provided primary healthcare and medication to 2,802 people, immunizations to 516 children, de-worming tablets to 4,184 people, and family planning options (including referrals to local clinics) to 735 women.

We’re proud to have been a part of helping so many people already, but this project is still in its infancy, and the need is huge. We’re hoping to increase this community support over the coming years to benefit more people over a greater area where we work, and with your help, we can accomplish this goal. Because we believe that it is not a question of helping wildlife OR people, but wildlife AND people.

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

For a lion born in Amboseli in the early 2000s, life was likely short. At least 108 lions were killed between 2001 and 2006, and that’s just counting the bodies that were found.

Maasai communities have historically killed lions, in retaliation for killing livestock as well as for cultural reasons, but in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem, losses used to occur at rates that the population could reasonably sustain. With the arrival of cheap and deadly agricultural poisons in the 1990s, that changed fast.

One person could easily wipe out an entire lion pride—and countless other animals, as well—with a single packet of poison, and the accelerated death rate left the lion population hanging in the balance, with as few as 20 individuals left alive at one point.

A local scientist wrote that one particularly bad month, during which more than a dozen lions were killed, “may represent the beginning of the end.” But local communities had other ideas, and Big Life took up the challenge.

In response to this urgent situation, we started the Predator Compensation Fund (PCF), aimed at reducing the economic losses associated with livestock depredation, and in each area where it was implemented, retaliatory lion killing immediately ceased.

At that time, there weren’t many lions left to kill, but thanks to our local conservation partners Lion Guardians, who have also made important contributions to protecting the species, we know that the lion population has grown steadily and is now in excess of 200 animals across the ecosystem.

During the worst of the killing, the lions who survived were those living singly or in small groups, those who avoided humans at all costs. The surviving lions hid themselves well. But with the reduction in persecution, stable prides have once again established.

It is a huge moment for us to report that there is currently a pride of 22 lions living entirely on Maasai community land. This is about as many lions in one pride as there were in the entire ecosystem 15 years ago. And thanks to this important cultural shift, the lions are calm and comfortable, allowing tourists on safari to get quite close, as this photo demonstrates.

This is only the beginning; conflict between lions and humans continues, and coexistence is uneasy. Big Life’s predator protection work is as critical now as ever, particularly as lion numbers continue to fall across the rest of Africa, and each population becomes a more important part of the whole.

However, it’s good to pause now and again and appreciate the results of all our hard work. In at least one small corner in Africa, the lion population is increasing, not decreasing, and that is worth celebrating.

Please help us to continue this success story by making a donation.

Photo: Andy Biggs

This was an attack on all sides, by multiple attackers. There were spear wounds on the rump, back legs, and two through the trunk. A total of five holes that shouldn’t be there.

We know this elephant. His name is Lobolo, and until recently, he hadn’t been seen for a number of months. Wherever it is that he went, he clearly found trouble, and most likely the wounds were a result of conflict with humans. It could have been from continued fall-out following a spate of elephant hunting after two people were killed early last month by elephants to the north and outside of our core area of operation.

Thankfully Lobolo made it back to safety for help, which was quick to come. He was first spotted at a waterhole by guides from ol Donyo Lodge. Big Life rangers staked out the waterhole, knowing that Lobolo would soon return. When he did, late one afternoon, a well-rehearsed response kicked into action.

Not two days since our previous call for a separate incident to the Sheldrick-Wildlife-Trust-supported Kenya Wildlife Service sky-vet, and the helicopter was back on the scene. The pilot skillfully corralled Lobolo, keeping him in the open for a clear shot from the vet and his dart gun. The wounds were all successfully treated and packed with blue medicinal clay, and a groggy Lobolo woke up and ambled slowly off into the bush.

The Greater Amboseli ecosystem is a huge place, and while we try, we cannot keep an eye on all 2,000+ elephants moving through all of the time. Big Life rangers respond to all reported conflicts and try to prevent any injuries to both humans and elephants. But this is not always possible, and we’re thankful for the work that the rangers do, and the partners we are able to call on to help the injured.

We know it’s not a nice picture. The injury looks awful, and it is, but quick action yesterday has almost certainly saved the life of this elephant mother, and with it the life of her young calf.

She was spotted on Thursday evening with her calf and four other family members in the Selenkay Conservancy on Eselengei Group Ranch. This is an area where Big Life has recently expanded our presence and programs, thanks in large part to those of you who supported our fund-raising appeal at the end of last year.

As a result, the guide from Gamewatchers Porini alerted the Big Life radio room and a ranger rapid response unit was deployed immediately. The rangers found the family, but it was too dark for further action.

The search resumed early the next morning, and with aerial support from Big Life’s Supercub aircraft the herd was found again. Within two hours the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust-supported Kenya Wildlife Service vet unit had arrived, and managed to dart the female from a helicopter.

Luckily the spear had bent on impact and not penetrated the skull, and the vet was able to remove it without causing any further injury. He cleaned the wound, administered long-lasting antibiotics and painkillers, and packed it with natural clay to assist the healing process. With the anesthetic reversed, the elephant slowly got to her feet and moved off in the direction of the herd.

We can’t say what would have happened without treatment, but the injury could very easily have killed this elephant. Thanks to support from USAID, Big Life has a ranger team on Eselengei that were perfectly placed to respond to the initial report from a local tourism partner, and track the elephant quickly. From there it was a textbook case operation, highlighting the importance of cooperation, and with big thanks to the SWT-supported KWS vet unit.

We don’t know exactly where and why this elephant was speared, but it is no doubt a result of human-wildlife conflict. In addition to the support provided by community rangers, Big Life is placing significant focus on addressing this important issue. Please read more on our website, and consider supporting us in our work to maintain an ecosystem that can be a home for people and elephants.

Cockroaches in the cupboard, mosquitos landing on your face.  Even in the most mundane way, everyone has experienced animals invading our personal spaces. 

In Africa it can be on a dramatically larger scale. Lions and other predators killing your livestock. Elephants trampling your crops and killing or injuring a family member. The automatic response by many is predictable: kill the problem animal.

Listening to our local communities, Big Life has always believed that one of the most effective ways of intervening is to relieve some of the economic costs borne by those who live alongside wild animals.

One of our early innovations in this field was the creation of Big Life’s Predator Compensation Fund (PCF), a compensation program designed to reimburse livestock owners for a portion of their losses to predators (with penalties for poor livestock husbandry), provided that no predators are killed in retaliation.

The result, fifteen years later, is arguably one of the world’s most successful predator protection programs. Big Life’s PCF has gone from an experiment to one of the core driving forces behind the spectacular recovery of the lion population in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem, along with the work of our local lion conservation partners.

On a larger scale, increasing conflict between humans and wildlife has become one of the biggest threats to conservation in Kenya, and the government has taken note. One outcome is the recent formation of a high-level Taskforce on Human-Wildlife Conflict Compensation Schemes, and we are incredibly proud to have Daniel Ole Sambu (pictured here), Big Life’s predator protection program coordinator, as one of the few non-governmental representatives invited to participate.

This task force will look at the opportunities for compensation programs to contribute to human-wildlife coexistence across Kenya, as well as a broad range of other potential conflict mitigation options.

Running a successful compensation program can be difficult, as there is huge potential for fraud and a high risk that the program won’t have the intended impact. So we’re incredibly honored that the Kenyan government has taken note of our success and that someone as experienced as Daniel will have the opportunity to help design future national solutions.

There is a lot that happens in the shadows outside of Big Life’s core operating area. Some of it goes unseen, but it’s difficult to hide a dead giraffe.

As the poachers cut meat off of the unfortunate giraffe they had snared, someone was watching. This information made its way out of the bush and reached Big Life through our intelligence network. The informer even knew which route the poachers would use to escape.

Although it was not in our core area of operation, one of Big Life’s mobile units set off to the scene with Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). It was far enough away that the rangers were unlikely to get there before the poachers left, so the unit decided to set up an ambush along the suspected escape route.

Late at night, the beams of three motorbike headlights cut the darkness. By the time the riders saw the roadblock, it was too late to turn, and they rode straight into the ambush. Each bike was loaded with sacks of giraffe meat, nearly 300 kg estimated in total.

Two of the men pled guilty and were given the maximum sentence under the Kenya Wildlife Act: a $2,000 fine or two years in prison. The third pled not guilty, and his trial is ongoing.

Not long after this incident, and closer to home, there was a report of another snared giraffe. But this time, the animal was still alive, having managed to break free of the tree that the snare was attached to. The wire was tangled around the animal’s back legs and each step was pulling the noose around its neck tighter and tighter.

The Big Life ranger team had to find the giraffe quickly in order to save its life. This they were able to do, and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust-supported KWS vet unit was called in, successfully removing the snare and treating the giraffe’s wounds.

Each animal has a different price on its head. It’s a straightforward equation in the case of those hunted for the bushmeat trade: price per kilogram multiplied by number of kilograms. This calculation puts the giraffe at the top of the list, square in a poacher’s sights. A full-grown giraffe might weigh in excess of 1,000 kg and provide one of the highest returns that a poacher could hope for.

Poaching is one of the reasons that the number of giraffes in Africa has dropped dramatically, by an estimated 40% in the last 30 years. Yet despite this threat, the work that Big Life and our partners are doing to protect this species in the Amboseli-Kilimanjaro ecosystem is proving successful. In 2013, an aerial survey of the ecosystem counted 4,283 giraffes. Just 5 years later, that number has risen by 24% to 5,312 giraffes in the ecosystem.

Today being World Giraffe Day, we believe that those numbers are reason to celebrate.

Being big is good for attracting mates. It can also get you killed.

Tim and Tolstoy had no say in the matter. They both inherited a genetic trait that has helped them to the top of the male elephant hierarchy in Amboseli. It has also put their lives in continual danger.

Thanks to Amboseli Trust for Elephants, we can track their genealogy back to a female elephant called Teresia, Tolstoy’s mother, and Tim’s grandmother. Females will have an average of seven offspring over a 35-40 year period, leading to complicated family trees. So although Tolstoy is technically Tim’s uncle, Tim is actually two years older and turns 50 this year. Growing up together, the two formed an early bond that is still strong as ever, and they are rarely separated.

Sadly, Tim and Tolstoy are some of the last of their kind. Their huge tusks, once common across Africa, are now so rare that they are living treasures. In Kenya, thankfully, trophy hunters can’t kill them, but poachers targeting those same trophies disregard the law. Elsewhere in Africa, poaching and trophy hunting have both selectively eliminated older and larger-tusked elephants like these from the gene pool over time.

This is a problem for the conservation of the species. The older bulls have rich life experience and, being very socially connected, are an important source of information for other elephants. They mentor the younger bulls and control any wayward or anti-social behaviors. And critically, big old bulls pass on the genes that will code for large tusks in future generations. As Tim and Tolstoy are now in their reproductive prime, they are arguably more important now than ever.

They need protection, so we provide it. Big Life’s rangers patrol daily to protect them from poachers. But these large animals also need space to live. With support from the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, Big Life partners with local communities to lease some of the areas that are particularly important to Tim, Tolstoy, and the broader Amboseli elephant population, including the Kimana Conservancies and Kimana Sanctuary.

Tim and Tolstoy are notorious crop-raiders, so we are also continuing to construct crop-protection fences to keep elephants out of agricultural areas where they are at risk of being speared by angry farmers. Tim and Tolstoy have already been speared at least four times between them and are running out of luck. We must finish the fences before a blade finds its deadly mark.

Of all the things that might kill these special elephants, the only one we’ll accept is old age. And with your help, we plan to continue doing everything within our power to ensure that this will be the case.

We’ve all had enough. Enough of the daily stories of environmental destruction at the hands of faceless corporate companies, driven by greed and facilitated by corruption.

So today for World Gin Day, here is a positive story about a company that is trying to change the status quo. A story of a young gin company, and its founders, who set out with the very specific goal of combining their passions for creating high-quality gin and protecting elephants.

Elephant Gin was established in 2014, and from the outset committed to donating 15% of profits to elephant conservation in Africa. In this short time, they have achieved something truly remarkable, and have donated more than €550,000 to three conservation NGOs, of which Big Life is very proud to be one.

Their contribution to Big Life now supports the salaries, rations and basic equipment for at least 45 community rangers on an ongoing basis, all of whom are working daily to protect elephants in the Amboseli ecosystem.

While the actual conservation work often takes place on the ‘frontlines’, supporting this work is just as important as actually doing it. Thank you, Elephant Gin, for your huge contribution towards a better world. We hope other businesses follow your lead!

For anyone who would like to purchase Elephant Gin, it is available in Europe, the US, Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, and will be available in Kenya from mid-June. Please check their website for more.

A spear in a lion is never good news. The initial reports were that the blade had lodged in her skull, but the lioness had disappeared.

The day had started normally enough, with the Maasai warrior herding his cows out into the bush in search of pasture. What he didn’t know was that he was on a collision course with an age-old adversary.

The lioness attacked unexpectedly in broad daylight. Desperate to save the life of one of his valuable cows, the herder reacted in the only way he knew how. He aimed his spear at the lioness, and threw. It hit her in the face and she ran.

In the past, all nearby warriors would have assembled and gone after the lions to make sure that the threat had been eliminated. But instead, in a remarkable demonstration of the success of local lion conservation efforts, the livestock owner called for help: not from the warriors, but from a group of conservation partners.

Big Life rangers, Lion Guardians, and Olgulului rangers all reacted swiftly and set off in search of the injured lioness. Eventually, the tracks led them to the lioness, and with relief, the tracking team could see that the impact had not been fatal. Her nose was cut and bleeding from where the spear had hit her, but this was one lucky lion.

The Lion Guardians identified her as Nawashie, a five and a half-year old lioness from a small pride of five lions. Their team tracked her the following day, confirming that she would recover from the wound on her own.

This situation demonstrates the complexity of trying to achieve some sort of harmony between man and animal. This herder was simply defending his livestock, and no-one can fault his reaction. Had the cow been killed by the lioness, Big Life would have compensated the owner a portion of its value, provided that no lions were killed in follow-up hunting attempts.

Despite the number of livestock killed by predators on a daily basis across the ecosystem, this compensation program in concert with the efforts of our lion-conservation partners has helped create an environment where spears are thrown at lions almost exclusively in self-defense. At a time when the world needs some good news about lion conservation, this is certainly a glimmer of hope.

Image credit: Philip Briggs (Lion Guardians)

Ironically, sometimes the most beautiful, pristine, and remote natural places on our planet often harbor the very worst human beings. Dark, tangled forests provide cover and safe haven for bandits, poachers, and thieves. So it was with the Chyulu Hills.

This spectacular and biologically diverse volcanic mountain range can be found in the east of Big Life’s operating area, and amongst other things is home to a small remnant population of highly endangered Eastern black rhino that was tucked away for years, thought to be extinct. Such is the cover provided by the thick lava forests that blanket the foothills, and towering cloud forests that crown the range.

The Chyulu Hills used to be a dangerous place. A nest of charcoal burning and illegal logging operations, and a refuge from which cattle rustlers and common thieves launched their raids. Snares lined many kilometers traversing the slopes, and only the very luckiest animals made it through alive.

Slowly, and over the course of many years, we have worked with the Kenya Wildlife Service to turn the tide. One by one, our rangers pulled out snares, destroyed charcoal kilns, and arrested illegal loggers. Today, it is once again a safe haven for wild animal species, and providing clean air and water for the ecosystem.

As a testament to its importance, the Chyulu Hills is now the site of a REDD+ carbon credit project, being implemented through a partnership between local communities, government, and NGOs, one that is further enhancing the benefits of environmental conservation. So far, sales of these carbon credits through our partners at Conservation International have contributed $15,000 towards protection of the area.

Today is World Environment Day, and a time to both take heart from the environmental conservation success stories such as that of the Chyulus Hills, but also to acknowledge the grave ongoing threats to our planet. The theme for this year’s World Environment Day focus is air pollution, a hazard to both human health and our natural environments. There’s much work to do be done, but the Chyulu Hills is today a vital carbon sink and water resource for Kenya that simultaneously cleans the air.

There are steps that we can all take to #beatairpollution - please take a look at the World Environment Day website to better understand these. As for Big Life, we will continue to work daily, with all of our partners, to protect the natural habitats of the Amboseli ecosystem.

The science on species diversity has been clear, and dire, for a long time. The scientific community generally has long been in agreement that the rapid rate of species loss means dramatic consequences for not only the health of the natural world, but also for humans as part of this planet. So the only surprise in the recent United Nations (UN) report is how strongly worded the 1,500-page report is, boldly titled: Nature’s Dangerous Decline ‘Unprecedented,’ Species Extinction Rates ‘Accelerating.’

The report is the most comprehensive assessment of its kind and ranks the elements having the largest global impact by magnitude of devastation as follows:

1. Changes in land and sea use;
2. Direct exploitation of organisms;
3. Climate change;
4. Pollution; and
5. Invasive species.

The report includes an ominous warning: around 1 million plant and animal species are currently threatened with extinction, many within decades. This is more than ever before in human history. Given the current number of known living species is about 8.7 million, that’s a scary percentage.

The good news is that this and other issues facing the world today are challenges that are actively being addressed by Big Life in one special corner of the world in East Africa. A summary of the UN report includes possible action plans to curb the devastation and swing the tide back towards conservation, many of which we’re already implementing. Big Life’s mission and vision align with the UN report’s conclusions on what is necessary for a sustainable future for all life: a world in which conservation supports the people, and people support conservation.

So, with the challenges clearly defined, what we all must do now is contribute in ways that accelerate the solutions. We know that it feels daunting, especially given the news out of Botswana this week about overturning the ban on elephant hunting. But we can’t lose hope.

To all of you who support organizations fighting against extinction, including Big Life, we thank you.

His name is Jenga. He’s a 31-year old male. We don’t know why he did it; perhaps he set off on a whim, chasing a scent on the breeze. Or maybe some long-forgotten memory of a previous journey surfaced, triggering his decision. All we know is that he started walking.

His walk has given us an extraordinary look into the life of a bull elephant, and the relevance of our work to such an animal. For a while now, we’ve discussed the importance of the Kimana Sanctuary and the Kimana Conservancies as critical pieces of a movement corridor that allows animals to thread their way through agriculture and other human development on the journey between the Amboseli and Tsavo ecosystems.

But demonstrating this journey is not easy. We regularly see animals on the move, but have little idea where they’ve come from or where they are going. The long journeys in particular are uncommon, and usually made by young males in search of better food or breeding opportunities.

Now thanks to Jenga, and his tracking collar that was fitted by Save the Elephants, we can finally show you what a journey through this corridor looks like. Over the month of April, Jenga travelled first from Tsavo West towards Amboseli (this movement not shown on the map above), not quite reaching Amboseli National Park but spending several weeks in the Kimana and Elerai community conservancies.

For whatever reason, he decided to turn around and head home. Without ever having seen it or done it before, he used the Kimana Crossing, where animals are funneled through a 250 ft wide gap and over a tar road. He then passed through the Kimana Sanctuary on his way back to Tsavo West, perfectly demonstrating how the corridor can and should work. In total, Jenga travelled more than 100 km over the two weeks.

Such movements, and the strategic pieces of habitat that allow for them, are more important than they sound. They keep wildlife populations connected, maintaining genetic diversity and the adaptive potential that comes with it. And as our climate continues to change, this freedom of movement will become more and more important.

A huge thanks to Save the Elephants, who are doing the science that is helping to demonstrate the importance of these wildlife corridors, to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, who are our partners in protecting the Kimana Corridor and Sanctuary, and to Vulcan Inc. for developing the technology that allows us to track these movements in near real-time on our mobile devices. But an equally big thank you to all of our supporters for helping us to protect these elephants and the wilderness areas they need to flourish.

IMAGE COURTESY OF TSAVO TRUST

2018 feels like the year when we finally started to see the fruits of labors that were started nearly ten years ago, or longer.

Big Life’s broad range of programs have coalesced into three distinct categories: wildlife, habitat, and community. The core components of each are outlined in this report, and I’m proud of the work our team has put into these programs. It is always an interesting exercise to review the numbers and put the blood, sweat, and tears of our field staff into perspective.

On the wildlife side, there are many highlights, starting with the discovery that one of our Eastern black rhinos had given birth to a healthy calf, bringing the number for this unique, wild population up to eight. I’ve lived in the Chyulus for nearly 30 years now, and to see a mother rhino feel safe enough to bring her calf down out of the dense lava and into the open is truly cause for celebration.

Lion numbers are also up, and these days, it feels like we’re practically tripping over cubs. For the second year running, no lions were killed this year in violation of our Predator Compensation Fund, proof that humans and apex predators can coexist.

Our work to mitigate human-wildlife conflict is also working, and although it’s an uphill battle, it is one we will continue to fight. In the areas where we’ve built electric fencing, a project started over two years ago now, we’ve seen about a 90% reduction in crop-raiding by elephants. And the local farmers agree that the fence is working, which is just as important as the fence itself.

Of course, without habitat, there would be no place for these animals to go. We’ve secured the Kimana Corridor, which helps to funnel animals between the marshy swamps of Amboseli National Park, and into Kimana Sanctuary and beyond. Animals of all kinds are using the corridor daily and seem to have adapted to the narrowest pinch-point, just 250 feet wide. Kimana Sanctuary itself continues to be a diamond in the rough that we’re slowly polishing. Thanks to our partners, including Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, we’re already seeing some tourism revenue in this special place that is a refuge for some of the ecosystem’s biggest tuskers, like Tim.

The third leg of this stool is as important as the other two, and that’s the people who live here, our community. We continue to invest in the community generally through land leases and conservation programs, as well as by employing rangers and administrative staff from the local community. We’re also continuing to provide education and healthcare benefits to those with whom we share this special place, and will expand these services as we can in the coming years.

We’ve got big goals for 2019—including continuing to expand north into Eselengei Group Ranch, improving wildlife security across the border in northern Tanzania, securing more habitat for wildlife, continuing to grow our intelligence network—and we couldn’t do any of it without your support.

Thank you, as always.

Richard Bonham
Co-founder & Director of Operations

Read the full 2018 Annual Report

[Photo credit: Clifford Pickett]

The animal never really has a chance. The poacher in front of it delivers blinding torchlight and a loud continuous blast from a horn, concealing the approach of a second poacher from behind, who cuts the animal’s hind legs to prevent escape. It is a brutal way of killing wildlife, and the use of the ‘kadoo light’ is extremely detrimental in impairing wildlife’s ability to see the coming catastrophe.

But while killing the animal may be one thing, getting away with it is another. In this case, the poachers were able to kill the eland but hadn’t taken one very important element into account: things have changed in the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area of Tanzania.

At the start of 2018, and following a year’s interval, Big Life Foundation renewed its' partnership with the community of Enduimet thanks to major financial support from the European Union, and on-the-ground partnership with The Nature Conservancy, Oikos, Honeyguide, Tanzania People and Wildlife, and other local stakeholders in Tanzania.

Despite the international border that separates Enduimet from Kenya on paper, the 350,000-acre area is an integral part of the cross-border Greater Amboseli ecosystem, with animals moving freely in both directions depending on their environmental needs.

Poachers had been attempting to take advantage of cracks in anti-poaching effectiveness, but Big Life  has  worked with Enduimet to address these cracks over the last year. Intelligence networks have been rebuilt, and two Rapid Response Units (RRUs) are now operational, thanks to funding from the European Union.

Both of these came into play in the most recent poaching arrest. Following information received about two men seen with poaching tools, one Enduimet RRU responded and laid an ambush on the poachers’ predicted exit route. Their planning was spot-on, and the rangers managed to arrest one poacher with a sack of eland meat, a kadoo light, and machetes.

This incident follows another one just a week before, when a giraffe poacher was caught in a similar fashion.

We hope that these successes, and others like them, will shape would-be poacher’s cost-benefit equations in the future and thus deter them from doing something they will later regret, which may result in paying hefty fines and/or ending up in jail.

Our boots are always on the ground, and our eyes always on the horizon, but today we’re specifically looking for rain. As I write this, the land is parched. Dust fills the air and coats every surface.

What a difference a year makes. By this time last year, we’d already seen more than 300 mm of water (more than a foot), flooding the ecosystem, which came with a different set of challenges the dryness is now causing. Water tanks have been damaged. We’ve had to repair three boreholes damaged by elephants looking for water. To mitigate conflict between wildlife and the community, we’ve provided 1,201 litres of fuel for pumping water.  At the end of the day, there needs to be some water left in the tanks for whoever, or whatever, needs a drink.

Normally we see an increase in crop-raiding and bushmeat poaching in the dry season but so far, the programs we’ve put in place are doing what they’re supposed to do: reduce incidents. Crop-raiding is on track with what we saw last year despite the lack of rain. Our fence project is extending and continuing to yield positive results.

Our intelligence work and network is also continuing to yield remarkable results. So far this year, 238 kg of ivory has been taken out of the illegal market thanks to close collaboration between Big Life’s network and the Kenya Wildlife Service. We’re continuing to grow this side of Big Life’s operations, which we’ll update you on more soon.

In the meantime, we pray for rain. It’s hard to reflect on the extreme fluctuations in weather and not see how human development has lead to the inconsistent weather patterns now complicating all of our lives, human and animal alike, around the world.

As always, thank you for your support.

Richard Bonham
Director of Operations, Big Life Kenya

SEE THE FULL 1ST QUARTERLY REPORT

Elephants have faces, and these days, even dead elephants in the Amboseli ecosystem do. This might sound like a strange statement, but when Big Life was established in 2010, most elephants were dying at the hands of poachers. Since 1/3 of the ivory is embedded in their skulls, the elephant’s faces were mutilated to get at the tusks. When we found them, it was a horrific and gory scene.

Fast forward to 2019. Poaching has been largely brought under control in Big Life Foundation’s Area of Operation due to the hard work of our community rangers.

But some elephants still perish. Why? The elephant pictured here isn’t dead because of its ivory, but because it unknowingly crossed the line into a human space. Big Life rangers found the elephant after following lion tracks; the young adult male had been dead only hours, killed the night before. The injury was seemingly too small to have felled an animal of this size: a neat cut only inches long where a spear had entered and caused deadly internal damage.

Given the location of the elephant’s body, we are almost certain that his death was caused by a spear thrown by a farmer. Another case of an understandably angry human trying to defend their property and source of income against raiding elephants.

We’ve talked for a while about evolving challenges in Amboseli and how our greatest task now is to facilitate co-existence between man and animal, and ensure that there is space for all. An important step towards this is keeping elephants out of farms, and the electric crop-protection fences that Big Life is constructing are doing a remarkably good job of that. With 75km (47 miles) constructed we’ve made great progress, and each day the fence line extends further.

Furthermore, we are seeing an impact, despite the tragic loss of this elephant. From a high of 12 conflict-related elephant deaths in 2016, before we started constructing the fence, last year we recorded only 2. There are a lot of factors at play here and no silver bullet, but we know that our work is saving human and elephant lives.

Thanks to all those who support us -- you are the reason that sad stories like this are increasingly rare. For those interested in making a real difference to conservation in Africa, please consider a donation on our website.

Once upon a time, a ranger’s job was simple: catch the poachers. That was the case when most of Big Life’s rangers started out, and for some that was more than two decades ago. And although the goal of protecting wildlife hasn’t changed, the times certainly have.

Modern rangers need to be as comfortable reading a GPS as they are at reading tracks in the sand. They need to work with people as much as animals, mitigating human-wildlife conflicts, and working with community intelligence networks to solve crimes.

So while some of the veteran rangers have seen it all, there is always more to learn. That’s why Big Life worked with the association that represents community rangers in Amboseli (and thanks to generous support from Thin Green Line, generous private donors, and IFAW) to create the Amboseli Conservation Academy, a local training facility that provides refresher training to community rangers, intended to build on the solid and reliable foundation provided by the Kenya Wildlife Service Manyani training camp.

It’s been almost a year since construction of the Academy was completed, and since then 225 rangers have completed basic refresher training courses, including two courses for non-commissioned officers. One final 3-week course remains, following which all Big Life rangers will have undergone the first basic refresher. A series of more intensive 6-week training courses will begin thereafter.

Almost without exception, every ranger has enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to learn more, even if that meant going ‘back to school’ with the rigorous demands of boot camp. The result has been a fine-tuning of the bush experience that so many of these rangers have, and a ranger force that is ready for whatever the job can throw at them.

When Janet Rumfelt began researching the state of Africa’s wildlife, she was shocked at what she found. Extinction is not a concept of the past. Extinction of elephants could happen within our lifetime.

Elephants are not alone, with rhinos, lions, cheetahs – and all wildlife – facing a threatened future due to decades of poaching, habitat loss, and human-wildlife conflict.

Fortunately, she also learned that there are impactful conservation organizations that are working hard across Africa to mitigate these threats and save the world’s most iconic wildlife species.

From her initial research in 2015, the Running Wild race was born.

Running Wild is an annual race (US USATF-Certified 5K and 1-Mile Fun Run) dedicated to raising awareness about African wildlife endangerment and to raise donations on behalf of African wildlife conservation and anti-poaching efforts.

Big Life Foundation is honored to be part of this event, as well as a 2019 race beneficiary. This year, the race will be held on June 22^nd in Denver, Colorado. For more information and to register, please visit: https://runningwildrace.org

We hope you’ll join on June 22^nd as we race against extinction!

Photo: Axel Fassio

It’s the first rule of the bush: don’t mess with an angry elephant mother.

The herders who found her were wise to keep their distance, but got just close enough to see what was causing her distress. It was her calf, stuck in the mud on the edge of a seasonal lake, and she was unable to pull the baby elephant out.

This happens from time to time, when a youngster pushes the boundaries too far, not having the experience to know how dangerous a situation can be. The herders called Big Life, and we immediately sent our Super Cub aircraft to get a better sense of the scene.

A rescue was possible, but the mother would be problematic. She would have no idea that we were trying to help, and would not tolerate anyone approaching her calf. As we so often do, we called on the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust helicopter, hoping that it could be used to chase her off for long enough to rescue her calf from the mud.

While the rangers waited for the chopper, some decided to take a chance, slowly approaching the mother to see how she would react. They got closer, pushing her gently away. Eventually, she was far away enough to give them a gap. The rangers waded into the mud, and working with local community members, managed to wrestle the calf back onto solid footing.

It was a tiny thing, maybe six-months-old, which they guided back toward the mother. As they got closer the mother seemed to realize what was happening and came forward, and the calf ran the small distance remaining between them, reunited at last.

Together, they moved back into the bush, the rangers and community members went about their business, and a potentially deadly crisis was averted. The next day, rangers tracked the mother and calf and found them reunited with their small family group, relaxed and browsing contentedly.

This is an example of why Big Life’s conservation model works so well. We are an integral part of the local community, and the herders wasted no time in calling. We have the resources to react immediately. And the result is what we all love: a happy ending.

We were heading into the unknown. We’d known the critical moment was inevitable since Big Life had started construction of electric crop-protection fences in the Amboseli ecosystem more than two years ago, to reduce the sometimes deadly conflict between farmers and elephants.

Animals that migrate out of Amboseli National Park frequently head east and into a series of conservancies that form a migratory passage known as the Kimana Corridor. They traverse this protected space to reach the Kimana Sanctuary some 15 km away, from where they are able to move onward to Chyulu and Tsavo National Parks.

At its narrowest point the corridor is only 250 feet wide, with human development on both sides and a tarmac road to cross before reaching safety in the Kimana Sanctuary. This pinch point is known as “Kimana Crossing,” and has been causing us a bit of heartburn, but a carefully engineered plan was developed to mitigate the impact on wildlife.

To start, we filed our plan and received approval from the Road Authority. From there, we constructed a series of speed bumps to slow the traffic approaching the crossing. As the fence crosses the road, the wire is elevated to permit cars and box trucks to pass underneath. To prevent animals from simply walking out the way the cars are driving, long dangling electrified wires are suspended that stop animals but not cars. When all was finally in place, the power was turned on, and the Kimana Crossing was live.

From there it was a tense wait. We had no idea how the elephants would react: would they use it? Was it going to be chaos funneling them through a narrow and potentially stressful gap?

We should never have underestimated these intelligent creatures. Within a day of the crossing’s completion in late 2018, the elephants had already worked out what they were supposed to do, and the first herd used it in broad daylight with young calves in tow. Since that moment, there has been steady use of the crossing by a variety of species on a daily basis, and our camera traps have even captured rarer species, such as lion and aardvark, using it to cross back and forth between the Kimana Sanctuary and the Kimana conservancy areas.

Amboseli is changing rapidly, and we are trying to look ahead and imagine what it may look like decades from now. One thing is almost certain, and that is the days of unrestricted movement will be over. Animals will need to weave their way through the human-developed areas across the landscape, threading their way from one block of natural habitat to the next. We will be working to ensure that they can make these journeys safely.

Thank you as always for your support of these efforts.

I won’t forget the last quarter of 2018 anytime soon. It took us all on an emotional rollercoaster ride.

More than two years ago, Big Life started work on a series of electric crop-protection fences in the ecosystem. The goal was to reduce local farmers’ losses to raiding elephants, which has always been a key source of conflict between the two species. With Phase 2 approaching completion, and over 75 km of fence line now constructed, we were faced with uncharted territory: the closing of the fence on either side of the Kimana Crossing.

It is at this point where elephants and other animals coming from Amboseli National Park have only a 250-foot gap to pass safely between the farmland areas on their way to the Kimana Sanctuary and the open spaces beyond. Furthermore, this same point crosses a heavily-trafficked paved road. To mitigate the impact, we constructed a series of speed bumps to slow traffic, but the whole experience is still very uncomfortable for any wild animal. I had no idea how the elephants would react: was it going to be chaos channeling them through a narrow and stressful gap?

Turns out, I needn’t have worried. It took no time at all for these intelligent animals to adapt. A day after the crossing was completed, the first herd of elephants crossed in broad daylight. Since then, there has been steady use of the crossing by a variety of species, and our camera traps have even captured lion and aardvark using it.

On the subject of crop-protection fencing, I am deeply satisfied to see how well it’s working. Two years ago, in the fourth quarter of 2016, Big Life rangers recorded a total of 112 acres of crops destroyed in 199 crop raids by elephants. Over the same period in 2018, rangers recorded only 30 acres destroyed in 49 incidents of elephant crop raiding. This is a 75% reduction in crop raids recorded by Big Life in the ecosystem, and the continuing problems are almost exclusively in the unfenced areas. More importantly, the community agrees with the success of the fence project. In a recent survey of 388 farmers, 97% of respondents said that the fence has been effective at eliminating human-elephant conflict.

There were scary moments this past quarter as well. Tim, probably Amboseli’s biggest bull elephant and one that Big Life rangers spend a lot of time protecting, got stuck neck-deep in a muddy swamp. The chances of saving him were slim, and we were all prepared for the worst. But as has so often been the case, we were able to call on friends and partners, in this case Kenya Wildlife Service and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, and work together in an almost unbelievable effort to get him out. Somehow, Tim survived to live another day and has recovered from his ordeal, recently seen in musth for the first time in a couple of years, which is fantastic as it means that he is strong and in good health.

There was news, too, for our predator protection efforts. We took an important step with the official signing of an agreement for Big Life to expand our Predator Compensation Fund on Eselengei Group Ranch, which forms the northern boundary of the Greater Amboseli safe zone for wildlife. We were reminded of this in December, after three lions were killed when they ventured north beyond Eselengei and preyed on community livestock. The lines have been drawn, and we will continue to do everything we can to support conservation in the spaces where wild animals still have a home.

The fourth quarter ended with a bang. An exciting component of Big Life’s predator protection program, the Maasai Olympics reached its much-anticipated biennial peak on December 15. Two of the teams were tied going into the final event of the competition, an indication that this has become a sporting event in the truest and most exciting sense and was a real nail-biter for all attending.

At the end of another year, as always, I extend a huge and heartfelt thanks to everyone who makes our work possible.

Richard Bonham
Director of Operations, Kenya

READ THE FULL 4TH QUARTERLY REPORT

It is a story that has three characters:

Elephants, including some who carry the largest tusks on the planet, navigating their way across ever-changing lands in search of food, water, and space.

A local community, who are stewards of these lands, farming to provide a future for their families.

Rangers, who work day and night to mitigate the conflict between the two, striving to maintain some sort of peace.  

Until recently the plot was predictable. Each evening the farmers would prepare for darkness, staying out in their fields and building fires as a defense against what they knew was coming. The rangers would charge their torch batteries, and try to guess where the chaos might erupt. And the elephants would march toward the farmlands, where they knew they were guaranteed a nutritious feast.

There were never any winners in the morning. Farmers would have lost crops, sometimes their entire season’s produce in one night. Elephants might have left the farmlands with spear wounds, and the exhausted rangers would retire to their camps to get some rest before everything started again the following evening.

But, with your help, we’ve broken the cycle. Since 2016, Big Life Foundation has been working with local communities and partners on an ambitious solution – to construct an electric fence that would establish a hard boundary between farmers’ crops and hungry elephants. Approximately 120 km of fencing was required and the scale was daunting, but we’re now well over the half-way mark. Construction teams recently completed 23 km of additional fencing, extending the first 53 km of fence that was completed in Phase One.

The impact has been nothing short of extraordinary. There has been a more than 90% decrease in the number of elephant crop-raids in areas protected by the fence. Of equal importance, there are signs that the local community is starting to change their attitudes towards elephants. Only 22% of farmers said that they thought positively of elephants prior to the construction of the fence, a figure that has now risen to 77%.

A local farmer adjacent to the fence, said it best: “I can’t remember the last time I harvested this much. The fence is a great boon to farmers. In the past, farmers invested piles of cash on various mitigating methods. Their efforts hardly bore fruits. In hindsight, this [the fence] is the silver bullet we have been looking for.”

There are still many challenges ahead in the tale of the Amboseli elephants, but for now the fence has proven to be a life-saving twist in the ongoing saga of the relationship between humans and elephants.

Mary (name changed for privacy) is like many other 18-year old women in the world. She wants to finish high school and dreams of completing a University degree. It’s a sad reality that growing up in a place where only about 10% of girls make it to secondary school, she’s done well to get this far. She has watched countless friends drop out along the way, get married or become accidentally pregnant in their teenage years.

And that’s why she walked 7 km to a mobile clinic one morning, because she wants to have control over her future. She has chosen to adopt a method of family planning and do her best to complete her education. Others make similar decisions, but have to do it secretly. Myths and stigma abound, spreading fear incorrectly that “family planning permanently reduces fertility” or “family planning causes cancer.”

We’re happy that Mary is making her own decisions, and we’re happy to help her. Because conservation is about people, and we believe that where people live alongside wildlife, conservation and wildlife should support people.

So, in 2018 Big Life partnered (with huge thanks) with the Kajiado South Department of Health and CHASE Africa, to facilitate a series of seven mobile health clinics. These were conducted across a 335,000 acre-area that is home to approximately 21,500 residents, but has only four small dispensaries. People ordinarily have to walk large distances to get medical attention, often through thick bush with potentially dangerous wild animals.

Access to family planning is only one of the healthcare services offered, which includes access to professionals providing basic healthcare consultations and prescription medications, child immunizations, de-worming medication, and HIV screening and counseling. Throughout 2018, 1,535 people took advantage of the access to one or more of these critical services.

In 2019, we would like to start scaling up these clinics, both in number and geographic reach, with the ultimate goal of running them in all of the remote areas where Big Life Foundation operates. We believe that community development can and absolutely should go hand-in-hand with conservation efforts, because in the Amboseli ecosystem each is dependent on the other.

When Barry Horn and Jan Devine first visited Big Life Foundation’s area of operation in 2018, they felt a call to action.

Having traveled extensively across Kenya, Barry and Jan have had the opportunity to experience the magic of Africa’s wildlife as well as the complexities of its conservation challenges. They were inspired to make an impact through their company, Quagga Accessories LLC – aptly named after a plains zebra that lived until the 19^th century before excessive hunting resulted in its extinction.

Determined to helping ensure Kenya’s wildlife – elephants, lions, rhinos, and more – avoid the fate of the Quagga, a partnership between Quagga’s Green Label and Big Life Foundation was born.

Quagga Green is a line of women’s accessories (hats, scarfs, bags, and more), made from sustainable materials, such as recycled polyester, lenzing modal, and organic cotton. Quagga Green accessories can be found at Whole Foods Markets across the United States, with 1% of every purchase in 2019 donated to Big Life Foundation.

Big Life Foundation is proud to be partnering with a company that is not only helping to protect wildlife and wild lands, but is committed to empowering shoppers to do the same.

Birthdays mean nothing to elephants, but they mean a huge amount to those of us who are dedicated to protecting the species. Each year of life is another year of success, and this year marks a big milestone for one big elephant.

Tim, one of Amboseli’s largest and best-known elephants, is turning 50.

It’s remarkable that Tim has gotten to this age, given that each day he faces just about every threat possible to his species. Sadly, this has been the case from early on. Within his first few years of life he lost three of his relatives to suspected poaching incidents, followed by his mother Trista, who was speared to death by poachers when he was only 8. He would continue to lose more family members as time passed, including his sister Tallulah, speared in 2003.

Tim has since come to represent all of the different values, positive and negative, that humans place on an elephant’s life. To poachers he is a target, to farmers he is a costly nuisance, to tourists he is a marvel, and to conservationists he is a symbol of hope that our efforts are working.

And he has certainly had some of his own bumps on the way to 50. In the last five years, he has been speared twice by angry farmers during his night-time raids into farmlands. Most recently, in November of last year, Big Life worked with Kenya Wildlife Service and Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in a monumental life-saving effort to rescue Tim after he got stuck in a mud-pit deep in farmlands.

We have no doubt that Tim will continue to keep us busy in future, but for now we are very happy to hear that he has come into musth, a hormonal state that requires a healthy body condition and is usually associated with mating. Given that he hasn’t come into musth for the past two years, this is a good sign that he has recovered from all of his recent ordeals.

It also means that he will be spending his time looking for females rather than keeping Big Life’s rangers busy in the farms at night, and with any luck will be passing on those incredible genes to the tuskers of the future!

We thank all of the partners with whom we work with to protect Tim, and especially the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, who have been documenting his life since he was 2 years old.

Thanks also to all of our supporters who make our work possible. In honor of Tim’s 50^th year of life, we ask that you consider making a donation to Big Life Foundation. Your support enables us to protect Tim when he leaves Amboseli National Park and moves onto community-owned land. What better gift than one that helps to ensure we can celebrate Tim’s birthday for years to come?

If you would like to support us, please click here. 

Photo: Ryan Wilkie

There’s a reason Toto sang about it, there is something special about rain in Africa. In Amboseli in particular, classed as arid to semi-arid ecosystem, rain determines everything.

And, as we start to reflect on 2018 and tally metrics, rain stands out. On average, the ecosystem receives annual rainfall of 350-400 mm in two seasons, with areas such as the Chyulu Hills receiving upwards of 700 mm. However, in 2018, we recorded an average of 531 mm across six reporting stations, and well over 2,000 mm of rainfall in the Chyulu Hills!

Persistent overgrazing by livestock across the ecosystem has left large areas of bare ground, and excessive water runoff from these areas caused flooding on occasion, with loss of human and animal life, as well as damage to property. But the rain has also given the land a chance to breathe again, to rally against the pressure that humans put on it. A grass seedbank, lying in wait for a good season such as this, has exploded into life and we’re seeing vegetation in areas that we thought we would take decades to recover.

This past week, we’ve had what feels like the last sputters of rain until March (if we are again lucky). We can only guess what the rains in 2019 will look like, but in a world where grass is the most important resource for the health of the human and wildlife populations, we are happy for now.

By Tom Hill
Co-Founder,  Big Life Foundation

In late October of 2008, eight Maasai elders walked down the driveway to my cottage in the Amboseli-Tsavo-Kilimanjaro ecosystem, unannounced, and made me a proposition.

They said they wanted to “give something back” to the conservation organization that Richard Bonham and I had begun more than ten years prior, the Maasailand Preservation Trust (MPT became Big Life Foundation in 2010). 

“Your Predator Compensation Fund has changed our attitudes toward living with lions,” one elder said, “And we want to do something in return that you could never do.  We want to take lion hunting and lion killing out of our warrior culture, once and for all and make it a taboo. We can do it because we are the menye layiok (cultural fathers and teachers of the next generation of warriors).  But we need your help.”

Another elder then asked, “Don’t boys around the world compete for girlfriends and recognition through sports?”

When I answered yes, the elder replied, “Then why couldn’t our boys do the same?”

And thus, the idea of the Maasai Olympics was born.

                                                            * * * * *

Ten years on, it is a joy to reflect on the results of the Maasai Olympics. The Finals were recently held on December 15^th and was our fourth biennial event. The Maasai Olympis really runs for an entire year leading up to the finals and is comprised of a series of track and field events, combined with a broad-based schedule of educational sessions held to promote the conservation of wildlife and habitat and to help preserve the Maasai way of life.

In the 2018 Maasai Olympics Finals, a strong crowd of local Maasai residents turned up to watch all four warrior teams compete for medals, cash prizes, a golden trophy, and a prize breeding bull.

The Mbirikani warrior team won for the third time in four tries over the Rombo, Kuku, and Eselengei warrior teams.  Throughout the six events – the rungu (a warrior club made of wood thrown for accuracy), the javelin (thrown for distance), the 200, 800, and 5,000-meter running events, and the high jump (Maasai warrior-style from a standing position) – the quality of competition was very high. Going into the final event, the high jump, any three of the four warrior teams could easily have won the overall championship and taken home the prize bull and the golden trophy. 

There were also two events for women, the 100-meter and the 1,500-meter race, and the winners received the same medals and cash prizes as the male warriors.

Mbirikani’s warrior team prevailed once again with 15 points to Rombo coming second with 11.  The competition came down to the very last jumps without knowing who would win.

What is so rewarding to see over the past 10 years is how this collaboration between Big Life Foundation and the regional Maasai community has become an accepted part of Maasai culture here, from within a people who have no previous cultural history with sports.

The Maasai women and girls, almost without exception, come to these events dressed magnificently in their traditional clothes and jewelry, as do many of the warriors, which includes ochre face paint, elaborate jewelry, and traditional hair designs.  It is a truly festive Maasai scene.  And when the warriors jump in the final event, the other warriors in attendance chant, like in all traditional Maasai ceremonies, creating a pulse that is definitive.

When the competitions were completed, Patron of the Maasai Olympics, David Rudisha, the two-time Olympic 800-meter gold medalist, world record holder, and easily the greatest Maasai athlete of all time, placed a medal around the neck of each winner on an Olympics-style winner’s stand as the crowd gathered around closely and applauded.  The local Member of Parliament and the Governor of Kajiado County gave out the team prizes and made speeches reinforcing the conservation message and thanking Big Life Foundation for our work here.

We were blessed this year with a great family of sponsors. The National Geographic Society was a major sponsor --for the third consecutive time, in addition to wonderful supporters Dereck and Beverly Joubert and Great Plains Conservation.  The UK’s Chester Zoo gave their Scholarship Award to the best overall conservation manyatta for the fourth consecutive time.  Two great supporters of Big Life, the Baty family of Seattle and the Tate family of Houston were major sponsors for the second consecutive time.  Two new sponsors with world-recognized histories of protecting lions in the wild joined our Big Life family this year:  Born Free Foundation and Disney Conservation Fund. In addition to Zoo Basel, Safari Professionals of the Americas, and Marleen Groen.

I don’t think things could have gone much better. To everyone who helped make it possible, thank you. We look forward already to the games in 2020.                        

Most of us learn hard lessons when we’re younger. One teenage boy recently learned a very important lesson in Kimana. 

It starts like any coming-of-age story: a young teen had been struggling in Nairobi, so his parents sent him to live with family in the country for a bit of perspective and fresh air. It wasn’t the easiest adjustment, and in his boredom, he noticed a small yellow airplane on an airstrip, left briefly unattended. Curiosity got the best of him. New to the area and not knowing better, he spotted a backpack in the rear seat and plucked it right out, amazed at his luck.

His luck very quickly soured, however. Because it turned out that the plane was Big Life Foundation’s Super Cub, and the bag belonged to Big Life’s Head of Security, who had stopped in for a meeting with Kimana Sanctuary’s community rangers on his way to the office.

When the meeting ended, Craig returned to the plane to find his backpack missing. Annoyed by the delay, but amused by the boldness of whoever had taken the pack, Millar didn’t stress. He simply called in Big Life’s tracker dog unit, who were already nearby for a training activity.

Didi, Bonnie, and Clyde immediately picked up the scent and were eager to get to work. They took turns tracking. First Clyde, then Bonnie, then Didi, then back to Clyde. The teenager had covered nearly 7 km by the time the tracker dogs caught up with him at his home, where he promptly and very sheepishly handed over the backpack.

The dogs got some good exercise and practice for more serious crimes, and the young teenager will think twice about petty theft in the future. 

Thank you for considering a donation in support of our tracker dog program.

Cost vs benefit. It’s an equation that doesn’t sleep, a fundamental driver of every human decision. Those interested in the conservation of the natural world ignore it at their peril. Because conservation is rarely about nature itself, it’s about human behavior.

With an unprecedented level of foreign investment and economic growth across Africa, cost-benefit equations are changing faster than ever before. At national and regional level, certainly, but of greater relevance to conservation outcomes are the daily decisions that each human being makes, almost always to maximise the economic benefit to them. And the impact of these decisions on the natural world is often immense.

We should not be surprised. Throughout history, humans across the planet have exterminated one species after the next, all in pursuit of economic gain. In some cases species were targeted because of the economic losses that they caused, as in the case of the large predators. Other species slipped quietly away as their habitat was turned over to the more economically productive land uses of agriculture and industry.

In a bizarre twist, eyewatering amounts of money are now being spent on recovering some of those species that were pushed to the brink of extinction. But in Africa these species (or their equivalents) still exist. National Parks are critical for their survival, but we are increasingly understanding the limitations of the current protected areas in Africa, both in terms of absolute acreage as well as the various habitats and ecological processes protected by them.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the Amboseli ecosystem of southern Kenya, where protected areas cover only a small proportion of the approximately 2-million acre landscape. At least 80% of large mammals leave Amboseli National Park and move onto surrounding community lands at some point in the year. It is these vast spaces between protected areas, and the human owners of that land, that are therefore most important for the ongoing survival of wild animal populations in the region. This is the space in which Big Life Foundation works, with communities and alongside numerous partners in the ecosystem, and supported by USAID.

It’s an ongoing experiment, and it’s not easy. Make no mistake, although lions and elephant look great on an Instagram feed, it’s not much fun living with them. Wild predators kill domestic livestock, often breaking into homesteads at night. Never mind the terror, this costs people money. Elephants eat and trample crops (and tragically, sometimes people too), and can easily destroy a farmer’s entire crop within a few hours, and with it the income necessary to feed their family.

The people suffering these economic losses are not a demographic that can necessarily afford to. This is real economics, real problems. How then can we expect a community to support conservation, when wild animals threaten their daily existence?

It’s an ongoing test. We have to work to reduce the costs, and maximise the benefits. To somehow incentivize decisions that benefit both people and wildlife. And there have been great successes in Amboseli. In these still traditional communities, networks of social reliance are strong, and one job might benefit tens of people. Tourism is an important income generator, and so is conservation. Big Life employs more than 300 people in the ecosystem, making it one of the largest single employers. Most of these staff are wildlife protection rangers, including a unit supported by USAID.

But jobs aren’t enough, conservation professionals need also to turn their attention to supporting industries that are compatible with wildlife conservation. An obvious synergy exists between livestock production and wildlife conservation, and Big Life is working with the African Conservation Centre and Amboseli Ecosystem Trust, supported by USAID and UNDP/GEF to create grazing plans on communally-owned rangelands, and stimulate the recovery of the grazing resources of the ecosystem. Alternative land-uses are knocking on the door, hard, and wildlife dollars will not win this battle alone.

Given that the benefits of conservation might not touch everybody, great attention also needs to be paid to reducing the costs of living with wildlife. When the costs run too high people take matters into their own hands, and cheaply available poisons mean that pests, large or small, can be easily dealt with. Big Life runs a livestock compensation program that reimburses some of the market value to those that lose livestock to wild predators, so long as no predator is killed in retaliation. This program has been phenomenally successful, and has been a key factor in the dramatic recovery and growth of the local lion population, at a time when the opposite trend is being observed across Africa.

Crop-raiding by elephants is an equally important problem, and community rangers spend their nights chasing elephants out of farms. But this is not sustainable, and Big Life is working to install electric fences along the hard edges between agriculture and wilderness, creating a long-term barrier between the competing land uses.

While so many people would agree on the intrinsic value of wild animals and wild spaces, there is no time for these philosophical debates. Because each day, in Africa and across the world, human beings are going about their daily lives, making decisions based on economic cost-benefit equations. If we want to see a world in which nature is valued, we need to create economic benefits associated with conservation. Or at the very least reduce the costs of living alongside wildlife. If we fail to do either, that nasty equation will have its way.

For millennia, humans have fought against nature, trying to beat it back in our attempts to create a comfort zone for humanity. Time and time again we have lost, as evidenced by the ruins of various civilizations across the world, reclaimed by forest, bush, and sand.

Modern agriculture is one frontline of this battle, and with the various chemicals and poisons available ‘we’ are actually starting to emerge on top. But no-one seems to understand that by defeating nature we are defeating ourselves. The pesky insects killed by insecticides are no longer there to pollinate the crops. The soils that we are ‘enhancing’ with synthetic fertilizers are no longer able to sustain the yields they once did.

It’s a common story from farmers across Amboseli: “This soil used to produce lots with little input, but now I get little unless I add a lot (of chemicals)!”

We say, enough. These chemicals are destroying the land, poisoning people, and poisoning animals.

Through the ‘One Heart Farm’ project at Enkijape Primary School, founded by Rhona Mitra and her supporters, Big Life is hoping to inspire children with the knowledge that there is an alternative. Over the course of three years, students have seen this patch of barren soil become a lush garden, and not one synthetic chemical has contributed to this success, the fruits of which are being used in the school kitchen when available.

A farm club exposes children to how natural systems work, and how humans can maintain a sustainable place within them. When you spot more birds and insects within a farm than out, that’s a sure sign that something is going right.

We intend to continue to grow this farm, and the project with it, to create a model that can both supply schools with healthy vegetables, as well as teaching children that you can work with nature, rather than against it.

As always happens this time of year, we are looking forward to rain. While the seemingly biblical rains of last spring held us over for longer than usual, the landscape here has long since turned to dust. And with it have come the usual complications.

During the third quarter of this year, there were 94 crop-raiding incidents, all involving elephants. Bushmeat poaching spikes as well during the dry season, but thanks to the hard work of our community rangers and field partners, we had fewer incidents this quarter than at this time last year. We also found, confiscated, and destroyed 42 snares this quarter, two of which were designed to target rhinos.

There is no keeping the Chyulu Hills rhino population, of which there are now eight, a secret. Thus, Big Life has 51 rangers stationed in seven outposts—an almost 1-to-1 ratio of outposts to rhinos—throughout the rhino territory, all dedicated to protecting this incredibly small but important population. The enforcement and security measures done in tandem with Kenya Wildlife Service are working, and the rhinos are increasingly more secure. For the first time in decades, two rhinos were photographed out in the open this quarter. That is a success worth celebrating!

The weather and the wildlife are not the only things about our landscape that have changed this past quarter. Our Area of Operation (AOO) did too. Management of our conservation initiatives on Olgulului Group Ranch were handed over to the local community at their request, which has freed up resources to expand to other areas needing our assistance. Conservation initiatives are expanding to the north of our core AOO in Eselengei, as well as to the south in Enduimet on the Tanzanian side of the border. We’ll be reporting on both communities as operations pick up moving forward.

As always, there’s a lot a stake here and much to be done. Thank you to our partners and supporters from around the world for making our work possible.

Richard Bonham
Director of Operations, Big Life Kenya

READ THE FULL 3RD QUARTERLY REPORT

We’re in the home stretch: the race for the gold is on! Only one last regional event stands in the way of the 2018 Maasai Olympics Finals.

Since August, the four main manyatta (warrior-village) teams have competed in five regional sporting events, accruing points and prestige along the way. The last regional event, to be hosted by Mbirikani Group Ranch later this month, is the final test of strength before the main event in December.

And because no sporting event is complete without spectators, we’re happy to report that over 2,000 warriors, men, women, and children have journeyed across the ecosystem to support the regional competitions, loudly cheering from the sidelines. Their participation is testimony to the shifting mindset of local communities: from lion killing, to lion conservation.

Simultaneously, there is another gold rush happening. This one is a bit furrier. The Chyulu Hills’ lion population is continuing to grow. One pride now totals 16 lions, with 10 cubs. This this the largest pride and highest number of cubs recorded in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem in years, potentially even decades.* Given that African lion populations have declined by about 50% in the last 20 years, this is absolutely joyous news.

As we enter the final stretch of this year’s Maasai Olympics season, our hope is that both local communities and local lion populations will continue to come out on top – now, and far into the future.

*This information is made possible by Big Life’s ecosystem partner, Lion Guardians, who undertakes lion monitoring work.

It was probably not an easy decision, but she was suffering from pains, and her child was sick. So, she made the 7 km journey to the rural village of Kalesirua.  Luckily, the journey was time well spent.

Big Life Foundation was conducting its second mobile health clinic of the year, and the woman was able to access medical treatment, family planning services, and take-away nutritional supplements for her children. She was one of the 271 people - men, women, and children - that received health services that day.

In the more remote parts of Big Life’s area of operation, there are Maasai communities that are very isolated from healthcare. Consequently, children often go unvaccinated, serious health issues are regularly ignored, and testing and counseling are a rarity.

Realizing healthy families result in healthy communities, Big Life has been stepping in to help fill this lifesaving gap. Thus far, in 2018, Big Life and the Kenya Ministry of Health have provided 527 people access to healthcare, de-wormed 1,107 children, and provided long-term family planning to 23 women.

While the clinics are mobile, for the hundreds of community members who are able to receive medical services, the impact is lasting.

Maasai warriors from across the Amboseli ecosystem are one step closer to their shot at greatness. Traditionally that would have meant killing a lion, but today it is achieved through participation in the Maasai Olympics.

The warriors who will represent their manyattas (warrior villages) in the final event on December 15, 2018 have been chosen, each for their prowess in one of six Maasai Olympics disciplines, all of which are based on traditional warrior skills.

Of the hundreds of warriors that battled for a place to compete on one of four teams, 120 now advancing to compete for medals, prizes, the winner’s trophy, and a prized breeding bull, all in the name of lion conservation.

The regional competitions will be held over the next month. During these one-on-one team duels, competitors and teams will size each other up to see what it’s going to take to come out on top in December.

In 2016, the underdogs (Rombo manyatta) knocked the two-time reigning champions (Mbirikani manyatta) from their pedestal, but only time will tell if they can come back and do it again. There is a hum in the air, and it’s only going to get louder as the regional competitions begin.

Thank you for supporting the Maasai Olympics – the hunt for medals, not lions – by making a donation.

Wildlife tracks are a bit like long pieces of spaghetti; it’s not often that you follow them to a neat and satisfactory ending. So, when a dawn ranger patrol found rhino imprints that seemed to belong to a mother and calf, they could not predict where they would lead, if anywhere.

Regardless, this was an exciting discovery. The Eastern black rhinoceros is the most critically endangered of the black rhino subspecies, and was thought to be extinct in the Chyulu Hills until they were rediscovered in the 1990s by one of Big Life’s first rangers. A small population had been there all along, hiding deep in the lava fields and thick vegetation far east of the Amboseli ecosystem.

That population now comprises eight individuals, including the new calf, each of which is extremely special as a member of an original wild population, not bred under human management. To see a rhino is an extreme privilege, and very rare.

The tracks got fresher as the rangers followed. They slowed, not wanting to startle the animals, or elicit a dangerous charge from the mother. Excitement eventually turned to elation when they spotted two dark shapes in the bush ahead.

Better still, the two rhinos were relaxed enough that local lodge guests had enough time to get out to see them, becoming the first tourists to photograph a rhino in decades here in the Chyulus. We hope that this is the first of many such sightings!

Protecting these rhinos is no small job. There are 51 Big Life rangers based in 7 rhino-specific outposts coordinating with 24 Kenya Wildlife Service rangers who are all committed to keeping the rhinos safe. We’re grateful to all of our partners who help and support us in this, including: Kenya Wildlife Service, Save the Rhino International, Chester Zoo, US Fish and Wildlife, Tusk, and Great Plains Conservation.

Photo Credit: Jackson Lemunge

Without human interference, when left to its own devices, nature can usually stand on its own. But occasionally, even nature needs a helping hand.

This was the case when, on a recent joint patrol by Big Life Foundation and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), a bull elephant was spotted desperately stuck in the mud of a drying water pan near the Chyulu Hills.

Many of us have been conditioned to believe that if we act heroically in situations such as this, good will always prevail. But what happens in the rare instance when, despite the best intentions and most valiant efforts of a deeply committed team, the “heroes” simply aren’t able to save the day?

Day One: Immediate Response

Big Life, KWS, David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT), and members of the local community responded immediately to help the stranded elephant. Attempting to pull him free from the mud using light vehicles and ropes, the team quickly found themselves potentially facing the same fate as the elephant, and had to retreat. As night fell and dozens of opportunistic hyenas appeared on the scene, Big Life and KWS rangers, supported by DSWT’s veterinarian unit, remained steadfast throughout the night, guarding the elephant from predators.

Day Two: Double The Effort

On the second morning, more trucks arrived with special, heavy duty straps. As rope after rope snapped under pressure, it became clear that this equipment was no match for the swampy, treacle-like earth. Desperate times called for desperate measures. Using the combined power of industrial tractors from a local Simba Cement factory, multiple trucks, and still stronger straps, the huge elephant was finally pulled from the mud onto firmer ground.

Exhausted and dehydrated, despite attempts to rehydrate, the elephant was still unable to stand. The leg that he had been lying on for days was devoid of strength.

As if on cue, reinforcements arrived, and an elephant herd joined the effort to help the fading bull. Sadly, their attempts failed, as they dug both the bull and themselves further into the muddy pit, risking their own safety in an attempt to pull him out of the quagmire. After a massive struggle, the elephants wound up back where they had started, on slightly firmer ground.

Day Three: Temporary Success

Following another long night with the team vigilantly standing guard over the elephant, daybreak arrived. After several more attempts to help him stand, the elephant was finally repositioned onto his stronger side, now completely out of the mud. He was given more water and medication by the DSWT veterinarian team. Yet still, he lay motionless, apart from the slow rise and fall of his breathing. At this point, all we could do was wait.

Late on the third day, rescue teams could see he wasn't going to stand on his own, so with ropes attached to his tusks, and tied to a vehicle, they pulled his heavy head up so that he could manoeuvre his feet underneath. And with that, the bull rose shakily to his feet and took his first tentative steps. The rangers followed him as he walked slowly into the soft evening light, feeding in the Chyulu Hills, which was likely his original destination.

Day Four: Nature Takes Its Course  

The rangers continued to monitor the elephant’s progress as (we hoped) he regained his strength, and we allowed ourselves to believe that this story might have a happy ending… Until we received the heartbreaking news that he had ultimately succumbed to the stress and trauma of his ordeal. 

Although in most cases, nature can stand on its own, the hard truth is that sometimes it cannot. And sometimes there is reason for this that is beyond our comprehension or ability to intervene.

While we struggle to make sense of the loss, we take comfort in knowing that, together with our partners at KWS, DSWT, and the local community, we did all that we could for this elephant. We are happy to have helped him get back on his feet, if only for long enough to reach his intended destination and enjoy a final meal in the Chyulu Hills.

In some ways, it’s never been easier to spot an elephant. As one of the most revered and celebrated animals, they are depicted in millions of ways around the world. From prehistoric rock art to modern rock music posters, you don’t have to look far to find one.

Tragically, the replicas exponentially outpace the real, wild, living, breathing animals that inspire such awe. The reasons for their disappearance from the savannas of East Africa are simple: poaching, human-wildlife conflict, habitat loss. And unfortunately, the solutions to these challenges are far more complex. In Big Life Foundation’s area of operation, the most pressing issue has become space.

A few months ago, we introduced you to Tim. When Tim was born, the human population of Kenya was 10 million. Today, it’s 50 million. The increasing demands on the land have been dramatic. Important areas of habitat outside Amboseli National Park are fast being converted into farmland, cutting off migratory corridors for wildlife. The grasslands are under massive pressure from overgrazing, turning them to barren earth, unable to absorb rain when it finally falls.

The simple truth is this: Tim, his fellow elephants, and all other animals in the ecosystem are running out of time and space. They need our help to navigate this increasingly complex and rapidly changing environment. 1.6 million acres is a huge area, and we cannot cover it all with the permanent ranger outposts. It’s up to the five Big Life Mobile Ranger Units to protect Tim and other animals when they move into the areas dominated by human activity.

Today, World Elephant Day, please consider supporting Big Life, and help us protect Tim and his fellow wild elephants in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem. We all have the power to choose: actively protect the real deal, or resign ourselves to pictures in history books.

Photo: Ryan Wilkie

Today for World Lion Day, we’re thinking about the 200 lions that live in our area of operation, local Maasai communities, and the shared space they both call home. The landscape in East Africa is changing dramatically. Just as we work to protect vulnerable species, we must also work to find solutions to address the challenges that come with the close cohabitation of large predators and people.

The good news? The solutions are working.

In the 2^nd Quarter this year, we lost ZERO lions in violation of our Predator Compensation Fund (PCF). The fund is designed to alleviate the economic impact of cohabitating with apex predators like lions, and it’s been succeeding beyond expectation. 748 livestock animals (primarily shoats) were killed in the 2^nd quarter and lions were responsible for 179 of those animals. Of course tensions are still high. We worked with local partners to prevent 3 separate retaliatory hunts from occurring, which is one reason zero lions were lost.

But it’s also a Maasai Olympics year, and the games are helping the local community to view lions differently. Instead of participating in traditional lion hunts, the local Maasai warriors instead compete for medals and demonstrate their prowess in the public arena. Team selections have already occurred and regional competitions are beginning. The finals will occur on December 15, 2018.

The success of the Maasai Olympics program is featured in a new documentary called Tribe Vs. Pride, which airs on NatGeo WILD tonight for World Lion Day (check local listings). 

Thank you as always for your support.

When it rains, it pours. And sometimes, literally. We had more rain the first half of 2018 than we’ve seen in the last two years combined. The impact has been dramatic across the entire ecosystem. Initially, it was devastating – taking out roads, separating families, and drowning humans and wildlife alike. However, the abundance of water and associated strong recovery of pasture has created an ecosystem of plenty. In a place where so many battles are fought over natural resources, this has led to a degree of peace and quiet, particularly on the human-elephant conflict front.

In the second quarter, we had zero confirmed elephant deaths from either poaching or human-elephant conflict. There were also zero cases of elephants injured by humans, because there were no cases in which elephants were hunted in retaliation for damages. And despite regular patrolling, no snares were found.

We would have preferred some zeroes in our statistics on wildlife crime. However, we arrested 26 suspects for possession of illegal wildlife trophies, and in doing so confiscated 237 kg of ivory in different areas of Kenya. That ivory will never see the black market, and we’re grateful for the help of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and other partners and informers in accomplishing this.

Frequent training is critical to keep rangers’ skills fresh and relevant in a dynamic conservation environment. Our rangers will be even more skilled moving forward, as we worked with partners to launch the Amboseli Conservation Academy during the second quarter. The Academy will provide advanced and refresher courses to supplement the training received by rangers at the KWS Manyani training school, and in the future, we hope to see the number and scope of courses grow to include a wide range of topics and audiences.

The Big Life rangers have a lot of animals to protect, but there is one in particular that stands out: a new baby Eastern black rhino. This is a huge milestone in our rhino protection work, all done in close partnership with KWS. At such a low number, the population is still highly vulnerable, and Big Life rangers are working to keep every single individual safe from harm.

As always, the community remains top of mind in all that we do. For one thing, we’ve taken on the implementation of mobile health clinics in one part of the ecosystem, and would love to expand this further with time. It’s hard to be positive about wildlife conservation when you’re battling to meet the basic needs of your family, and we hope that these clinics will contribute to a happier, healthier community. The response has been positive. Two of these clinics in the second quarter reached 527 patients, providing medical and family planning services, and administering deworming medication to over 1,100 children.

All of these results are thanks to our supporters – both our local partners in the field and our donors around the globe. THANK YOU.

Richard Bonham
Director of Operations, Big Life Kenya

READ THE FULL 2ND QUARTERLY REPORT

One shouldn’t be happy about the suffering of others, but in this case we can’t help it.  Today, 50 runners from around the world embarked on a grueling 5-day, 230 km ultra-marathon across 5 conservancies in northern Kenya. You might rightly ask why someone would put themselves through that (and why we would be happy about it). Because it’s all to raise money and awareness for rhino conservation and the well-being of rangers.

In partnership with Beyond the Ultimate Race Series, Big Life supporters For Rangers and Save the Rhino International created the race: "For Rangers Ultra". The run takes athletes on a journey through some of the wilderness areas that they are racing to protect, and eventually over a finish line on the equator. 

This event, and others by For Rangers, have raised much-needed funds and this year alone the efforts have brought in more than $65,000 for all beneficiaries. Big Life is grateful for the support received since the start of the For Rangers fundraising campaign in 2015, which over the years has allowed us to purchase ranger uniforms and equipment, conduct repairs and maintenance on ranger outposts, and to provide life insurance coverage for all Big Life rangers.

So today, we wish all of the participants good luck and minimal suffering, and we thank you for supporting Big Life rangers! 

Images: Clifford Pickett

Today for World Ranger Day, we honor all rangers who stand between illegal wildlife crime and the world’s natural heritage, and who risk their lives to protect those places and animals that cannot protect themselves. As endangered species continue to fall victim to diminishing habitat, increasing competition for resources, and the ongoing onslaught of illegal poaching activity, their work has become more important than ever.

It’s also become more dangerous than ever. The stakes are increasing, both for wildlife as numbers dwindle, but also for poachers, where the penalties for getting caught continue to increase. Rangers are caught in the middle of an increasingly militarized and confrontational battle for wildlife and wild lands.

According to the International Ranger Foundation, 63 rangers were killed in Africa in the last 12 months. 107 were killed globally. And that number may actually be two to three times higher, as many incidents go unreported. The Game Rangers’ Association of Africa states that 269 rangers have been killed since 2012. This includes Big Life ranger Kior Kulwa who was killed by an elephant late last year.

So today we stand with our rangers. To Big Life’s rangers, as well as the global ranger community, we say: THANK YOU. Thank you for your dedicated efforts protecting the natural world. You help to keep this planet beautiful and habitable for us all.

And thanks, as always, to our donors and partners for ensuring community rangers have the resources they need to protect the Greater Amboseli ecosystem, including For Rangers and The Thin Green Line Foundation, our monthly Ranger Club donors, and our supporters the world over. 

A ranger’s contact with the outside world can be tenuous. Cell phone reception is poor or non-existent, and often the only connection is a small black box: the radio. If things go wrong, it’s a lifeline.

On the other side of the connection sits Ann Taraiya, one of four Big Life radio operators. Ann is a new and very welcome addition to Big Life, having joined earlier this year. She is from Eselengei, an area in the far north of the Amboseli ecosystem where Big Life has recently established a permanent presence thanks to funding from USAID Kenya and East Africa.

After completing a degree in hospitality, Ann worked as a receptionist elsewhere in Kenya, but her father worked in conservation and Ann had always wanted to do the same. She also wanted to return home, and this job presented the perfect opportunity to accomplish both of those things.

But her work won’t be easy; being a focal point for 36 Big Life ranger units is at times a bit like being an air traffic controller. There is someone at the radio 24 hours a day, and two people at times when the rangers are on patrol. Digital radio technology allows Ann and the other operators to track the ranger teams on a screen in real-time, and direct them when emergencies happen.

Big Life’s successes are all thanks to having an excellent team, and we’re very happy to have a woman like Ann on ours. You too can play a critical role by joining the Big Life ranger club, our monthly giving program. Because without the support necessary to keep the rangers in the field, our radio room would be a very quiet place.

Very few of Big Life’s community rangers have been with us from the beginning – Nderu Loormunyei is one of them.

Things were different when Nderu started in the early 1990s. Big Life now supports more than 200 rangers, but back then, Nderu was one of 6. Those few rangers had a very specific focus, which was tackling the rampant poaching in the Chyulu Hills. Resources were scarce, and the team worked with little equipment and no vehicle support.

Little did they know that their efforts would turn up an exciting surprise. When they started working, the Eastern black rhinoceros was believed to be extinct in this part of Kenya. That is, until Nderu started reporting rhino tracks and droppings. It took a further five years to get photographic evidence of one of these animals, but the momentum since then has turned Eastern black rhino protection into one of Big Life’s key program areas.

In 27 years, Nderu has moved around Big Life’s area of operation but, after all this time, he’s back where he started: in the Chyulu Hills.  Only, things have changed. Nderu is now second in command of a platoon of over 50 rangers, and a highly-respected veteran in Big Life’s ranger force.

Nderu’s experiences are vast, and we would need a campfire and plenty of time to tell his stories, which include being shot at by poachers, arresting armed poachers, and tracking two rhinos injured by snares. We thank Nderu for dedicating his life to protecting the Greater Amboseli ecosystem’s wildlife and supporting his community, and we hope that his commitment inspires the new recruits.

Please consider supporting Nderu, and all of Big Life’s rangers, by signing up for the Big Life Ranger Club. In doing so, your reliable monthly donation, no matter how small, goes a long way towards keeping these brave people in the field.

As the Football World Cup draws to a dramatic close, Maasai warriors in Kenya are preparing for a tournament that promises to be just as hotly contested. Following a slight delay due to the extreme rains earlier this year, team selections are now fully underway for the 2018 Maasai Olympics.

The warrior villages began choosing their teams at the end of June and this process will run through mid-July, with athletes from each area competing for their chance to represent their community at the biennial sports event, scheduled for December 15, 2018.

The Maasai Olympics was started in 2012 to protect lions by providing young men with a culturally-appropriate alternative to traditional lion hunting. Sports like football (soccer) are missing from the day, and instead the athletic competitions are designed to reflect traditional warrior skills: spear and rungu throwing, running events, and the high jump. Today, instead of participating in lion hunts, warriors compete for medals and local fame.

The rivalries of previous events will be high on everyone’s minds as the teams face off against each other in the regional competitions that run from mid-August through September. From then on, all attention turns to preparation for the final event in December.

The Maasai Olympics are part of an amazing success story: it is an integral part of the conservation effort that is protecting one of few growing lion populations on community land in Africa.

If you want to experience this incredible event for yourself, accommodation can be found at local lodges that attend the event. In the meantime, stay tuned for what promises to be an exciting year of competition!

To support the Maasai Olympics or become a sponsor, please donate or email us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Man’s best friend is more than a loyal companion: their noses are scientific wonders. A dog’s sense of smell is anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 times as acute as our own. While humans have about six million olfactory receptors in their noses, dogs have up to 300 million. In short, their keen noses are an invaluable asset on a ranger team.

Big Life’s Tracker Dog Unit currently has three canine rangers: Didi, Bonnie, and Clyde. Together, they make a disproportionately large contribution to our anti-poaching and conservation goals.

The direct impact is obvious: in instances when a poacher has killed an elephant or other wild animals, the Dog Unit is able to respond to track and apprehend criminals, achieving results no human or machine is capable of.

As a result, their presence alone is a huge deterrent to wildlife crime in the ecosystem. We know from our intelligence network that the dogs factor into poachers’ decision-making process, and that they have increased the threat of arrest to the point where for many, that risk is simply too high.

Their indirect impact is subtler and comes in the form of support to the local community.  This kind of assistance is unpredictable and varied, ranging anywhere from helping to apprehend criminals, to finding lost children in the bush and reuniting them with their families.

So far in 2018, the Dog Unit has helped Big Life ranger teams respond to incidents involving: vandalism, human search and rescue, assault, theft, and wildlife injury.

Please show your support for our canine rangers by making a donation today. Should you choose to make your gift monthly, you’ll join our Ranger Club, and will be entered to win a Big Life Leatherman multitool.

To you, he’s a face. Moriati Tisiki: 27 years old, member of the Big Life Mobile 4 ranger unit, and cover image of the 2017 Big Life annual report.

But there is more to his story.

Moriati is a high-school graduate. He completed his secondary school education, but could not afford to go on to university. He applied for a ranger job that would allow him to stay at home rather than have to move to a distant urban area, and his education and positive attitude made him an easy pick.

Moriati is a husband. In traditional Maasai culture, a man must pay a certain number of cows to the family of his prospective wife. In some cases, no cows means no wedding. After joining Big Life in 2015, Moriati started saving his ranger salary, eventually buying enough cows to get married.

Moriati will soon be a father, expecting his first child this year. His child will grow up in a very different world from the one that he did.

And Moriati is a protector. His unit operates on Rombo Group Ranch (a poaching hotspot in the southernmost reaches of Big Life’s area of operation), and Moriati is responsible for the collection of all monitoring data. This information is used to assess the always-changing threats to wildlife, as well as the efficacy of Big Life’s work, allowing us to adapt our approaches if necessary.

Earlier this year, Big Life supported Moriati’s participation in one of the inaugural ranger trainings at the Amboseli Conservation Academy, and he came out top of his class for the academic component of the training. His colleagues speak of a soft-spoken, hardworking young man who is passionate about what he does.

Moriati is a Big Life ranger. Every face has a story, and their stories are the foundation of Big Life.

You can support these committed men and women by becoming a recurring donor through the Ranger Club program at biglife.org/monthly-giving. Any new supporters who join in the month of July will be entered to win a custom Leatherman multitool, engraved with the Big Life logo.

Photo: Moriati Tisike, on the left, upon completing training at the Amboseli Conservation Academy

Just like humans, ecosystems need occasional check-ups. They are constantly changing and we need some way to gauge their overall health, and assess whether current conservation strategies are working or not.

It’s easy for us to get a feel for trends from the ground, but to really take the pulse of an ecosystem, you’ve got to be in the air.  From above, it’s easier to get total counts of large mammals. It can’t be done slowly, it’s got to be done fast and over a large area to minimize double-counting.

It’s a logistical challenge, but thankfully one that the Kenya Wildlife Service takes on every few years, with support from partners. This year it involved four aircraft spending whole days in the air, counting everything larger than a goat. The exercise is repeated in both wet and dry seasons, making sure that the seasonal movements of people and wildlife are properly captured.

This last week Big Life was glad to be able to support this exercise with one of our aircraft, seen in this image alongside the KWS planes prior to the start of the day’s count, and a clear shot of Kilimanjaro meant clear skies for counting wildlife below.

The last count took place in 2014, so the exercise is timely and helpful as we continue to assess, and adjust, our programs as necessary to have the maximum impact. A big thanks to all other partners involved in making this happen.

There are fewer giraffes than there are elephants alive in the world.

It’s a bit of a surprise, given how little media attention they receive. Estimates put the current population at less than 100,000* following a drop of approximately 40% in the past three decades.

We know: it’s more bad news and it gets tiring. So, given that it’s the longest day in the year (in the northern hemisphere anyway) the Giraffe Conservation Foundation has initiated World Giraffe Day, an opportunity to appreciate these tallest terrestrial animals.

Despite their gentle nature, giraffes don’t have it easy. They are a favorite target for poachers, yielding a lot of high-value meat for the effort involved. They are also very susceptible to human activity, and can get entangled in fences or hit by cars.

Big Life rangers do everything they can to keep giraffes safe from these various threats in the Amboseli ecosystem, by catching bushmeat poachers and working with farmers to keep them away from fences. We’re confident that the local giraffe population is growing, and hope to receive confirmation of this from the aerial wildlife census that has just started.

So while our teams work to keep giraffes safe in Amboseli, we ask that you take a moment, perhaps a long one, to spare a thought for these wonderful animals and the efforts to secure their future across Africa.

*Number by Giraffe Conservation Foundation and IUCN

Winning the hearts and minds of the local community, and providing a mutual benefit through conservation, is the only way to protect wildlife and wild lands far into the future. To that end, Big Life invests in the future of participating communities by funding education and healthcare initiatives. 

This month, we conducted our first outreach health clinic thanks to our partners at CHASE Africa and the Kajiado South Sub-County Department of Health. The clinic was held in Oltiasika, a remote community that hasn’t had an outreach in many years and has suffered badly in the recent heavy rains, which caused damage to their roads and thereby access to healthcare facilities. A total of 256 patients were given basic primary healthcare and 148 children received de-worming medication.

Last year, with CHASE Africa and Dandelion Africa, we helped facilitate a total of 8 clinics through the provision of a vehicle, with an additional 2 earlier this year. Now, as we take on the further responsibility of running the outreaches ourselves, we thank Dandelion Africa for paving the way and for their fantastic training and on-going support.

We track a lot of numbers, but there are two that shape our world more than any other. One is the amount of money that we raise and put into our community conservation projects. The second is the amount of rainfall that hits the ground here in the greater Amboseli ecosystem.

Rainfall is a fundamental driver of the health of local communities, both human and animal, and this season has been an absolute bumper. Last year was brutal; the combination of an extended period of erratic rainfall and grazing mismanagement had tipped the ecosystem over the edge. Carcasses of both wildlife and livestock were a common sight. But in a very welcome turnaround, we’ve already received more rainfall in these first three months than we sometimes do in an entire year. The transformation of the landscape has been spectacular; the dust turned to a sea of grass humming with life.

The widespread availability of water and forage has allowed elephants to further explore the limits of their ranges, sometimes with disastrous consequences. Amboseli is a big ecosystem, but there is an edge, and a sharp fall-off in human tolerance for wildlife beyond this edge. We had a horrible reminder of this in January, when crop-raiding by elephants on and around Eselengei Group Ranch (a communally-owned piece of land in the north of the ecosystem, outside our core area of operation) led to violent retaliation by angry farmers. Five elephants were speared to death, and numerous others wounded. I worry that this is only a taste of things to come, and it emphasizes the need to continue to find ways to balance the needs of both humans and animals.

It is thus timely that Big Life is expanding our work in this same area, having created a mobile unit of rangers to patrol Eselengei in an exciting project funded by USAID. We are also working with the community to expand the Predator Compensation Fund onto Eselengei, in an attempt to ease the economic burden caused by high levels of livestock predation.

At the end of the day, most human behavior is driven by these economic realities, and the trade in illegal wildlife products is no different. These products are all worth a lot to the people who deal in them, and catching them is no easy task. Big Life continues to invest heavily, and with great success, in disrupting these supply chains. Following the cumulative total of more than 1 ton of ivory confiscated in 2017 (working in collaboration with Kenya Wildlife Service), Big Life has arrested 28 people this quarter with everything from ivory to lion teeth to a worrying increase in pangolin (live and scales).

As usual, there is a lot going on here at Big Life, but there is always time to say a big thanks to our partners and supporters. We couldn’t do this without you.

Richard Bonham
Co-Founder and Director of Operations

READ OUR FULL QUARTERLY REPORT 

Months ago, when we first saw the four-inch tracks in the rhino territory, we held our breath. A camera trap later confirmed the incredible news: a baby rhino had been born! It was hard to stay quiet, but we decided to keep our lips sealed, to give this little rhino the fighting chance it deserves.

Eastern black rhinos are critically endangered; their numbers have plummeted by 90% in the last three generations. Their keratin horns bring top dollar in eastern markets, and so they continue to be targeted by poachers. There are fewer than 600 Eastern black rhinos in Kenya today.

In partnership with Kenya Wildlife Service, Big Life has 51 rangers stationed in 5 outposts, dedicated to protecting the small population of rhinos in our area of operation. In 2017, there were only 23 direct sightings of these elusive animals during foot patrols. They are otherwise carefully monitored remotely via camera traps, safely nestled in the dense and wild volcanic terrain that is the Chyulu Hills.

You can’t keep a secret forever, and word is slowly spreading. So, for this Endangered Species Day, we’re happy to announce that our rhino population has officially grown from 7 to 8.

We all have a role to play to save these special animals. Please consider making a donation in honor of Endangered Species Day, and help our rangers keep this baby rhino and his family safe from harm.

I’ve seen a world without elephants. It’s how I found the Chyulu Hills when I arrived 30 years ago. It was a time following the last poaching crisis of the 1970s and 80s, when we didn’t see so much as a single elephant track. But nature is impatient, and things can change quickly.

The Amboseli elephant population has since rebounded, and giants have filled the space, including some who carry the largest tusks on the continent. One of my favourites has a name—One Ton—so called because of the size of his ivory. Beautiful to look at, but a curse to carry. Big Life rangers have managed to keep him alive through the worst of the recent times, and with only one confirmed elephant poaching in our area of operation in 2017, I feel as though we’re giving him the best anti-poaching protection that we can.

Despite the tremendous success that we’ve had against poachers in the greater Amboseli ecosystem, Big Life rangers can only cover so much ground. Elephants are still dying elsewhere, so we’ve been targeting the supply of ivory further up the chain.

Incidentally, ‘One Ton’ of ivory (over 2,000 pounds) is how much Big Life’s intelligence unit confiscated this year, working closely with Kenya Wildlife Service. Our network of informants has greatly expanded our reach and influence, and in addition to making life difficult for elephant poachers, we’re also working to make it difficult for ivory traffickers.

Another piece of exciting news, and a huge step in the fight to reduce demand for ivory, is that of China’s move this year to finally close its ivory markets, followed soon after by Hong Kong. Things won’t change overnight, and we can expect ongoing circulation on the black market, but the importance of these commitments and the statement they make cannot be overstated.

However, it’s no longer the thought of poachers that keeps me awake at night. These days, I know that I will wake to reports of overnight raids of farmers’ crops by elephants, and occasionally of a retaliatory spear that has found its mark. This is now the biggest threat to One Ton and his kind, and without a viable solution for coexistence between animals and people, all our efforts are worth nothing.

The good news is that our actions are making a difference. The completion in 2017 of Phase 1 (53 km) of crop-protection fencing has hugely reduced incidents of crop-raiding, thus reducing human-elephant conflict. This success has spurred us to move ahead with the next 60 km of fencing, and thanks to the generosity of our supporters, Phase 2 will be completed in 2018.

But there is more to this ecosystem, and to Big Life, than elephants. In collaboration with local partners, we have achieved what must be one of the most remarkable lion recoveries on community land anywhere in Africa. Ironically, this success means we are running out of space for lions, testing the limits of pastoralist tolerance of these costly animals.

The immediate solution is to expand the protective coverage provided by Big Life’s Predator Compensation Fund, which we began to do this year. If we are able to secure the necessary funding, then we plan to continue these efforts in 2018, incentivizing greater tolerance of livestock predation.

The issue of space is a good note on which to end, because it will be increasingly important as the ecosystem continues to develop. There are some critical areas that must be protected, discussed within this report.

As usual, there is not a dull moment here in Kenya. What we are doing is vitally important, and time is of the essence. Thanks to all of you who make it possible, both through financial support and through action on the ground. This truly is a cumulative effort, and one we shall continue.

Richard Bonham
Co-Founder & Director of Operations

Read Big Life's full 2017 Annual Report HERE. 

It’s not an easy life for a lion cub in Africa. If humans don’t get you, sometimes your own kind will.

Big Life has been tracking a collared lioness, Mashael, and her sister, Noosinoni, for the last year, with much excitement after they gave birth to seven cubs between them. It was all going well until recently, when our local conservation partners Lion Guardians witnessed a terrible event.

Two new young males had arrived in Mashael’s territory, looking for space of their own. In such cases, the incoming lions will usually kill existing cubs so that they might have their own sooner. The mothers courageously defended their cubs, clashing with the invaders and managing to chase them off, but with blood drawn on both sides. At that point, only four cubs could be seen; the other three were presumed missing or already dead.

The following day, when the cubs’ fathers returned, the three missing cubs were still nowhere to be found. The lionesses were seen again a week later, but there was no sign of any of the cubs. At this point, we thought that the remaining four may also have been killed.

Prepared for the worst, we tracked Mashael’s collar to see at least how the two females were recovering from their injuries. They were lying in the grass and seemed fine, the wounds having healed well. But then, another body moved in the grass. Then another. We started to count, and couldn’t believe it. All seven cubs, still alive and well, reunited with their mothers!

While invading males pose a challenge, humans remain the greatest threat to this family and their kind. Big Life’s Predator Compensation Fund (PCF) provides them with relative safety from retaliatory killing, but when lions leave protected areas, the result is often death.

We are actively expanding the PCF onto Eselengei Group Ranch in the northern reaches of our area of operation, and will be joining the Lion Guardians in their efforts there. We are also working with partners to expand predator protection along the border of Kenya and Tanzania, in the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area.

Big Life’s ultimate goal is to expand the PCF across our entire area of operation, as funds permit, because as these cubs grow, so too must our protection of their kind.

Please support this innovative effort that helps people and the lions who live among them. 

Today is International Women’s Day, and we would like to recognize the many women who contribute to Big Life’s success. These women are not just wives, mothers, sisters, and friends, they are also rangers, field staff, informers, program officers, educators, fundraisers, scientists, and board directors.

Agnes Sopilal, picture below, has been a Big Life ranger for five years, working in the Olepolos Conservancy near Amboseli National Park. She most enjoys being a ranger because she is able to protect wildlife from being killed. She wants other women to know that, “Ranger work is not for men only. A woman can also do [this work] since you are preserving the beauty of your country and the entire world.”

We are grateful to Agnes, and her conservation colleagues within Big Life and across the world, for their dedication and passion for conserving wildlife and wild lands.

Please join us, along with our partners at The Thin Green Line Foundation, in celebrating female conservationists around the globe.

Sometimes we wish they did. Lions, impressive predators as they are, often wreck havoc in the night, as is their nature.  The local Maasai keep vast numbers of livestock, which are easy prey for big cats like lions, cheetahs, and leopards. As a result, human-predator conflict is a major issue.

Today’s World Wildlife Day theme is 'Big Cats: Predators Under Threat', aiming to raise awareness about the decrease of big cat populations across the world. It’s one of our major program areas at Big Life. Healthy ecosystems rely on apex predators like lions. While they may be challenging for the local human community to coexist with, we’re finding solutions that work.

Last year, across 700,000 acres of Big Life’s area of operation, big cats killed 984 reported livestock, valued at well over $65,000. Fortunately, in collaboration with conservation partners, our predator protection programs (e.g., the Predator Compensation Fund, the Maasai Olympics, and our wildlife rangers) were able to stop ALL retaliatory killings of these cats within that area. As a result, their numbers continue to grow, as evidenced by the seven new lion cubs we have in the Chyulu Hills at the moment.

You may live across the world from Africa, but it is only with your help that Big Life is able to protect lions and all predators within the ecosystem. Please consider celebrating World Wildlife Day by making a lifesaving donation to Big Life. In doing so, you are joining the fight to ensure a future for predators under threat.

Or rather, about the fence. Through your support, the first 50 km of the crop protection fence has been put to the test and so far has exceeded our expectations. In the farming areas now protected, recorded elephant crop-raiding has been reduced by over 90%. The fence is helping to ensure a more peaceful cohabitation of elephants and people - saving local farmers thousands of dollars and saving countless elephants from being speared.

However, more than ever, we need to extend the fence and build in areas that are now seeing an increase in crop raiding. Your support as we begin the next phase of construction, due to begin this quarter, is essential. Thank you, as always, for your ongoing generosity.

On a related note, American television journalist Bill Kurtis (of American Justice and Cold Case Files fame) spent time in Big Life’s area of operation and recently produced a short film on Big Life’s fence initiative.

Check it out:

Big Life Foundation_020818_Master REV from Kurtis Productions on Vimeo.

As it turns out, conservation work isn’t always a thankless job.

Big Life rangers put their lives on the line day in and day out to protect the greater Amboseli ecosystem.  It’s no easy feat, and requires not only courage and determination, but also support and commitments from numerous trusted partners across our area of operation.

One such partner, Kenya Wildlife Service, recently sent us a letter of appreciation, which we’re honored to share with you.

Such an endorsement reminds us how much these partnerships matter, and that our efforts do make a difference.

Thank you, Kenya Wildlife Service, for your ongoing efforts and support over the years. We are proud to collaborate with you on critical conservation initiatives.

And thank you, our supporters from around the world, for making our work possible. We couldn’t do it without you.

There are so many sides to any discussion involving communities and wildlife conservation, that it’s almost a circle. There are benefits and there are losses, and we do what we can to make sure that somewhere along the way these get as close as possible to a balance, ideally with wildlife in the black.

But these benefits and losses are often not monetary, and it’s certainly impossible to put human life into any equation. This is something that has hit home recently with the tragic loss of one of the Big Life rangers, killed by an elephant. And just as sadly, the same has happened to two local farmers in the last quarter of 2017. It’s a constant reminder of how serious the issues in this important ecosystem are.

But there is always good news. Zero lions were killed by communities in areas covered by Big Life’s predator compensation fund over the quarter, an incredible display of tolerance by livestock owners during a time with livestock predation at an all-time high. This is also thanks to the efforts of our predator conservation partners in the ecosystem, and the result of a lot of teamwork.

Big Life’s intelligence unit continues its success, and worked with the Kenya Wildlife Service to confiscate more than 250 kg of illegal ivory in the quarter, something that we hope to be seeing less of with the implementation (at the end of 2017) of China’s ban on the commercial ivory trade. Over the quarter six court cases were concluded, including stiff punishment for two suspects caught trafficking ivory: five years in prison and a US $10,000 fine for each of them.

But there is no way to really properly explain everything that the Big Life team achieves in a short little note, so take a minute to read more in our 2017 quarter 4 update.

Richard Bonham, Director of Operations

Photo: Clifford Pickett

We’re excited to share some good news: the recent addition of seven cubs to one of the lion prides that once again roams the Chyulu Hills.

15 years ago, the last known lion pride in the Chyulu Hills was staring down the barrel at local extinction. Human-wildlife conflict has been an ongoing struggle in the ecosystem.

The story would have played out along these lines: something had snapped inside the man. He walked quietly into the bush and found his dead cow only slightly moved from where it had been killed. He pulled a packet of poison from his pocket and emptied the contents on the carcass. By the next morning, eight lions were dead.

Apex predators are critical to the health of any ecosystem, and the population was at the tipping point. So it was that Big Life’s Predator Compensation Fund (PCF) was established. The agreement was made to ensure that nothing like this ever happened again: Big Life would cover some of the economic costs associated with livestock depredation, and in return, the community would stop killing predators.

It was a simple (some might say obvious) idea that came from the community themselves, and the results have been extraordinary. Over these many years, the lion population has grown.

Our efforts, together with the support of local communities and one of our conservation partners Lion Guardians, are paying off. The world is searching for ways to promote coexistence between humans and large carnivores, and in Amboseli we have found a solution that is working. Seven new cubs are inspiring evidence of that success.

Thank you for your support of this critical program.

It hurts to lose a friend, particularly one that has been around for so long. He lived through the ivory crisis of the 1980’s, and he just about lived through this one.

We don’t know how it happened, only that he was alive one day and dead the next. There were no marks on the massive body, his huge tusks still intact.

His name was Jagged Ear. Throughout his lifetime, Amboseli has changed faster than at any other time in history. He saw the arrival of the tar road, tin roofs and electricity, the new sound of cell phones in the quiet bush, the rapid expansion of farming, and the growing tension between humans and elephants.

This conflict nearly killed him the first time, when last year he was speared by Maasai warriors in a retaliation for the trampling of a man by an elephant. While Jagged Ear was not the elephant responsible for the injury, he regardless took a spear in the leg and another in the back. Thankfully Big Life was able to work with DWST and KWS to treat him.

Through all of this, Jagged Ear somehow maintained his tolerance of the human species, always calm and considered, never aggressive. He was certainly one of the grand bulls of the Amboseli ecosystem, and his presence at the local waterhole will be sorely missed. His passing is a reminder for us that every elephant is different, and, just as in human society, every death has an impact.

It’s hard to hide a dead elephant. And it’s not common to have reason to, unless you’ve killed it of course.

The poachers were professionals, they knew that the Big Life informer network would quickly report the telltale sound of a gunshot, so they used a silent weapon. It took just one spear to penetrate a vital organ, and the elephant only managed to run 100m before dropping dead. The killers hacked out the tusks, covering the body with cut bushes to delay the discovery. 

Unfortunately, it worked. A Big Life ranger team came across the carcass on a routine patrol, and at least three days had passed since the killing. Any possible scent for the dog unit to track had been erased by rainfall, and the trail was cold.

We’ve put out a reward for any information that leads us to the poachers. For now, they’ve gotten away, but it’s hard to keep these things quiet. Sooner or later, someone will make a mistake, and Big Life will be waiting.

Sadly, nothing will reverse the death of this elephant. It’s a reminder that despite the great successes in reducing elephant poaching in the ecosystem, the threat is ever-present. This is particularly so along the Tanzanian border, where this elephant was killed. 

We have work to do to raise the strength of the anti-poaching units all along the border, including in the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area of Tanzania. The rangers are the only thing that stand between elephants and the poacher’s weapons, and it is critical that they have the support and equipment that they need. 

Please consider supporting Big Life with a donation: www.biglife.org/donation, and help ensure that we don’t have to tell these stories in future.

The end of the dry season is always a tense time for both people and wildlife, everything is in short supply, which manifests itself in many different ways. Hungry wildlife push the boundaries leaving safe areas in search of fodder, and worse, the irrigation fed tomato farms become irresistible. This inevitably leads to conflict. Bushmeat poaching also peaks this period, mainly driven by lack of economic returns in agriculture and therefore trade in bushmeat increases. Conversely, it’s a time of plenty for predators as prey species and livestock are weak, roaming further in search of pasture. In this process we have seen depredation of livestock more than double.

This is the first season that the new 50 km elephant exclusion fence has been put to the test, and it has worked better than all our expectation: the farming areas it’s protecting hardly had any incursions by wildlife, reducing recorded raiding in this area by over 90%, saving farmers thousands of dollars and saving many elephant from being speared. So this has been a great success and spurred us forward into Phase 2 of the fence, I need to thank all of you who have contributed, as we now have sufficient funds to extend the line another 58 kilometres, which we hope will begin in December. 

Our rangers have been busy as you will see from the report: Big Life rangers arrested 96 suspects in 45 incidents of illegal activity. Of these, 54 suspects were arrested in 29 poaching-related incidents, including 26 suspected trophy dealers. Rangers recovered 338 kg of ivory from arrests. The number that jumps out at me here is the huge increase of arrests related to ivory dealers. This has largely been driven by the recent growth and training of our informer network, with arrests happening sometimes hundreds of kilometres away from our core area. It’s a huge achievement and congratulations to Head of Security, Craig Millar, and his team for this success. At the same time, it’s a stark reminder that the ivory trade is still alive and well, despite a dip in the black market price of ivory. It also underlines the fact that while ivory has any value, the killing will continue.

Supporting education has always been a priority for Big Life and our Wildlife Scholarship Program is growing: we now have 208 kids in school through this program. However, I always find one of the most challenging aspects of my job is the sifting through the of applications for these scholarships. Its heart-wrenching to meet families who have sometimes sold their last cow to educate a son or daughter, only to have them sent away from school for falling behind in school fee payments. Once these kids are off the education ladder, there is little hope in getting them back on, and they come to us as a last and desperate resort. Support for this program would be much appreciated as it literally changes lives.

As always I need to thank you all again for your incredible support.

Richard Bonham, 
Director of Operations

FIND THE FULL Q2 REPORT HERE

By Daniel ole Sambu

A few weeks ago, I was privileged to represent Big Life at the Jackson Hole WILD and Conservation Summit. It’s not your typical conference. Rather than focusing on PowerPoint presentations, Jackson Hole is instead a gathering of some of the world’s leading conservationists and filmmakers. This year’s summit focus was on big cats, like the lions that I help Big Life to protect in Kenya. With 10 years of experience helping to manage our Predator Compensation Fund, I wanted to share with other conservationists about the successes that we have seen with the program.

Beyond my participation in the Big Cat Summit, Big Life was also heavily featured in two separate films that screened at the film festival: Tribe versus Pride and The Ivory Game.

I was honored to be invited to participate in a Q&A session on stage with the filmmakers for Tribe versus Pride, Dereck and Beverly Joubert. Dereck also serves on Big Life’s Board of Directors. The film brilliantly presents a powerful story showcasing the Maasai tribe and their relationship to lions, and how that relationship is changing with support from the elders to conserve the very animal that they used to hunt. One of the ways the Maasai’s relationship to lions is changing is through the Maasai Olympics, which the film features. The Maasai in my community in Kenya can now demonstrate their bravery by competing for medals, not lions.

Seeing this story told on a large screen caused me to shed tears. It was an additional honor to learn that Tribe versus Pride won the prestigious Special Jury Award at the festival. Congratulations to Dereck and Beverly for this incredible film!

The Ivory Game focuses on ivory, both poaching and trafficking, another big area of operational focus for Big Life. It was great to reconnect with the Director Richard Ladkani in Jackson Hole. The Ivory Game also took home awards for: Best Writing, Best Theatrical Film, and the coveted Grand Teton Award. Congratulations as well to Richard and Vulcan Inc. for these awards!

Attending the summit and festival was an incredible learning experience and wonderful networking opportunity. I learned so much from my colleagues, fellow conservationists, scientists, photographers, and filmmakers. I was able to meet and interact with people with immense knowledge and passion for conservation, and philanthropists who are dedicated to using what they have to make the world a better place.

Many thanks to my colleagues who also joined me at Jackson Hole for their support: Big Life’s US Board Director Kristine Baty and Executive Director Kim McCoy, and of course, to Dereck and Beverly Joubert.

It’s been two years and 3 days since we lost Bahati, the young rhino that died after an epic effort to save his life after he was trapped in a snare. It was a terrible moment, but one that motivated us further in our efforts to protect the few remaining in his population of critically endangered eastern black rhino.

Today, Big Life is happy to be celebrating World Rhino Day with a much happier statistic: zero recorded rhino deaths in the two years since that of Bahati. It’s not been easy, Big Life and Kenya Wildlife Service rangers work around the clock—7 days a week, 365 days per year—in tough terrain monitoring, patrolling, arresting suspects and recovering snares and other poaching tools. All this to protect animals that they hardly ever see.

None of this work on the ground would be possible without our supporters. The ZSL has been instrumental in developing a ranger monitoring and incentive program that has greatly improved ranger effectiveness. And the financial support that makes everything possible is provided by our other rhino partners: Association of Private Land Rhino Sanctuaries (APLRS), Chester Zoo, Save the Rhino International, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and our generous private donors.

We are all now looking to the future, and the goal of not only protecting these remaining rhinos, but also supplementing the population with others from nearby sanctuaries. Please support us to continue this important work, and help to save these endangered animals, like Chester pictured here, by making a donation in honor of World Rhino Day today.

#WorldRhinoDay

It’s been one year since Big Life worked with Kenya Wildlife Service, WildlifeDirect, Save the Elephants and Amboseli Trust for Elephants to collar Tim, the beautiful Amboseli tusker and frequent crop-raider. Since then Big Life ranger teams, and a scientist from Save the Elephants have been monitoring his movements, spending long nights in the fields trying to stay one step ahead of his crop-raiding habits.

Over the course of the year Tim made 173 attempts to enter farms to crop-raid, that’s roughly a raid every other night! During peak raiding months this was closer to 2 raids every three nights. As a result Tim (and the other bulls who move with him) cause tremendous damage and therefore economic loss to local farmers, and for his trouble he has been treated three times for spear wounds.

In the initial 4 months of monitoring, Big Life rangers were successful at preventing 18% of crop-raiding incidents. However, with an improved monitoring and intervention strategy, implemented in February, rangers have since intercepted Tim in 50% of crop-raiding incidents, and therefore significantly reduced and prevented crop damage. 

There is still work to do, but there is no doubt this high-tech intervention has gone a long way to keeping Tim out of the way of farmer's spears.

Photo: Ryan Wilkie

The satellite collar hadn’t transmitted data in days, it was a bad sign. With each passing hour it seemed less likely that the lioness was simply on a kill in thick bush, with the vegetation blocking the signal. This was looking to be either collar failure, or she had been killed and her collar destroyed. It was time to send the rangers in on foot.

As the ranger team approached the lioness’s last recorded location they were stopped short by a wall of dense thicket, the GPS telling them that they still had 100m to go. Anything was possible, someone might have killed her and thrown her collar into the bush, or perhaps she was lying in there injured. There was only one way to find out.

The last place that you want to meet a lion is in a thicket, and the rangers moved slowly, each step carefully considered. Then, without warning, the ground gave way beneath the leading ranger. As he started to fall he grabbed out, managing to catch the trunk of a small tree. Below him an extinct lava cave opened up, previously covered by the bush through which the rangers were walking.

These tunnels and caves permeate the Chyulu Hills, a testament to the turbulent volcanic past of this area. After sharing the tense laughter than comes with a close call the rangers continued, eventually finding fresh lion tracks at the mouth of another lava tunnel, and extensive lion activity in the immediate area.

We still don’t have the pictures to prove it, but we are now sure that the lioness had gone into the tunnel to give birth. This would explain the days without satellite connection, and the reason for her limited movement once she did emerge. Collar data has shown that she has remained in the area since, but moved increasingly large distances, all of which would be consistent with having some furry new additions to her family.

She, and hopefully her new cubs, are just a few of the lions that Big Life is working to protect in the Amboseli ecosystem, and our partners in lion conservation, the Lion Guardians, have recorded a tripling of the lion density in their local study areas over the last decade. Through the Big Life predator compensation fund (PCF) we are proud to be a central part of these efforts that are bucking the continental trend. On this World Lion Day it’s important to appreciate that although there is lots of bad news out there, there are solutions to save these iconic animals.

If you would like to support Big Life's successful lion conservation efforts, please consider making a donation today. 

#worldlionday

As we continue to tackle poaching across the ecosystem, Big Life has been investing heavily in intelligence gathering systems and training, supported by funding partners and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). This investment is starting to pay off in a big way. Over this second quarter of 2017, we worked with KWS special units to arrest 23 trophy dealers in 11 incidents, and 319 kg of ivory was confiscated in these busts. Compare this with the same quarter of last year, when three dealers were arrested with 35 kg of ivory. These busts take place largely outside the Amboseli ecosystem, on the major transport routes that ivory follows through Kenya, and have taken our ‘intelligence footprint’ far beyond that of the physical coverage by Big Life rangers. 

It’s a sign, together with the ongoing busts in the east, that we cannot be complacent. Reports seem to indicate that the price and demand for ivory in the east may be dropping, but clearly both are still high enough to represent a significant threat to elephants, as we saw recently with Ndawe. The work of anti-poaching teams across Africa is as important as ever. 

Ensuring the prosecution of apprehended wildlife criminals is also a priority for Big Life, particularly following the conclusion of some recent cases where suspects were acquitted due to lack of evidence. It’s critical that rangers understand how to follow the right processes to collect evidence that is admissible in court, and Big Life is actively training our rangers to do this. 

In further good news, contractors have finished the first phase of electric fencing, creating what will be a lifeline for both farmers and elephants by reducing the conflict between them. Despite the odd hiccup, the fence has been almost completely effective at preventing elephants from crossing it into the farmland. The remaining problem, as expected, is coming largely from elephants entering farms from behind the fence, highlighting the importance of moving on with Phase 2 as soon as possible. We have an active fund-raising appeal going to support this, and ask anyone that is able to please support this hugely important barrier to keep the peace between humans and elephants.

Richard Bonham,
Director of Operations, Kenya

READ THE FULL Q2 REPORT HERE

You’ve heard the dollar values, often well into the thousands of dollars per kilogram – be it a shark’s fin, a pangolin’s scale or an elephant’s tusk.

The monetary value put on these worthless animal parts (certainly not worthless to their rightful owners) has attracted the worst kind of people, who will stop at very little to further enrich themselves. Often the only thing standing in their way are wildlife rangers, and far too frequently these rangers pay the ultimate price.

Very sadly, in the last year at least 105 rangers have died in the line of duty, 42% of those at the hands of poachers. Thankfully no Big Life ranger is included in that number but today, on World Ranger Day, we take a moment to appreciate these unsung heroes. We extend our enormous gratitude to International Ranger Federation and The Thin Green Line Foundation, that work together both as a voice of the world’s rangers, as well as a much-needed support system. We also thank each member of the Big Life ranger club, as well as Big Life’s other supporters: you are all changing the world for the better.

Today, each of Big Life’s 230+ rangers stands with every other ranger across the world. There is no doubt that humanity’s war against the natural world will rage on, and almost certainly escalate in future. Rangers are the ones out there fighting on the right side of the battle, and they need all the support that they can get. Because the laws and rules that protect our planet’s natural spaces and species are nothing without the rangers that enforce them.

Image: Clifford Pickett

6am – Rangers start a cold day with hot, sweet tea. They live in remote outposts of between four and 12 people, and team members form strong bonds with one another. Today, Big Life protects upwards of 2m acres in the Amboseli-Tsavo-Kilimanjaro ecosystem that straddles Kenya and Tanzania. Featured in Vulcan Productions’ film The Ivory Game, Big Life employs hundreds of rangers in dozens of outposts across the region. Their tools to tackle poaching include mobile ranger units, tracker dogs, aerial surveillance and a vast network of informants.

7am – Rangers on patrol encounter a herd of elephants and track them for a while to make sure that none are injured, and to determine which area they are heading towards for monitoring purposes.

8am – Big Life rangers regularly drill and train to keep their skills honed. One of the largest employers in the Amboseli ecosystem, Big Life employs more than 350 local Maasai in conservation efforts.

8.30am – As a lioness relaxes, rangers elsewhere are assessing the damage she may have caused during the night. In the past, local Maasai herders retaliated against lions for hunting their livestock, but thanks to the setting up of a compensation fund, the killing of lions and other predators has been reduced in recent years. There were fewer than 10 lions in the ecosystem prior to the fund; now there are more than 200. This decrease in killing by humans has contributed to the growth of the lion population, a trend that is increasingly rare as the species’ numbers plummet across the continent.

10am – In the rhino territory, a squad of rangers is on standby 24/7, but they rarely see the seven elusive animals they’re charged with protecting. Monitoring camera traps is not glamorous but it’s critical to the protection of eastern black rhinos in the Chyulu Hills, eastern Kenya.

See The Guardian for the full article: A day in the life of an anti-poaching ranger – in pictures

Ivory is still moving along the trade routes that traverse Kenya, but so is Big Life. Our intelligence network is spreading far and wide, the most recent demonstration being the arrest, working with a Kenya Wildlife Service undercover unit, of an ivory dealer hundreds of kilometres from Big Life’s core area of operation.

Two elephants were killed for the 67kg of ivory that the trader was selling (pictured left), and this arrest won’t change that. But by raising the risks of dealing in ivory, Big Life is hoping to make would-be traders think twice. This arrest follows another last week in which a further five traders were caught with 25kg of ivory. The result of all of this, we believe, is a world that is just that much safer for elephants. Thank you to all of you who support us in making this happen.

Water. Most of the western world turns on a tap and takes the resulting stream for granted. Here in Amboseli, rainfall dictates everything, and the consequences of poor rainfall weave their way through everything in turn. For example, we experienced a peak in bushmeat poaching in March of this year, thought to be a result of farm labourers turned to poaching to bring home some income during a time of massive crop failure. The crop failure has been fairly widespread, and it is particularly hard to watch communities that are struggling with these issues, and then having to manage hungry crop-raiding wildlife on top of it.

Thankfully, the first 45 km of fencing that we have been working on to help address human-elephant conflict is almost complete, and will be done within the next couple of months. The design, a short and solid electrified fence, already appears to packing an effective punch as we are seeing a reduced number of elephant incursions into the croplands behind the fence. It’s a promising start, but we still have a long way to go before we have brokered a peace between farmers and elephants across the ecosystem.

On the elephant front, it’s another quarter gone by without a single confirmed case of elephant poaching, and a recent study suggests that the market price of ivory is waning in the east. This is hugely encouraging, but for now the trade is alive and well. Big Life’s increasingly active intelligence unit is doing what they can to put a stop to it in this region, and over this quarter their work led to the arrest of 11 ivory dealers, some of which were far outside our core area of operation.

Unfortunately, these and many other wildlife criminals are still slipping through the legal system, sometimes because of technicalities and other times because of failure to collect evidence in the correct manner. We are going to be addressing this immediately with targeted trainings, and this is another positive outcome of our process of monitoring the prosecution process.

As always, all of this and much more is detailed in the following quarterly report. There is so much happening in Amboseli at the moment, highlighting ongoing challenges but identifying big steps forward as well. Thank you as always for your support, without which, none of this would be possible.

Richard Bonham, 
Director of Operations, Big Life Kenya

READ THE FULL Q1 REPORT HERE. 

When a bloodhound chooses a direction, the handler has little choice but to follow. As the team closes in on the target, the scents get stronger and the dog grows more confident, pulling ever harder at the leash. By the end, it can be a flat out sprint, handler and dog intent on a single outcome.

This scene plays out every day at Big Life in Kenya, where a team of community rangers trains and cares for a team of three anti-poaching sniffer dogs. Bonnie and Clyde are bloodhounds, bred for the purpose and just entering adulthood and their prime. Didi, originally rescued from a dog shelter in Nairobi, is the experienced member leading the team.

We think that the poacher did it with some kind of home-made trap, probably big hooks tied onto the end of a rope and wrapped in meat. The crocodile swallowed the bait, hooks and all, and the killer either waited for it to die or pulled it straight in.

Either way, by the time the Big Life intelligence unit heard about it, it was sadly too late for the animal. The poacher was trying to sell the skin, and Big Life informers were some of the first to hear. What followed was a text-book undercover operation, and a joint ranger team from Kenya Wildlife Service and The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust finished it off with a successful arrest.

This is yet another result of great work by the Big Life intelligence team, and the effectiveness of an ongoing training program supported by Chester Zoo, the Kenya Association of Private Land Rhino Sanctuaries (APLRS), and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

It’s the hardest decision in conservation – when to help and when to let nature take its course. One of the responses to this dilemma is simple: if humans caused a situation, then humans can justifiably intervene to fix it. But very little is simple in Amboseli. This beautiful place is home to humans, livestock and wildlife, all sharing tangled lives and spaces, and it’s almost impossible to separate the impacts of each one on the other.  In some cases, however, the decision to act is clear. The son of a Big Life ranger was out herding his livestock in the bush when a terrified baby Lesser Kudu sprinted past him, followed closely by a pack of feral dogs. The brave boy chased the hunger-crazed dogs off, and grabbed the small animal. He took it back to his boma and called his father, and the baby was later picked up by a team of rangers. Closer to the Big Life headquarters, a baby zebra was found walking alone very close to a town. Based on the assumption that some kind of human interference had led to the separation of baby and mother, and that the two had no chance of reuniting, the rangers also rescued this little creature. Both of these babies have now been taken by the THE TSAVO TRUST wildlife orphanage, and the hope is that they will grow up to eventually live some kind of natural life. Photo credit: Ryan Wilkie

New statistics out of South Africa this week on rhino mortality paint a grim picture. While numbers have dropped from previous years, an average of three rhinos are still killed for their horns each day. And while South Africa is over 3,000 kilometers south of Kenya, the numbers are humbling.  

Big Life’s area of operation is home to a small, but very special, wild population of Eastern black rhino. At last count, seven call both sides of the Chyulu Hills their home, and it is a forbidding landscape. Thick lava flows, dense vegetation, and limited access keep these magnificent animals at arms length in a territory stretching 80,000 acres. But so do the 75 rangers that share the responsibility of keeping them safe 24/7.  

Because of the increased threat to rhinos everywhere, a combined platoon of Big Life and Kenya Wildlife Service rangers monitor the area vigilantly through foot patrols, aerial surveillance, monitoring camera traps, and utilizing informer networks. Until recently, the rangers shared two vehicles for patrol and incident response, one owned by Big Life and the other by KWS.

Thanks to a very generous donor, Big Life is now the proud owner of a second vehicle designated for protecting the rhino territory. Having an additional vehicle means that there will always be a car designated for wildlife security on each side of the territory, cutting reaction time in half, and increasing extended patrol coverage.

It also puts us one step closer to achieving Intensive Protection Zone status for the territory, which once attained, will open the area up for translocation of rhino from other areas. Adding rhino to this small population will increase the genetic diversity of the group, and act as a safe haven for a species increasingly at risk.

If you are a living, breathing creature, then there’s a pretty good chance that some human out there wants to either eat you, or use your body parts in a phoney medicine. So with each extra person that the planet adds, it’s a scarier world for everything else. Now even donkeys have to watch their backs. ‘Ejiao’ is a traditional Chinese medicine that uses gelatine boiled from donkey skins as a key ingredient. Previously imbibed only by the Chinese elite, it appears that modern marketing has created a demand that can’t be supplied by a declining Chinese donkey population. And so, as has been the trend with wildlife species, traders have started to look beyond borders. News reports have been tracking the spread of donkey killing across Africa, but for the first time Big Life has observed the impact here in Amboseli, with seven donkeys recently found dead and skinned in the bush. Many people in Maasailand are reliant on their donkeys for transporting water, and so this is a disturbing sign for local communities. It’s also another reminder that changes in human taste, often driven by ruthless advertising campaigns, can have rapid and far reaching impacts across the world.

There are two big things on my mind as we move into another year. The first is hugely positive: the announcement of a timeline by China for complete closure of its domestic ivory trade. Many people have put years of work into pushing for this, and China also deserves great thanks for taking this monumental step. In Kenya, our growing informer network is still picking up ivory and dealers are being arrested, but we hope to see less of this in the future.

Unfortunately, we have barely had chance to celebrate China’s announcement, because December was another month of tragedies in Amboseli, all the result of the ongoing human-wildlife conflict in the ecosystem. Two people were killed by elephants, and three elephants were killed in retaliation as a result. The backlash from the communities concerned has been understandably ugly, with innocent elephants being killed or injured. We have been doing what we can to defuse the tension in these difficult situations, and it has required all hands on deck.

We are also doing what we can to help alleviate the pain caused by the loss of human life. We are working to find employment opportunities for members of the families of the deceased, as well as looking for educational bursaries for the sons and daughters of those who died. We wish we could do more as we wait for the Kenyan government to make good on its pledge to pay $50,000 in compensation to the families, but sadly, these payouts have yet to happen.

The 45 km fence we are building to try and stop elephant crop raiding is now about half way completed, and we hope that this will go a long way to reducing the huge economic losses suffered by local farmers. However, this fence will only lead to more pressure on other farming areas, highlighting the desperate need to secure, and fence, a hard line between agriculture and wildlife across the entire ecosystem.

On a positive note, despite the high number of livestock killed by predators (an average of more than 11 animals each day), we have seen very few attempts by livestock owners to kill the offending predators. The Big Life predator compensation program, now running for 14 years, is playing a central role in this, as is the colourful addition to Big Life’s predator protection efforts, the Maasai Olympics. The third biennial event took place this December and turned into a nail-biter.

There is nothing to suggest that 2017 is going to be any calmer than 2016, and I believe that Big Life’s work is more important than ever. Thank you, as always, for your generous support.

Richard Bonham,

Director of Operations, Big Life Kenya

READ THE FULL Q4 REPORT HERE: http://ow.ly/HbPU308icDR

The rangers guessed that the baby elephant, only about three months old, had been trapped in the abandoned well for two days. Her family, unable to rescue her from the steep sided hole, had moved on. Hyenas had clearly been circling, and the same steep banks that trapped her had saved her as well.

The call came from a passing community member who discovered the distressed calf. Conflict and tension between humans and elephants in Amboseli has reached unprecedented levels, and it is heartening to see the concern for the fate of an elephant. This conflict is a huge challenge for communities and conservation, and something we will continue to focus on.

There are some places where elephants just don’t fit in. Taking an elevator to the top of the Empire State Building for instance, or chewing on the Queen’s tulips in the Buckingham Palace gardens. They are even less welcome in the smallholder farms across the Amboseli ecosystem, where farmers spend nights in fear of losing an entire season’s produce.

Elephants are getting speared for the trouble they cause, and community tolerance of their presence has been running out fast. But fortunately there is a solution to the problem. The local community came to Big Life with a simple idea, and a request for help. They wanted to raise the capital to build an electric fence to keep their crops safe from elephants. The idea has the added bonus of also keeping the elephants safe from farmer’s spears. Everyone in the ecosystem got behind the idea.

So this summer, Big Life put out an appeal to its donors - $400,000 to construct Phase One, the first 40 km of this critically important line of protection. Our donors came through for us again. The idea became reality.

As a result, there are two fence construction teams currently working non-stop to complete what is now going to be closer to 55 kilometers of fencing as soon as possible, and 25% of the total distance is in various stages of completion. The most critical section will keep a migratory corridor open for wildlife where farms are rapidly narrowing the gap.

The fence is specifically designed to resist the attention of elephants - low and sturdy with electrified wires jutting out to prevent an elephant getting close enough to push the fence over.

This is just the start, and if we want a long-term future for elephants in Amboseli, then we will need to support further barriers. But where the fence is currently being constructed, farmers will be able to sleep at night, and elephants will be restricted to those places where they are more welcome.

It was a marathon payout session of 13 hours that went well into the night. People came from far and wide, each one clutching the piece of paper that got them a place in the queue, each one there because of wild animals.

Day after day predators kill livestock in Amboseli. It’s infuriating for livestock owners, and the desire to kill in retaliation is strong and understandable. We’re seeing the results all over Africa, lions and other predator species in steep declines in areas where they conflict with humans. A situation that is no different from the fate of wolves in many countries of the northern hemisphere.

But things are different in Amboseli, where our local partners, the Lion Guardians, have documented a tripling of the local lion population. The obvious question is why?

One of the main reasons is pieces of paper, presented after a verification process, to any livestock owner following a livestock depredation. These claim forms are later exchanged for monetary compensation, but more importantly they is delivered to the person who has suffered the loss, at the time when they are most angry about it (and therefore most likely to kill in retaliation).

Payouts take place every two months only if no predator has been killed in retaliation during that period (in which case all claims for that area are nullified). The community pays 30% of the total compensation amount, and the most recent delay was while one community organised their contribution.

After a ten-month wait, the equivalent of approximately $34,280 was paid to 778 people for the death of 1148 animals over the period, an average of almost 4 livestock killed each day. The total economic loss was more than double that amount, but compensation trails market values and penalties are applied for livestock killed as a result of poor husbandry (i.e. livestock killed while unattended or lost) or bad livestock enclosures.

Despite all of these livestock deaths only one lion has been killed across this 400,000-acre area so far this year, and in this case a fine was paid by the community according to the compensation agreement.

The success of the Big Life compensation program demonstrates that while the desire to kill is strong, economic incentives are stronger. We cannot expect people to simply grin and bear the significant economic losses to predators. Compensation is a simple, efficient, and targeted solution to address the problem.

The battle lines have been drawn, the warriors are ready. For three months the combatants have tested each other, looking for weakness and respecting strength. All focus is now on the deciding clash, the Maasai Olympics final to be held in December.

The four warrior manyattas (a warrior village) have gone head-to-head against one other in the lead up events, six separate competitions action-packed with athletic performances, spirited but sporting rivalry, and no dead lions.

And that’s what this is about, providing a culturally relevant alternative to the age-old practice of lion killing as a form of competition. Families no longer receive phone calls about sons mauled by lions and lying in hospital, or arrested and facing trial for the practice. And the warriors are able to keep their battle songs alive, as well as the competition that is such an important part of the culture.

First held in 2012, the biennial event is happening for the third time and the standard of athletics continues to improve. The new record for the standing high jump has recently been set at a whopping 9’3’’, and the season’s best javelin throw stands at 55.5m.

Mbirikani, the winning team in the previous Maasai Olympics finals, have continued their winning form and will surely be the hot favourites to take home the gold trophy and prize breeding bull on the 10^th of December. But this, of course, is sport and the only thing guaranteed is that Amboseli has a colourful and vibrant spectacle in store.

There is an animal out there that eats everything. It is neither carnivore nor herbivore, and simply devours whatever lies in its path. That animal is fire, and has rocked parts of the Amboseli ecosystem over the last few days.

The worst of it has affected the Chyulu Hills, and although we can’t be sure of why we are pretty certain it was started by humans, potentially herders or miraa pickers (miraa is a local plant chewed as a stimulant) burning to stimulate fresh growth of grass or miraa respectively.

This fire is under control but the whole ecosystem is a tinderbox as we wait for the rains, and once ignited flames are almost unstoppable on the back of strong winds. Fire is a natural phenomenon, but repeated man-made fires are a severe form of habitat destruction.

And it is habitat that is becoming more and more important for Big Life. With wildlife poaching largely under control in the ecosystem it’s time to focus again on timescales that extend beyond our own lifespans.

In the short term it’s about enforcement, and this year to date Big Life rangers have arrested 119 people for all forms of habitat destruction, largely illegal charcoal production.

But more importantly, it’s about securing spaces that are safe from destructive forms of development in the long term, spaces that benefit communities rather than individuals. Community conservancies are a way to do this, and support for these areas is an important part of Big Life’s strategy moving forward.

In the Big Life radio room sits a special phone - a dedicated helpline for farmers that are having trouble with wild animals raiding their crops. Elephants, zebras, elands and baboons all keep this phone busy, but one recent call stood out.

The voice on the other end of the line spoke of a python in his fields and a ranger team rushed to the farm, anxious to rescue the python before anyone got overzealous with a stick. There, instead of said python, lay a fairly amazing surprise. A ground pangolin, curled up and doing its best to shut the humans out.

More than 100,000 elephants dead, and countless human lives lost. It’s been a long and bloody journey into a tunnel of darkness, but there is finally, POTENTIALLY, some light at the end of it.

A recent Africa-wide survey showed expected shocking declines in elephant numbers, but figures also indicate that the horrifying pace of illegal killing of elephants since 2008 has stabilized and is now declining a little. 

Why? Because the price of ivory has dropped in the Far East, partly thanks to pressure on demand, and the unprecedented recent commitment made by China to phase out its domestic ivory trade. This has quickly translated into lower prices for poachers, and a reduced incentive to take the risks associated with killing an elephant.

But there is a perilous threat to this hard-won reprieve. The killing was partly triggered in 2008 by one momentous and disastrous decision by the members of CITES, the international treaty that governs the international trade in wildlife products. That fateful year, they allowed a one-off sale of stockpiled ivory from three southern African countries, a move that fed a rapidly growing Chinese demand.

What followed was catastrophic; an explosion of poaching across Africa, the murder of thousands of elephants by poachers, and illegal ivory being sold with false documentation under the guise of legal ivory. 

And now... just as it seems that real progress is being made in the fight against poaching, some countries want to advocate on behalf of the same disastrous policy, ignoring these previous lessons. 

Starting today, the members of CITES will meet in Johannesburg, and the decisions made will have a dramatic impact on the future of Africa’s elephants.

African elephants currently have a split classification by CITES. Populations in Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, and Zimbabwe are classified under Appendix II, which allows international trade, but under strict conditions. Elephants across the rest of the continent are classified under Appendix I, which completely prohibits commercial international trade. There is currently a global moratorium on ivory sales that started at the time of the last sale in 2008 and will run for nine years, ending in 2017. 

Namibia and Zimbabwe, backed by other southern African states, are proposing to have their populations classified as unqualified Appendix II, which would allow for future trade under an agreed ivory trade mechanism. On the opposite side of the debate is a 29-member block of African states that is proposing to move all elephant populations onto Appendix I, completely eliminating the option of international trade.

It is hard to predict the outcome. The EU, a critically-important voting bloc, has shown worrying support for southern African states’ proposals for sustainable-usage (read trade) policies, and little support for complete closure of domestic ivory markets across the world.

Of course, there will always be some misguided people trying to argue that the way for elephants to survive is to legalize the ivory trade. There was article yesterday in The Guardian, of all places, arguing for legalizing the ivory trade, when it has already been shown to only make things much worse. 

This is not the time to be talking about legitimizing the ivory trade. It would be a truly tragic step in the wrong direction. An unequivocal global ban on ivory needs to happen NOW, before it is too late.

It’s happened time and again throughout history; humans have either consumed a species into extinction or stood by and let it happen.

But this time it’s different, or we hope it will be. The world is well aware of the threat faced by rhinos and people are standing up everywhere to protect the increasingly few that remain. Here in the Amboseli ecosytem Big Life, in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), is working to protect a small population of critically endangered, wild (unfenced) Eastern black rhino. Through financial support from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Chester Zoo, Save the Rhino International, Zoological Society of London, and others, we provide round the clock security for this globally significant population.

Just three months ago, Tim, the biggest tusker in the ecosystem, was speared. For the second time. He had once again raided crops in an area of wildlife habitat increasingly compromised by the invasion of farmland, motivating the farmer to hurl a spear in frustration.

Fortunately, rangers from Big Life and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) units, and Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE) research staff initiated searches. Aerial surveillance was deployed. After three hours, Tim was spotted from the air. Thanks to the fantastic response of everyone involved- along with Big Life, ATE, KWS, DSWT, and Tawi Lodge- enough manpower and vehicles were on hand to quickly and safely roll Tim onto his correct side for treatment. Tim, now 47 years old and first named by Cynthia Moss of ATE, got to live another day.

7 billion people in the world, each with a personality. As few as 450,000 elephants in the world, each with a personality. And yesterday one of those elephants was in trouble.

We know him as Tofauti, which means different in Swahili, and he is a regular in Big Life’s core area. He was spotted by a staff member from Great Plains Conservation, an important local tourism partner of Big Life Foundation, and it was a depressingly familiar prognosis. A spear wound in his rear, likely delivered as he ran from a farmer’s field.

Thankfully, the ever-dependable KWS and David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust vet unit was quick to respond and the elephant was darted from a helicopter, treated, and back on his feet within hours.

Today is World Elephant Day, and should be a day to reflect not only on elephants as a species, but on the fact that each one is different. Just like humans they have emotions, families and fights. Protecting these animals is a responsibility, not a choice.

In 2003, the Kilimanjaro lions living on Mbirikani Group Ranch were nearly extinct. There were less than 10 alive.

In the Amboseli ecosystem, the mainstay of the economy is rearing livestock. Lions, being the opportunists that they are, literally lick their chops at the sound of cattle bells, because it signifies a potential meal. Unfortunately, it also signifies the loss of a valuable asset to the cattle owner, who might retaliate and kill the predator responsible, either with spears or poison.

This ongoing conflict between man and lion is one of the main reasons the African lion population has gone into free fall from 200,000 to less than 20,000 in the last two decades and still falling. There are less than 2,000 in Kenya.

Facing imminent extinction of the local lion population, Big Life launched the Predator Compensation Fund, which compensates the local Maasai for the loss of their livestock to predators, including lions, cheetah, hyena, leopard and others.  With the fund in place, the killing stopped immediately.

As a result, the Kilimanjaro lions in the Amboseli ecosystem are thriving, and one of the only lion populations in Africa that is growing. Today, we have over 150 lions, and many new litters of cubs this season.

As we celebrate these incredible animals for World Lion Day, please considering making a donation to support our predator protection programs.

The place is like a lost world, inhospitable and untamed. Every bush has thorns that tear at unclothed pieces of flesh; the volcanic rock underfoot is sharp as razors and eats ranger boots for breakfast.

This is the world that Kipalero Lenkilasi and his team spend their days protecting. It is home to a small and secretive population of Eastern black rhino that few of them have ever even laid eyes on.

It takes a lot of effort to protect something that you can’t see, and even more dedication. The men working in this area have the second in spades, and put in huge amounts of the first. And thanks to a growing partnership with Zoological Society of London, we are increasingly recognizing them for the work that they do, something that goes largely unnoticed by the rest of of the world.

GPS devices monitor the time and distance walked on daily patrols, allowing ranger commanders to more effectively plan their teams’ patrols (image bottom), as well as identify the best performing rangers.

The first ranger to receive this award was Kipalero Lenkilasi (image top), who started off as a cook and later became a ranger, working his way up into a senior leadership position in his unit. It is men like Kipalero that dedicate their lives to protect the treasures of our natural world, something that deserves some thought this week leading up to World Ranger Day on July 31st.

Killing frenzies have happened before, and they will undoubtedly happen again. 

In this case a pride of lions discovered 134 goats lost in a forest, and all hell broke lose. The result was at least 53 dead livestock.

Another week, another huge bull elephant with a spear in it.

This time his name was Ulysses, an elephant well known to the Amboseli Trust for Elephants (ATE). After receiving the call from ATE Big Life got a plane in the air and was able to first locate Ulysses, and then guide the ATE ground team to him.

It’s been a year since the gunshots in the darkness. The rangers searched high and low and didn’t find any carcasses, but nor could they find any sign of the black rhino Tara and her young calf.

For three months the rangers combed her home range, searching for any clue that they were still alive, but there was never any good news. Time passed and we slowly and sadly accepted that poachers had likely killed the two.

You smell… Everyone does. And more importantly, everyone smells different.

That’s how Bonnie, Clyde, and Didi would find you. Working in shifts, the Big Life dog team would track you as fast as you could move on foot. Bonnie and Clyde, the new bloodhound puppies, are now eight months old and have the vigor of youth. Didi, who was originally found at a rescue shelter, has the experience and cunning of a veteran.

They’re a formidable team, and more so after returning from a few months of training with the Ol Jogi ranch dog unit. Ol Jogi has one of the best dog teams in the business, and the three Big Life dogs and their handlers soaked it all up.

The Big Life team is now back in Amboseli, and itching to test their newly polished skills on a live track. Until that happens, it’s back to daily training and exercise regimens. With huge thanks to Ol Jogi, this is now a team that poachers have even greater reason to fear.

There’s no politics like lion politics. The biggest males battle it out for the most produtive territories, and the affections of the females within them. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does the world shakes. Last year Big Life was excited to share news of the birth of seven lion cubs to two females in one part of the ecosystem. It was another step in the rebuilding of a local lion population that was previously decimated by traditional killings and retaliation for livestock predation. Prides were finally starting to form again, a huge testament to the success of the Big Life livestock compensation program, and the work of our local partners Lion Guardians. But one night things fell apart for this pride. Two new males arrived in the territory, which they claimed swiftly by kicking out the father of the cubs. The mothers had no option but to flee or have their cubs killed by the newcomers. For months they were gone. But a couple of weeks ago the two females were back, with five surviving cubs that were now big enough to introduce to the new males. Hopefully the newcomers will now hold this particular territory for years to come, and make their own contribution to the lion population of Amboseli. With stability, lion populations can grow rapidly. But to achieve this natural order you need to limit human killing. That is what the Big Life livestock compensation program has done, and there is nothing better than watching the results growing up in front of us.

The mid-night sting is complete, the rangers are calming down after the adrenaline rush of action. The ivory dealer is in handcuffs and no one has been hurt. Now what?

Conservation agencies across Africa have been frustrated time and again after risky and often expensive operations lead to the arrest of a poacher, but weak laws, corruption, and judiciaries with a poor knowledge of wildlife crimes let the bad guys walk. These same people are sometimes even caught again. 

So having eyes and ears in the courtrooms is critical. Big Life has a prosecutions officer who attends all wildlife poaching court cases, and we are seeing evidence of improvement around us. Two ivory dealers who were arrested by Big Life late last year were recently sentenced to three years in prison (without option of a fine), and a suspect caught earlier this year with 95kg of ivory (pictured here) is being held on a bond of $200,000. A few years ago both of these outcomes would have been unimaginable.

Kenya has seen decreases in elephant poaching for the last three years, and Big Life is proud to have been part of this success. It’s not rocket science, catch the poachers and punish them, and you will start to deter poaching.

We don’t know how the baby elephant got separated from his mother, but being blind can’t have helped.

He was discovered wandering alone on Saturday afternoon byAmboseli Trust for Elephants(ATE), and Big Life immediately sent a team of rangers to help. 

The young elephant, only about 5 months old, was given a safe place to spend the night at the ATE camp. The following morning, the ever-reliable The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust(DSWT) flew a team down to collect the baby elephant and take him back to their orphanage in Nairobi. There, he will receive proper care and a second chance at life. 

It’s another sad case of an elephant losing his family, but we at Big Life are grateful for our partners, such as ATE and DSWT, and the work they are doing, all of which dovetails so well with our own.

This weekend saw a colourful celebration at the Big Life headquarters in Amboseli. The stars of the show were the sixteen rangers who graduated last month from an intensive three-month paramilitary course run by the Kenya Wildlife Service. But just as important was the attendance of their families and local leaders.

Proudly on show was the trophy received by Big Life ranger Sembeke for his award of ‘Best Leader’ on the course. Huge congratulations to him and all of the other rangers for passing this test, and Big Life looks forward to their hugely important contributions to protecting the wildlife of Amboseli. Thanks again to International Fund for Animal Welfare - IFAW who kindly funded the training costs for ten of these rangers.

A window falling out of your plane on take-off is not ideal. A gauge stuck in the red whilst flying is not great either. An engine failure mid-flight is the worst of all. However, that had become the norm flying the old Big Life Super Cub over the last few years. 

Fortunately, enough people seemed to care whether I lived or died that they decided enough was enough. An appeal was made to one of Big Life's most generous donors in the US, and they immediately responded by donating towards two-thirds of the cost of a replacement plane. The prize money for the Tusk Prince William Lifetime Achievement Conservation Award made up the difference.

A 12-year-old Top Cub came on the market in Arizona, and she only had 280 hours on her, so in plane terms was like new, and we snapped her up.

It took about a year of headaches to navigate the labyrinth of red tape and shipping lanes, get her wings back on, and have her re-registered in Kenya.

The best Christmas present I have ever had, she certainly is the sweetest Cub I have flown. She jumps into the air more like a helicopter than an airplane, using hardly any runway, which is useful when most landings and take-offs are on ground that never comes close to resembling an airstrip. Even more important, she can fly at about about 35 miles an hour, making it easy to observe wildlife and support our rangers on the ground.

So a huge thank you to our life-saving Big Life supporters and Tusk, who made it possible to put one of the most important tools in field conservation back into our toolbox.

When an elephant falls to poachers it’s the end of a life, but the start of something else: a high stakes game of hide and seek.

The poachers will often have the advantage of a head start, and the seekers need every tracking tool available.

Enter the most sophisticated technology of them all: a nose. And not just any nose, a bloodhound dog has more scent receptors than any other breed. And so we’re very excited to have two of these outstanding noses joining the Big Life team.

These innate skills will complement the stamina and tenacity of Deedee, the current Big Life tracker dog who was rescued from a Nairobi shelter. The new pups were born only two hours drive from Big Life HQ, and should be well suited to local conditions.

They are still very young, their days a blur of chasing each other around and collapsing for a nap in between. These boisterous bundles, one male and one female, have not yet been named and we are waiting to learn more about their characters before we do so.

The pups will spend the next few months of their lives getting to know their handlers and doing basic obedience training, after which they will begin a more intensive training program that will turn them into one of the most useful tools in the fight against poaching, alongside the Big Life tracker dog team operating in Tanzania.

To a dog, tracking becomes a game. To us, it’s the difference between putting an elephant killer behind bars or not. As it turns out, man and elephant have a best friend in common.

“Do you wear underpants beneath your Maasai dress?”

An awkward start to a Q&A session, but one of the more humorous questions that Daniel ole Sambu, a Maasai tribesman and Big Life staff member, received from one of the 2600 school children he addressed during a recent trip to Hong Kong and Singapore.

But there were far more heart-wrenching questions than humorous ones, says Sambu. Many of the children were still under the impression that elephant tusks were simply “collected in the forest,” and no matter how gently Sambu conveyed his message of how tusks are actually obtained, many of the children had tears in their eyes.

Sambu’s visit was organised by The Elephant Society. “It was the trip of a lifetime,” he says, “but also a call of duty for me. I wanted to do the best that I could to represent the rangers and local Maasai community who are working so hard to conserve wildlife.”

While in Hong Kong, Sambu joined Project C:Change in a march through the streets to demonstrate against the ivory trade, which is still legal in the city. Confronted with rows of ivory shops and consumers negotiating inside for the best price, Sambu was shocked. “We see these things in documentaries and we didn’t believe it, but I was there and saw it with my own eyes. It is so bad.”

Thankfully, these eye-openers were balanced by moving acts of support. After one school talk, a young boy walked up to Sambu and gave him $4, telling him that this was his donation and that he would do more fundraising to support Big Life. That $4 can buy two days of field rations for a Big Life ranger.

At a policy level, there also seems to be positive change in Hong Kong. Lawmakers from the Hong Kong Legislative Council unanimously passed a motion on December 3, 2015 calling for the Hong Kong government to legislate for a commercial ban on ivory trading. Although non-binding, this high-level pressure is unprecedented in Hong Kong.

It seems that things are changing for the better, however slowly. In the meantime, Big Life will continue our work here in East Africa to make sure that as many elephants as possible will survive the poaching crisis.

November, one year ago. Rangers at the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania received one of the dreaded calls: an elephant had been killed by poachers.

The anti-poaching unit set off immediately, but they weren’t alone. With them were two remarkable hounds, Jerry and Chester from the Big Life tracker dog unit.

Within hours, sniffing through the wilderness, the conservation canines had tracked the scent from the elephant carcass right up to a suspected poacher’s house. This eventually led to the arrest of all the poachers involved.

At that time, these calls were coming almost weekly, but a year and a string of arrests later, elephant poaching has dropped to almost nothing in the area.

The dogs, managed by Big Life’s implementing partners in Tanzania, Honeyguide Foundation, have been so successful that they’ve just about put themselves out of the elephant-poacher-catching business. Thanks to their terrifying reputation, they are now focused primarily on eliminating bushmeat poaching and tracking community criminals.

The deterrent effect that their success has had is astounding. Poachers know how hard it is to outsmart those noses, and it has pushed the risk element too high. Not only this, but it has set an encouraging example of cooperation between an NGO, the Tanzanian government, and the communities in which the dogs work.

Jerry and Chester have come a long way since they first started working on the Tanzanian side of the greater Amboseli ecosystem in 2011, and it seems that they are only just getting started. We sure are glad they’re on our team!

Photo credit: Felipe Rodriguez

The dead flies are the first sign, their blue bodies in glittering piles, reflecting the sun. Followed by that sinking feeling, discovering that the poisoned cow had been eaten by more than just flies. On Wednesday morning, a Big Life informer reported that multiple livestock had been killed the night before in a place north of the Amboseli ecosystem. All of the owners seemed to be calm, and noone was talking about retaliating. Our informer did not notice at the time that one cow carcass was missing. The next piece of information was about a poisoned cow carcass, which prompted a search of the area for predator carcasses. Unfortunately, Big Life and Kenya Wildlife Service rangers found three dead lions—two of them young cubs. No other carcasses have been found, and tracks indicate that at least one survived, but there were four other lions in the pride who remain unaccounted for. This tragedy comes in the wake of another lion poisoning in the Maasai Mara only a few days ago, and sadly was almost inevitable. The lions had moved far north of their core ecosystem and outside of Big Life’s area of operation, into an area where people see zero benefit from the existence of wildlife. As much as we wish it were different, we understand exactly what happened. These are deeply complex issues, with the welfare of people and wildlife on the line. Unfortunately, there are some places in Africa where wildlife has a chance, and others where the balance has tipped too far away from natural systems. Our only hope is to try to keep the animals we protect away from these areas, or to secure enough funding for the expansion of Big Life’s Predator Compensation Fund. With a larger area of operation, we can not only protect more animals, but also more effectively protect those who unknowingly stray outside the boundaries of the current safe haven.

Poison. It’s everywhere, used across the world to kill pests on crops and livestock. But in Africa those same products are used to kill lions.

This last weekend, we saw another sad example of this in the Maasai Mara of Kenya. One lioness confirmed dead, and others still sick or unaccounted for. These lions were from a pride made famous by TV crews, but countless other victims don’t make it onto your news feed.

Why is this happening? Because lions kill livestock.

Poisoning is an easy form of revenge, but it’s not the only way to do it. Just days ago one of the remaining desert adapted lions of Namibia was shot dead by a farmer for the same reason.

There is an ongoing debate on what to do about it, but here in Amboseli Big Life has developed a simple solution: livestock compensation. Through a community agreement, Big Life pays people a portion of their economic losses to predators, so long as no predators are killed in retaliation. It’s give and take on both sides.

And it works. The Amboseli lion population has been increasing for the past decade, a beacon of hope at a time when an IUCN assessment indicates an estimated 59% drop in sample populations across East Africa over the last 20 years. This is a testament to the success of compensation, and the complimentary work of other groups such as the Lion Guardians.

Elsewhere in Africa, when a lion kills a cow, people reach for their weapons. In Amboseli, they reach for their phones to call the Big Life compensation officers. This is the new normal, and it has forged a future for lions in the ecosystem.

Daniel Ole Sambu continues his visit to East Asia, representing Big Life Foundation and the Maasai of Amboseli. With assistance from The Elephant Society, Daniel has been visiting local schools and engaging with more than 2000 children. They’ve been discussing the impact of the ivory trade on elephant populations in Africa.

Daniel is pictured here with one such school group as they “Say No to Ivory.”

We hope that these kids will bring the change of tomorrow. For today, the goal is to keep building pressure for a complete ban on the trade of ivory.

The explosion rippled through the Maasai homesteads in the early hours of the morning. Kinyaku Konee sat bolt upright in bed, knowing instinctively that his world had shifted in some way.

He was out at first light, and a walk down to his livestock-watering tank confirmed his fears. The structure was shattered, massive chunks of stone and cement strewn around, the tank emptied. 

This week Big Life has been to the heart of the market for ivory in Hong Kong. One of our program coordinators in Kenya, Daniel Ole Sambu, participated in a march with WildAid Hong Kong and the Elephant Society to protest ivory sales, asking the government to ban domestic trade.

Sambu, dressed in traditional Maasai clothing, walked with protestors through the heart of Hong Kong’s ivory market in Sheung Wan. After, he commented to the South China Morning Post: “It's horrible because all I see are dead elephants.”

As for why Hong Kong matters, Sambu said, “Hong Kong is considered a transit market for ivory so we are telling Hong Kong that even the end market will have to find somewhere else if they ban it. So it has to start with Hong Kong saying that we don't want anything related to ivory."

Read more: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1881629/kenyan-maasai-marchers-call-hong-kong-ivory-ban

Her right paw ensnared in a poacher’s deadly trap, the cheetah had nothing left to do but to wait and die. Earlier last month, she walked into the wire snare just outside of the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area in northern Tanzania, which borders on the Amboseli ecosystem in Kenya.  As news of the incident spread quickly in nearby villages, a band gathered and set off to spear and kill the entangled cat. Fortunately, a farm manager contacted the Big Life supported rangers from Enduimet just in time, who soon intervened and saved the cheetah.  With support from Tanzania’s Wildlife Division, the Kilimanjaro Animal CREW rescue team later arrived at the scene and eventually freed the cheetah and transported her to their rehabilitation facilities, where she is expected to make a full recovery and eventually be reintroduced into the wild.

Justus Nzioki was 13 years old when he killed his first rhino. And it wasn’t the last, as Justus later turned to poaching to earn a living.

“It was a rush,” says Justus. “I didn’t feel bad, I felt courageous, because I knew I was making enough money to feed my family. But then one day I heard a rhino crying, screaming, just like a human, and I was haunted. I just knew in my heart that there had to be another way to survive.”

“We have to go,” Patrick says as he starts the engine. “An elephant has been speared in her back, she’s limping, and she’s entered the park.” And so it began, the start of another elephant injury treatment, unfortunately an all too common occurrence as humans and elephants continue to compete for scarce resources. The elephant was discovered by rangers on patrol, and the rescue team swung into action. Jamie Joseph from savingthewild.com was there to capture all the action, read the full story HERE.

The elephant named Tom is no stranger to the soft pop of a dart gun. One year ago this big bull was darted and treated for cancerous growths on his scrotum. Today he was darted again, but this time for something altogether unnatural – a spear wound.  After first seeing that Tom was in trouble, rangers and staff from Great Plains Conservation set up watch at the local waterhole. Tom was visiting routinely and the The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust was quick to provide assistance, flying a Kenya Wildlife Service vet into the area yesterday evening. The wait began, but Tom didn’t turn up for his usual evening drink. We were worried that he might have left the area, so it was a huge relief when he turned up this morning.  The operation got off to a bad start when Tom fell badly after the dart went in, but the team managed to pull him onto his side with a vehicle. The vet then cleaned the infected wound and Tom recovered from the anaesthetic without trouble. It’s almost certain that this spearing is the result of the on-going conflict between farmers and elephants raiding their crops. Big Life has ranger teams that operate day and night to assist communities in dealing with elephants, and were it not for their tireless work we would undoubtedly be treating many more injuries like this.

 If there is one thing that humans do well, it’s making up stories. For instance, the striped hyena is believed by many communities to be a killer of small children and robber of graves. Not so, this secretive animal does its best to avoid human contact, but that hasn’t stopped humans. Persecuted across its rapidly diminishing range, the striped hyena is now classified as near threatened by the IUCN, with fewer than 10,000 adult individuals believed alive. Although little is known, we believe that there is a healthy population in the areas protected by Big Life’s predator compensation program. Even so, this misunderstood animal causes little to no economic damage here, compared to its bigger, spotted cousin that is responsible for more than 50% of the livestock killed by predators. To find out more about predator compensation, or support the program, please visit the ‘Wildlife Protection’ tab on our website. #WildlifeWednesday #PCFworks

No way, that is, until community members discovered her and notified rangers nearby. Acting quickly, the team lassoed a rope around her horns and pulled her to safety. The little wildebeest was last seen trotting off with her herd, having hopefully learned a lesson about gravity.

 Patrolling on foot in the African bush can be a dangerous business, and some of the Big Life rangers can show you the scars to prove it. You never know what’s ahead of you, so when a giraffe stares, you stop. They have spotted something you haven’t.   Sadly, commercial game meat poachers are targeting these gentle creatures. They are big animals, so it’s a high return on poaching investment, and the meat is sought after in certain communities. So while giraffes are watching out for all the animals of the bush, the Big Life rangers are watching out for them. And the Kenyan courts are increasingly coming to the rescue. Our rangers recently caught five poachers who had killed a giraffe. The case has not yet gone to trial but bail has been set at roughly $8,000 per person; a fact that will hopefully make poachers think twice about killing these beautiful animals in the Amboseli ecosystem in future.  #WildlifeWednesday #Giraffe

Today is ‪#‎WorldRangersDay‬. We are honored and humbled by the work wildlife rangers conduct all over the world to protect nature for the benefit of all. 

Big Life employs hundreds of local Maasai rangers across the Amboseli-Kilimanjaro-Tsavo ecosystem. These rangers put their lives on the line every day they're in the field to protect their communities. They are supported by Big Life, their families, their community leaders, and a broad network of informers as they work to prevent wildlife crimes and track down poachers across the African bush. 

Cecil's passing is a tragedy, as are the untimely demises of all animals facing threats from poachers and hunters today across Africa. As we learned of this tragedy, we couldn't help but think of the predators that call our ecosystem around Amboseli home. Our spirits were lifted to see these two cheetah brothers this morning, east of Amboseli. Kenya doesn't allow hunting of wildlife as some other countries, like Zimbabwe, do. But these animals are still under threat, from poaching and from retaliation from local communities who may lose livestock to them from time to time. Our Predator Compensation Fund supports these communities, and thus protects the lions, hyenas, and cheetahs like these two from persecution. Perhaps seeing them today will lift your spirits too.   #PCFworks #WildlifeWednesday #RIPCecil

Pungent smoke fills the air, a sickly combination of burning flesh and kerosene. The rangers rake more wood over the nine vulture carcasses; all traces of the poison must be burnt.

But the vultures weren’t the only casualties; the poison also struck its intended target. A week prior, a pride of lions killed two cows. Someone came back for the skins and meat, but left poisoned carcasses behind. At least one lion died as a result.

This poisoning was carried out on Mbirikani, which is covered by the Big Life compensation program, but by members of neighbouring Merueshi, who do not get compensated for livestock killed by wild predators. Mbirikani elders reacted by denying grazing access to Merueshi cattle, and, although this is unlikely to last, it is a huge statement in a land of pastoralists.

The suspects, the cow owner and his sons, have been arrested and charged, and we await the outcome. But unfortunately nothing changes the end result: dead animals.

Poison is a scary substance. It is cheaply available to EVERYONE. A person can kill easily, with little chance of being discovered. It is an insidious threat that cannot be fought this with boots on the ground. Rather, you need ways to change how people think, and behave, whether they’re being watched or not. And Big Life’s compensation program does exactly that.

With limited funding, we can only protect a finite number of lions. But your support is critical in making sure that we can at least do this.

Please support Big Life’s predator compensation program at: www.biglife.org/donations

The front line of wildlife protection can be a dangerous place. From machete-wielding poachers to buffalos lurking in the thick bush, being a ranger is not for the faint-hearted. Facing this, it is critical that the Big Life rangers know what to do when things go wrong. With generous support from The Thin Green Line Foundation and African Wildlife Foundation, one dedicated trainer has just spent two weeks giving 201 rangers (188 from Big Life and 13 from Kenya Wildlife Service) a crash course in how to keep someone alive.  Working in remote environments where help might be hours away, this training could save a ranger’s life in future, and nothing is more important to us.

In stark terms, contrast and compare:

In the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area of Tanzania, 2 lions are dead this year already—speared after killing livestock—with an estimated 34 lions killed since 2009.

Meanwhile, just across the border in Kenya, under Big Life’s Predator Compensation program, NO lions have been killed this year by participating communities. Only two lions were killed in 2014, following three years of no deaths in communities covered by the program.

Unfortunately, lions don’t respect international borders, so some of those lions in Enduimet came from the protected Kenya side. Big Life, in partnership with the Honeyguide Foundation, funds anti-poaching operations in Enduimet, but there is no compensation program in place yet. Additional funding is needed for that.

These photos show the real life impact of the Kenyan compensation program. In 2013, we posted a photo sharing our excitement at the “coming out” of 4 new lion cubs. Earlier this year, we shared the photo on the right of the same 4 cubs, now teenagers.

Under our protection, these cubs have managed to defy all odds and survive those early years when mortality rates can be as high as 75%. This is particularly poignant, as it is a great example of the success of the predator compensation program we initiated 12 years ago, which has helped to bring the lions of the Amboseli ecosystem back from the brink of extinction.

Our solution makes perfect sense to livestock owners. If you can prove that a wild animal killed your livestock, Big Life will pay you a percentage of the value of that livestock. BUT, if a member of your community kills a predator, then neither you nor anyone in your community gets paid for a two-month period. It’s an agreement that keeps livestock owners happy, and lions alive.

Africa’s predators have a rough ride ahead, and conservation interventions need to somehow balance the costs that local people incur through living with these animals. The Big Life compensation program has proven to be a very successful way of doing that, and the results are clear.

However, as illustrated in Tanzania, we desperately need to expand our compensation program to protect predators as they move into neighbouring areas, as well as continue to fund the protection of lions in Amboseli.

You can help to keep lions and other predators alive, please take the time to donate to the Predator Compensation Fund at www.biglife.org/donations.

It’s a simple equation. And we are seeing the repeated results in the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area of Tanzania. Two lions are dead this year already, speared after killing livestock, bringing the total to an estimated 34 lions killed since 2009. This is in stark contrast to the situation across the border in Kenya. NO LIONS have been killed this year by communities participating in the Big Life compensation scheme, which protects all predators over an area of approximately 700,000 acres. Only two lions were killed in 2014, following three years of no deaths. Our solution makes perfect sense to livestock owners. If you can prove that a wild animal killed your livestock, Big Life will pay you a percentage of the value of that livestock. BUT, if a predator is killed in your area, then neither you nor anyone in your community gets paid for a two-month period. It’s an agreement that keeps livestock owners happy, and lions alive.  Working together with Lion Guardians, our lion conservation efforts have been remarkably successful. But we desperately need to expand compensation to protect predators as they move into neighbouring areas, as well as consolidate the existing program in Amboseli.  You can help to keep lions and other predators alive, please take the time to donate to the Predator Compensation Fund at www.biglife.org/donations.

The confirmation is out, Tanzania is bearing witness to a massacre. Despite previous efforts to deny the severity of the situation, last week Tanzanian officials confirmed a catastrophic 60% decline in country-wide elephant numbers since 2009, almost entirely as a result of poaching. 

This equates to about 85,000 elephants, dead. Statistics must always be questioned, but there is no doubt about the scale of the problem.

The losses were not uniform, and were most severe in the famous Ruaha and Selous ecosystems, which lost more than two-thirds of their elephants. In 2009 Ruaha had an estimated 34,000 elephants, which dropped to just 8,000 in 2014. Similarly in the Selous, elephant numbers dropped from almost 45,000 to around 15,000. 

Such numbers leave little room for optimism. But in contrast to the devastation elsewhere, Big Life Tanzania, working through our partners Honeyguide Foundation is seeing positive results where we operate in Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), working closely with communities and supporting rangers.

In the 4 major community-based conservation areas where we operate (Enduimet, Burunge, Randilen and Manyara Ranch) ONLY 2 ELEPHANTS have been poached since operations began in 2013. Although both of the elephants killed were in Manyara Ranch, this figure represents a 95% reduction in poaching since anti-poaching operations began there. This is the result of a joint effort on the ground including Big Life support and other NGO’s, including The Nature Conservancy and African Wildlife Foundation. 

However, there is little doubt that as the southern Tanzania elephant population drops further, the pressure will increase in the north. Big Life and Honeyguide, and others working to save Tanzania’s elephants, are going to need all the help that we can get.

“This is not the time for glib marketing campaigns or gratuitous gloom and doom. It is the time for facts and focus.”

Above is the conclusion of an article by Jane Edge in Africa Geographic magazine, looking at the effectiveness of various elephant protection NGOs across Africa. With the future of the African elephant at stake, donors are often confused by the hundreds of NGOs proclaiming to protect elephants.

Big Life was pleased to be highlighted as an organization worth supporting: 

“With its clear agenda and focused action, Big Life is clearly a model to replicate.”

For Big Life, conservation is about communities. By supporting the local people who coexist with wildlife, sharing land and scarce resources, we work to ensure that that the benefits of conservation extend not only to animals, but to all inhabitants of the ecosystem. This gives local communities a reason to embrace our efforts as their own.

In another far-reaching article posted by Virgin Unite, Jamie Joseph uses Big Life as an example as she explores the importance of alleviating poverty “to reduce the demand and appeal of hunting some of the world’s most beautiful and endangered species.” This approach, at the heart of Big Life’s philosophy, will only become more important as the human population continues to explode across the continent.

“Big Life Foundation has become the benchmark of the good work any NGO can do in the communities of the Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem. 

Last week, a double tragedy struck on the northern edge of the Amboseli ecosystem. 

A herd of elephants, driven by the unusually dry conditions that we are experiencing here, strayed into an area that has not had elephants for nearly 35 years. They were in search of water, and found it in a dam dug by a family on their small farm to irrigate crops.

In 2013, we posted the top photo and shared our excitement at the “coming out” of 4 new lion cubs. The photo on the bottom, from just a few weeks ago, is of the same 4 cubs, now teenagers.

Under our protection, these cubs have managed to defy all odds and survive those early years when mortality rates can be as high as 75%. 

Parts of the earth are wild, and parts will never be the same again. Big Life operates in the middle, a place where wildlife and humans live together, both trying to survive. The dry seasons are when the relationship becomes most strained. Stress levels rise and tempers fray, water becomes liquid gold. As a Maasai herdsman, you spend much of your income pumping water for your cattle. Imagine then bringing your thirsty herd to a borehole watering point and finding it empty. Or worse still, the pipes and tanks destroyed by elephant. What do you do? Get angry, and that anger often leads to actions that could end up with an elephant with a spear in it. Now imagine you are an elephant, a thirsty one with a thirsty family. You arrive at the watering point and find it empty. What then? Your sense of smell leads you to a tank, and the only way in is to pull up the pipes or break the tank.  There is a simple solution. In this case everyone can be happy by making separate water points available for elephants away from the cattle troughs. But this involves building a water point, plumbing it and supplying diesel to run the pumps. We have six water points that create conflict between cattlemen and elephant. To build a dedicated water point and plumb it requires about $2,000, then about $10 per day to buy diesel to run the pumps. The rains have failed in many areas this year and the deadly conflicts are inevitable. Can you help us by either building a water point ($2000) or donating to run the pumps for a month ($300)? Please go to www.biglife.org/donations Thank You, Richard Bonham

Man is certainly an ingenious beast, but when it comes to developing new ways to kill he seems to excel himself…  This was confirmed again last week when the Big Life Rapid Deployment Unit, acting on a tip-off, raided the homestead of a known poacher on the border of Chyulu Hills National Park, and unearthed this lethal treasure trove of poachers' tools. What jumps out at me is the mix of new and old methods, all aimed at targeting elephants, rhino and the animals from giraffes to zebras to gazelle that make up the thriving bushmeat trade. On one hand, there are the traditional arrow poisons, thousands of years old. Then the new agricultural poisons, available over the counter, to lace not only arrow heads, but also tempting melons put on the trails used by elephant and rhino. This poacher and his tools are now out of circulation. But right now, there are other lairs out there - hideouts where poachers are preparing for their deadly work. Real success is catching these people before they kill, and no-one is better placed to do this than the Big Life rangers from within these communities.  If you would like to directly support the work of the Big Life rangers, please consider joining the Big Life Ranger Club at www.biglife.org/big-life-ranger-club Richard Bonham

 

There are 7 animals' meat cut up in the accompanying photo. 

There is a clear line between killing out of desperation and killing for profit. On Christmas Eve someone stepped well over that line, and the Big Life rangers were waiting for him on the other side.

The sound of an approaching motorbike started it; the community informer had been right. Rangers lay in wait, quietly in the darkness of the bushveld.  The poacher rode straight into the ambush, carrying the grisly tools and victims of his trade. A bright flashlight (called a Kadoo) for blinding animals at night, and blades to hamstring and then butcher them. Seven antelope carcasses, on their way to market. This was one success from our recent series of cross-border operations, conducted together with rangers from Tanzania and funded by the African Wildlife Foundation, and demonstrates the success of working together across international borders. And for those who believe that all poachers are destitute and starving, take note. Game meat poaching is a business, stealing from those who earn a living from wildlife and tourism, and we will continue to do what we can to stop it. If you would like to support the rangers working to prevent this trade please consider joining the Big Life Ranger Club at biglife.org/big-life-ranger-club

The Maasai Olympics, big for us but small in the grand scheme of things, has touched people around the world, people that want to hear of new ideas and positive change.

From China to the USA, Australia to the UK, the news has gone global. There have been stories by the BBC, NY Times, CNN, Al Jazeera, Wall Street Journal, and many others.

To read one of the more colorful article visit: http://ow.ly/GDbQS

The chanting rippled through the early morning mist, a tangible vibration more than a sound. Maasai warriors preparing to clash, but on a sports field rather than a battleground.

A herd of elephants moved past in the distance, but the young men were too busy painting each other’s faces to notice. In the Amboseli ecosystem of southern Kenya the long-awaited final day of the Maasai Olympics was here, the culmination of a year of conservation education blended with sport.

And so the Maasai Olympics was born, now made possible by a number of local and international stakeholders and supporters. The basic premise is an attempt to engage young men, who might otherwise have been the ones hunting lions, and demonstrate that conservation can mean something other than livestock killed by wild predators.

The Big Life Predator Compensation Fund has already had great success in protecting lions in the ecosystem, complemented by the Lion Guardians program, but the Maasai Olympics is reaching warriors on an unprecedented scale, and trying to help them adapt to changing times. As development continues to wipe cultures clean, it would be a tragedy for this people to lose their songs, but traditional lion killing cannot continue.

And the competition was intense. The winners of the 800m and 5km running events both won trips to next year’s New York marathon (organised by Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust), the winner of the standing high jump soared to a new unbelievable record height of nine feet, and the javelin and club-throw drew excited crowds as always. And crowning a successful day, the Mbirikani warrior manyatta (village) won the overall team prize, taking home a prize breeding bull.

 

In the past, the physical prowess of a warrior manyatta was measured by the number of lion manes hanging on their flagpole. Hopefully from now on it will be measured in the number of medals won at the Maasai Olympics.

 

Elephants may be the mightiest land mammals walking the earth today, but they can be undone by one of the smallest building blocks of life: rogue cells and the cancers that they cause.

Tom is one of the magnificent bulls that patrol the volcanic Chyulu hills, part of the area protected by Big Life, and we see him often enough to have become quite fond of him. A couple of years ago he started to lose condition, and we noticed a swelling between his legs. As it grew it became clear that Tom had cancer of the scrotum.

With assistance from the Kenya Wildlife Service we darted him a year ago, cut away some of the growths and treated the infections. On waking up, he took a very long drink and then disappeared for 6 months. We thought he might have died somewhere, but were overjoyed when he turned up again recently.

The wounds between his legs seemed better, but we needed to get a closer look. Again with assistance from KWS, this time from the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust sponsored mobile vet unit, we darted him at the start of the week. The great news is that although the cancer will probably not heal, the tumours have not regrown. The affected area is vastly improved from when we last treated him, and we believe that Tom will live many more years here in the Amboseli ecosystem.

PBS Newshour just ran a segment : RACING TO SAVE KENYA'S WILD ELEPHANTS FROM POACHERS.

Big Life was heavily featured, with interviews with Richard Bonham and ranger, Joseph Meikoki. You can view the entire clip at :http://www.pbs.org/newshour/videos/#115904

Big Life is featured 4:40 into the segment.

Rombo is a long way from anything, an expanse of thick bush where Mt. Kilimanjaro finally gives way to flatter land. Bordered to the east by Tsavo national park, it’s the perfect place to do your poaching, or a convenient passage to the magnificent elephants that lie beyond. Or it was. Our Rombo rangers (supported by African Wildlife Foundation have begun to work more closely with the rangers from Tsavo Pride, and the broader intelligence net is already yielding success. In a combined operation they recently caught three poachers with sacks of gazelle meat, and the grisly tools used for killing. It’s an annual trend that we face; as the dry season intensifies, so does bushmeat poaching. Our other units across the ecosystem have also been active, one man arrested with 5 snares and another two arrested with bows and arrows. In both these cases, we got to them before they killed. Although bushmeat poaching does not get as much media attention, it is equally important to us. This is not killing for the cooking pot; there is a thriving game meat market across Africa, threatening a host of species.  By catching these poachers we deter other potential killers. And this is how we are changing things, by making sure that poaching is not worth the risk of being caught. Jeremy Goss, Big Life Kenya

Carbon is the base of all living things, but dangerous to our planet in the wrong form. We’ve all heard about the carbon credit trading idea; but what does it actually achieve? We didn’t know, until such a scheme came to our part of the world.

The basic tenet: the Chyulu Hills and surrounding grasslands comprise a spectacular ecosystem, well worth protecting. There are rare and endangered species, remnant cloud forests shrouded in mist, and geological delights to be found in the volcanic formations. And more, this area is the fragile key linking the Amboseli and Tsavo ecosystems.

The downsides of destruction of this ecosystem are just as important. Apart from the loss of everything mentioned above, vast amounts of carbon are held in the natural vegetation, all of which would be lost to the atmosphere if the habitat were destroyed, contributing further to the unnatural changing of our global climate. Saving this ecosystem has local as well as global benefits.

Realising this, Wildlife Works has spearheaded a carbon credit project, bringing together a number of partners (of which Big Life is proudly one) representing the interests of different communities in the area. If the project is successful, global polluters elsewhere will be able to offset their carbon emissions by buying carbon credits that will keep Chyulu hills carbon out of the atmosphere.

Incoming funding will have huge climate, community and biodiversity benefits. Amongst many others, the income will support better land management, improved local healthcare, education initiatives, reforestation projects, and a larger and better-equipped local ranger force. The project aims to preserve local habitats, and everything within them – there is surely no better investment.

We’re all excited about this project, and hope the world will be too. It’s a chunky piece of text, but if anyone would like more information on the project, or to make a comment during the public comment period (until the end of July), please go to: 

http://www.climate-standards.org/2014/06/25/chyulu-hills-redd-project/

Weighing in around 5 tons, it’s amazing how quietly an elephant can approach. But the sound of one of these animals destroying your source of income will wake anyone. A herd of elephants can cost you $10,000 in crop destruction in a night. 

That’s why each night - across the ecosystem where farmland meets wildlife habitat - we have teams on the red-eye shift: the darkness following midnight usually brings the most activity. We have dedicated rangers - that respond to calls for help, in vehicles and on motorbikes, and try to get there before the damage is done. We use harmless methods to scare the elephants away from the farms - a combination of bright torches and firecrackers.

In most cases these methods work, but just as you get stubborn humans you get stubborn elephants. These belligerent individuals will actively go for the source of the irritants, and trample anything or anyone in their way. 

Thus it is with huge relief that we thank the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) for translocating one such animal this last week. This individual elephant had killed a person, and was responsible for huge amounts of crop damage. He was doing immeasurable harm to the continued tolerance for his species in this area. The operation was quick and efficient. A dart from a helicopter, a crane-lift on to a truck, and transport to a remote area where he will hopefully be out of trouble.

The poaching crisis may eventually be overcome, but people are not going anywhere, and neither is conflict between elephants and humans. In the past the solution to these ‘problem’ animals was usually a bullet; we salute KWS for investing in keeping these animals alive, and at the same time helping us immensely in managing human-elephant conflict in our areas.

- Jeremy Goss, Big Life Kenya

RELATED LINKS:

Area of Operation/Crop Raiding

“The king of beasts is striding to oblivion and no one is listening.” - Tom Hill, Big Life Predator Compensation Fund Co-Founder

by BRIAN JACKMAN
Edited Version, Courtesy of Tusk Trust

For more than three decades I have woken to the roar of the lion. To me it is music to my ears and its magic never fails. In East Africa they translate it into Swahili. “Hii nchi ya nani?” cry the powerful territorial pride males. “Whose land is this?” Then, as their tumultuous challenge dies away, they answer with a rhythmic coda of rasping grunts that make the air vibrate; yango, yango, yango, mine, mine, mine! And it’s true. Lions are indeed the lords of this land. But for how much longer will their primeval voices continue to echo across the savannah?

“The king of beasts is striding to oblivion and no one is listening.” Those were the words of Tom Hill, the Texan philanthropist who helped to set up the Mbirikani Predator Compensation Fund at Ol Donyo Wuas in Kenya’s Chyulu Hills. There, back in 2001, Masai pastoralists had set about exterminating every lion they could find. “By 2003 our last big pride had gone,” said Hill, “leaving no more than a dozen lions in what experts believe is the very epicentre of their range.”

Luckily for the local lion population, the Predator Compensation Fund (now part of Big Life Foundation’s conservation program) stepped in and managed to stem the tide. Otherwise Ol Donyo Wuas would have lost its lions for good. But this was not an isolated case. All over Africa, lions are disappearing fast.

Twenty-five years ago, 200,000 lions roamed across Africa. Today that figure has shrunk to perhaps as few as 20,000, of which only 3,500 are adult males.

When two top predators – lions and people – compete for the same habitat there can be only one winner, and Dereck Joubert - the distinguished wildlife filmmaker who knows a thing or two about lions - reckons they could vanish from the wild within 15 years.

Squeezed by Africa’s burgeoning human population (more than one billion people and rising), lions are in serious trouble. Killed as stock-raiders, shot by trophy hunters and slaughtered for their body parts, they have been driven from more than 80 per cent of their historical range – including most of the savannah lands which are their most favoured habitat - and have become extinct in 26 countries.

Part of the reason the world doesn’t appreciate the situation is because visitors see lions in tourist hotspots such as the Masai Mara and think they are plentiful everywhere. The truth is that lions need vast areas in which to roam and only a few parks can satisfy their need for space and prey and full protection.

I have always believed that the best hope of securing a future for lions lies with the tourist trade. There is no doubt that Africa’s wildlife is a major attraction and you have only to look at Kenya, where the safari business helps to bring in more than US$3 billion a year as well as employing tens of thousands of people, to realise that eco-tourism is by far the most sustainable way of making wildlife earn its keep. As the old adage has it: if it pays, it stays.

After all, lions are what you come to Africa to see. Not confined behind bars but moving free as the wind across the boundless savannah; and who can fail to be moved by their hypnotic presence? Even at rest, sprawled under a thorn tree, they exude an aura of imminent drama, of latent power barely suppressed, and no matter where you travel, from the Okavango floodplains to the waist-high grasslands of the Masai Mara, the eye hungers for their tawny slinking shapes or the sight of a pride male standing atop a granite kopje, black mane on fire in the morning sun.

Long since perfected in evolutionary terms, these glorious carnivores live in a parallel universe far older than ours, one that we also sprang from but have long since forgotten. They are the most potent symbol of everything in Africa that is wild and special and beautiful. We must not let them disappear.

RELATED LINKS:

Wildlife Protection/Predator Compensation

By Erika Mansourian

 “...an informant had contacted one of Big Life’s commanders who works alongside the village rangers of Enduimet. He knew the poachers’ plans and made the courageous decision to come forward. In the pre-dawn hours, Big Life’s Dog Unit joined forces with Enduimet’s Mobile Unit. The dogs quickly zeroed in on the exact bush the poachers had slept under the night before. The men had barely stretched and rubbed their eyes before they found themselves in custody....”

Read more by downloading the 6 page feature in the latest issue - BELOW

 FD_0506_14Elephants.pdf

RELATED LINKS:

Wildlife Protection/Current Outposts/Tanzanian Dog Unit

There is only so far that a ranger can walk. But there is no limit to the distance that information can travel. 

Two weeks ago, one of our rangers went on leave, only to find a person waiting impatiently on his doorstep. An informer, trusted to report wildlife crimes to us, and rewarded for it. The informer had something urgent to report: he knew of a man in possession of two elephant tusks, with plans to sell them.

The Big Life ranger immediately passed the information on to senior Big Life security personnel, who contacted the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS). Their response was quick, and we coordinated a meeting between the Big Life informer and KWS. 

Based on details about when, where and in what vehicle the suspect would be travelling, KWS set up an ambush and managed to catch the man red-handed with a pair of tusks. And the thing that gets us excited is that this arrest happened 200 miles from Big Life headquarters!

Our informer network is spread wide, and only with this web of community connections can you start to make poaching and trading a prohibitively risky business. When poachers act, somewhere, someone will be watching…

 RELATED LINKS:

Wildlife Protection/Anti-Poaching

The Wildlife Act is baring its teeth, as at least some magistrates use it to dramatically ramp up fines and jail time. The net result of this will be further deterrent to poachers, even if occasionally, we are still frustrated and disappointed. 

Last year Big Life’s Rombo Unit, together with Tsavo Pride rangers made what looked to be a pretty standard arrest: 2 men with the carcasses of three impala.  Everything proceeded as normal, and they were booked in Taveta and bailed out. Everyone thought this was going to result in just another slap-on-the-wrist fine and the poachers would be free to keep poaching within a few months.  Big Life didn’t even follow the normal procedure of following the case through, since it was such a clear-cut case and something that would use up resources for negligible rewards. Just by chance however, another case of ours had a hearing on the same day as the ruling on this case, so we checked in to see what the ruling would be. And what a ruling it was:  The two poachers were sentenced to a $7000 fine or ten years in prison. In the past, we have had poachers receive fines as pathetically low as $35 and community service. So this marks a dramatic turn around in this particular court, Other courts may be lagging, but some promising signs are now appearing. Craig Millar, Big Life Kenya, Head of Security and Field Coordinator.

RELATED LINKS:

Area of Operation/Long Term Solutions

Cathy, one of the rhinos in the Big-Life patrolled Chyulu Hills of Kenya, caught by one of the Big Life camera traps in October

BIG LIFE’S RHINO RANGERS’ CHRISTMAS DAY

by Samar Ntalamia, Big Life Programs Manager

The concept of Christmas is a rather new development here in Africa, and especially among the Maasai, who have resisted cultural change for a long time. To the 19th century Europeans, they were the “noblest of savages”, an elite corps of painted warriors, for whom nothing was an inducement to change. Neither peace for war, nor money for cattle, nor cities and settlement for the plains and open boundaries of their land. This isolation, their land, their traditions, codes and values have all been defended in a long and mostly passive war of resistance, carried out by a community structured as a standing army.

The present day standing army is the Big Life Foundation Rhino rangers, 95% of whom are local Maasai recruited from the local community, and famed for their intimate knowledge of the lay of the land and for bushcraft skills.  All these have come in very useful in rhino and wildlife security. 

The majority of the rhino rangers celebrate Christmas as a combination of a religious and secular festival. There is not much giving of presents - people do not have the financial resources to buy gifts for each other, and even if they did, there are not any stores that sell any Christmas gifts in the bush. 

The rangers will dress smart in their jungle fatigues and boots. Music will be quite a mix, but mostly Maasai gospel and Maasai traditional folk dance - the throaty sounds and the shaking of the neck and the legendary vertical jump. 

For rhinos, it is a difficult time, as poachers try to take advantage of the festive period to sneak into the bush and kill rhinos. Security is tightened, and there is a general state of alertness in all our ranger outposts.  

So yes, things out here in the rhino area are different at Christmas. But like anywhere else in the world, we get together as family and friends. The ways and means may differ, but the spirit is the same, as we in turn pass on what has been given to each other - love and friendship as we wish each other a merry Christmas.  And from me and the Big Life rhino rangers, we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous new year 2014. 

 RELATED LINKS:

Wildlife Protection/Rhino Project

There is a foot path/motor bike trail linking two remote villages on Mbirikani Group Ranch in the Amboseli ecosystem. It is also shared by a host of wildlife, mainly elephant, zebra, Wildebeest and Elephant. Last week, it became the scene of a tragedy. Musa Lenkoti was returning home after visiting relatives, and when he did not arrive in the evening, his wife became worried. She alerted the Big Life Rangers that he was missing.  The rangers immediately left to look for him, and discovered a motor bike on its stand and so they began to cast around with their flashlights for tracks. This led them to a gruesome scene of a dead body which had obviously been crushed by an Elephant only 20 yards from the trail.  At first light, a combined unit of Kenya Wildlife Service and Big Life Rangers, using their tracking skills, read from the tell-tale scuffs in the dust what had taken place. Musa had come round a corner and seen an elephant. Being an inexperienced motorbike rider, he left the bike and ran into the trees nearby. Elephant, in this area are, as a rule, very tolerant of people, so we are perplexed as to why the elephant reacted as it did, by charging. Again, deciphering the tracks, what happened next is both tragic and extraordinary. As Musa ran for his life, he tore off his jacket and threw it on a bush. This tactic is well proven as a distraction when being charged by elephant, and has saved many a potential victim as the pursuing elephant often attacks the item of clothing, allowing the intended victim to get away.  Sadly, the elephant was not fooled. He pursued Musa, knocked him to the ground, repeatedly impaling him with his tusks. What happened next leaves much to superstition…… The elephant then picked up the body, walked back and deposited the body by the trail. What was this? Remorse, guilt, confusion, I don’t know. I have heard many stories over the years of this sort of behavior. One was told to me by George Adamson. When he was game warden in North Kenya, he was called in to shoot an elephant that had supposedly killed a woman while she was carrying water back to her village. George arrived on the scene and soon figured out that in fact the woman had collapsed and died of heart attack. He could then see from the tracks of the elephant that had supposedly killed her, that in fact it had walked down the path later and come across the body, whereupon it collected branches from nearby trees and covered her. The story gets worse. Musa had two other brothers. In 1992, a call came in that a young herder had gone missing. The sheep that he had been herding had returned to the village in the evening without him. The next morning, we started a search operation, in the air and on the ground, but after a week, it was called off, and what happened to this young herder still remains a mystery. But the general consensus is that he was probably killed by a lion. Musa's other brother died just two months ago. He had been knocked down and injured by an elephant last year and never fully recovered. I am not sure of the circumstances around the incident, as it happened in another area, but we are now left with a situation where three brothers have died through conflict with wildlife. Traditionally in the Maasai culture, when a head of any household dies, dependents are absorbed by the husband's family. However in this case there is no close relative to take them on and assume the basic needs of house and shelter - let alone education for his six children.  Big Life has already contributed by giving food and clothing, but I feel we must take this a step further and see that the family do not become destitute and his children have an opportunity to be educated. Big Life’s mandate has always been to try to provide and generate benefits from wildlife, hence our wildlife scholarship program, compensating for livestock killed by predators, supporting schools, healthcare etc.  So with this in mind, I have told Musa's wife and children that we would like to set up a fund to help support their family’s welfare and education. The cost to educate a child for a year is $700 which will be administered through the Big Life Wildlife Scholarship Program. Sponsors that would like to help this fund, can, should they wish, be in contact with the child, so they can monitor progress. We ask that you help make some good out of this tragedy. At the same time this fund will create goodwill for elephant in the future.  Please go to:
www.biglife.org/donations Thank You Richard Bonham.

Big Life’s Tanzanian-based tracker dogs, Rocky and Jerry, go from strength to strength on Big Life’s anti-poaching operations in Tanzania.  The unit has become so popular that Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA), the Wildlife Division, the Police, and even the military have requested the assistance of Rocky and Jerry. For example, in October 2013, the unit came to the aid of a successful crackdown on illegal logging in Arusha National Park. Earlier this year, they tracked down a poacher from Manyara Ranch to a bus in Arusha. “I love working with Rocky and Jerry. They are my friends,” said Lembris Kephas, Big Life's anti-poaching sergeant and head of the tracker dog unit. “They also make our jobs much easier.” While focused on tracking poachers in Big Life's project areas in Tanzania, Rocky and Jerry have so far also supported operations in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, Mount Kilimanjaro National Park, Tarangire National Park, Manyara National Park, and Arusha National Park.  For Big Life, this has led to stronger teamwork and information-sharing among anti-poaching forces and conservation groups throughout northern Tanzania.

RELATED LINKS:

Wildlife Protection/Dogs Save Elephants

Wildlife Protection/Current Outposts/Tanzanian Dog Unit

by Nick Sharp

by Richard Bonham 

All too often we post stories of catching poachers AFTER they have killed.

But yesterday, the Big Life rangers from our mobile unit, acting on a tip-off that some poachers were preparing to go on a hunt, raided a house at night and arrested three notorious poachers with poisoned arrows, 2 bows, and three razor sharp slashers which are used to the hamstrings of anything from a gazelle to a giraffe.

This trio of poachers have been operating in the eastern Chyulu area for years. But as it’s an area where we don¹t have a Ranger base camp, so we have always been one step behind them.

While that was going on, another team of Big Life rangers
arrested two other poachers, who had already killed 2 Dik Dik and a reedbuck.

Both groups are sharing a cell awaiting trial.

The last month has been hectic, with so much going on there has been little time to post what what the Big Life rangers have been doing. As an indicator this is what happened yesterday.

Early morning call up, two rifle shots heard at Elerai - that’s just outside Amboseli National Park on the shoulders of Kilimanjaro. A joint team of Kenya Wildlife Service and Big Life rangers are rushed to the scene to support the Satao Elerai rangers whilst the Big Life team from across the border come in to make a cut off. Later,they call in to say they are on the tracks of 4 people, a little later they have found 2 spent heavy rifle cartridges and the tracks of an elephant running. The team splits, one following the wounded elephant and another following the poacher's tracks. By nightfall the Elephant is still not found but the poacher's tracks have led the rangers to a village close to the Tanzanian border. They wait for darkness and close in, as they do so the village dogs bark and come rushing out attacking the rangers and in the pandemonium the poachers flee into the darkness and across the border into Tanzania. Not a good outcome, but we have names.

Whilst all this is going on some good news - one of the camera traps set in the Rhino area have caught pictures of 3 different Rhino. That’s a record, 3 individuals in one night!!

The next action is that informers have information that a known poacher on eastern Chyulu has been seen cleaning a rifle at his homestead. Again a joint KWS and Big life team rush there. They raid the homestead but no sign of a rifle, the suspect is currently being interrogated.

Not far away the Chyulu unit are in ambush for a group of wood carvers who had gone into the park to cut wood, They arrest them as they come out of the park, in addition to the hardwoods they are carrying they have snares which they use to catch antelope while they are collecting wood.

As if this is not enough for one day, Rombo outpost calls in to say that they have caught a poacher who had just killed an Impala.

by Nick Sharp
August 19 2012

A fit, healthy, young adult sitting bone idle can last anywhere from 5 to 7 days without water – one's prospects go south from there pretty quickly when conditions get any trickier. The scorched plains of Mbirikani Group Ranch between two rainy seasons offer something near the ultimate test, so how long do you think a blind man in his '60s walking 15km a day without water or food would survive? This week we got terrifyingly close to finding out.

On Saturday morning, the Big Life radio frequency was full of talk about a blind man called Jaluo Orputuai who had gone missing. He had left a party in Mbirikani about 60 hours earlier and was last seen heading south towards home. In the absence of the high tech emergency services of the 1st world it was up to teams from the local community helped by Big Life Rangers, vehicles and communication equipment to go out and find Jaluo. His tracks had him heading south, deeper and deeper into the ranch and away from his home, it was immediately clear that he had become very lost and disoriented.

Once the ground team were on his tracks and had established the area he was heading in, it was decided that 5Y-BGJ would put her anti-poaching duties aside and join the search and rescue mission.

We got airborne with 4 sets of eyes in the plane and canvassed the search area. The hope was that even if we couldn’t spot the man from the air, he would hear us and try to signal us. 90 disheartening minutes later and with the fuel gauge needle flirting with the red zone, it was time to refuel and reassess the search area.

At this point John Stevens (a very experience Zimbabwean bushmen and tracker who was staying with Richard) and I decided our services would be better used on the ground, we could get water and equipment to the search party and coordinate Richards flying efforts from there. By now it was mid-day and with the sun at its highest point in the sky, things weren’t looking good.

On the ground, tracking was being led by Maasai Morans who were now following Jaluo's tracks through the black cotton soil heading north. Disoriented, exhausted, thirsty, hungry and blind, he had remarkably started heading back home towards Mbirikani. 5 hours later and with the sun slipping closer to the horizon there were plans being made to continue the search into the night, our tracker dog Jazz was being harnessed (he works much better when it’s not so hot) and the vision gear was ready to go.

Suddenly out of nowhere, a dot appeared on the horizon frantically waving at us. It was like a starting piston had been fired and the entire search party screamed across the plains towards it. The blob become bigger and bigger and then it become two blobs - one of them taking up the shape of a motorbike. This was not our guy. Disheartened, the sprint become an amble, a flat tire no doubt the cause of this false alarm. As we got closer the man’s frantic waving oddly became even more frantic. He was urging us away from him and towards Mbirikani. A quick scan of the horizon in that direction and another blob was spotted. This had to be our guy!

Collapsed in a heap of dirty clothing was Jalou's fragile frame. His body was close to giving up, and his muscle had become spastic, an indication of 10% + fluid loss - 15% is fatal. Really it was remarkable that he was still going. After over three days in the scorching sun without water, his ordeal was nearly over.

After removing his hot sweatshirt and boots and carefully cleaning his mouth and face, he was given a wet cloth to suck on (drinking water in such a dehydrated state is often fatal). We then rushed him to the clinic where the staff did a fantastic job of stabilizing his condition and beginning the procedure of rehydrating him.

Big Life’s operations are rarely confined to our programmes, and in the absence of viable alternatives, there are a million different roles that our rangers and staff take to help the local community.

by Richard Bonham
March 7 2012

The Big Life Game Rangers have a tough job, routine day patrols, night patrols, spending night after night in ambushes which more often than not don't come to anything, taking on armed and dangerous poachers and so on. I try and praise them where I can to keep morale up, but often feel they don't get the recognition they deserve.

But last week they received the best recognition possible, which also made me proud. The Kenya Wildlife Service director, Dr. Julius Kipn'getich, visited Amboseli to meet all the stakeholders in the ecosystem. In his speech he congratulated the rangers, saying that without doubt, they were the best community rangers in Kenya. He said that the results of their work spoke for themselves, as there were no other areas in Kenya, policed by community rangers, that had so few incidents of bush meat and elephant poaching.

Admittedly, our rangers are better equipped than most, and receive the support required to make the job easier, but still, this accolade makes us all proud.

by Richard Bonham
February 24 2012

We release stories of Big Life activities, but on a daily basis so much is going on that you never hear about. Here are just a few things that have happened yesterday.

1) Radio call from Rombo, the current hotspot for much of the poaching, bordering as it does the giant area that is Tsavo National Park:
Following a tip-off, the team set up an ambush on a track used by bush meat traders.
At midnight, a motor bike appeared and was stopped. It was carrying the butchered remains of a Dik Dik and Grants gazelle. The owner of the motor bike had been called in by poachers who had killed the two animals by using a spotlight to dazzle them, freezing them on the spot, so they could walk tight up to them, and then breaking their backs with machetes.
The poachers got away but it is undoubtedly as good to catch the middle man, as when he gets to court, he will be forced to forfeit his motorbike to the court, and hopefully receive a sentence for being in possession of game meat.

2) I received the following text message from Wilson Mancha, the commanding officer of Kimana area. ''Hi Sir, lion caused problems on OGR last night by jumping on roof of hut where young goats were being held with family sleeping. Lion scared away but killed cow in next boma''. Fortunately the livestock owners did not take any action, as they will receive payment for the cow that was killed by the lion.

3) Report from Osiwan outpost: The 200 liters of diesel fuel that Big Life has donated to the community had arrived. This enables the community to pump water away from the community water point. This was necessary because in the last dry season, elephants had destroyed some pipes to the cattle trough to get to the water, so now hopefully, the elephants should stay away. This kind of support and understanding in helping the local communities is what helps make them so supportive of Big Life's activities in return. We can only achieve the successes we do with their support.

4) A report came in from Saliata - an area is about 60 miles away from our nearest area of operations - to say that an elephant had been shot, and its tusks hacked out. The poachers had crossed the border into Tanzania. Another depressing reminder that we have to be constantly alert.

5) The Elmarba vehicle called in to say that he had been charged by a female elephant while trying to chase them out of crops and his only escape was to plough through a thorny bushes, which shredded the canvas that covers the back of his Land Cruiser. Damn, that's $500 of unbudgeted expenses we will have to find.

And so it goes...just another day here on the Kenyan side....

by Richard Bonham
February 14 2012

The Big Life team from Osiwan outpost saved a pride of lions from poisoning yesterday. Four months ago, the team were not able to save two lions that were horribly poisoned in the same way (see attached photos).

But this time, an informer bought in information that that a cow had been killed by lions after it had been lost by its herder while grazing, and that the owner of the cow, enraged by the loss, laced the carcass with Furudan poison.

It is essential that informers' identities are not compromised, so he gave the team directions to the location of the carcass. The team were there within an hour, just in time as vultures had already found the carcass and were about to move in to start feeding. The birds would have been the first casualties of this indiscriminate and cruel method of killing, followed by hyena and most likely the lions, who usually return to feed on their kills.

Furadan is used as a pesticide in the farming industry, and made by FMC in the USA where it is banned. FMC however has been exporting it for years into the third world in huge quantities. After years of campaigning against its use in East Africa, FMC begrudgingly withdrew the product for sale in East Africa but there are still large amounts of this poison available on the black market. In this case, it's very easy to identify the poison used as it's bright blue.

Poisoning is becoming a favourite method of killing wildlife by poachers, We have had attempts to kill rhino and elephant in our area where the poachers either lace water points, or put down poisoned cabbages and melons.....Just one teaspoon will kill an elephant.

So thank you to the informer (who will be handsomely rewarded), and well done to the Osiwan Big Life rangers.

December 10 2011

Big Life Foundation just hit the One Year mark since we were up and running in the field. This is what happens to a decal on the side of one of the Big Life anti-poaching patrol vehicles in that time.

Click here to view the Safaritalk's interview with Nick Brandt June 12 2011.

Elephant Drinking (Igor), Amboseli, 2007. Killed by Poachers, 2009. © Nick Brandt 2011

What are you doing that is different from the plethora of wildlife NGOs already operating in the field? Before Big Life, there were basically no wildlife NGO's concentrating on full-scale anti-poaching programs within the Amboseli ecosystem on either side of the border. Kenya Wildlife Service tried their best, but were completely underfunded, and Richard Bonham, who is now Director of Operations for Big Life, was severely underfunded in what he could achieve with the Amboseli Tsavo Game Scouts Association. So what we are doing - a well-funded comprehensive anti-poaching operation on both sides of the border within the ecosystem - is effectively a first. Considering the critical importance of the Amboseli ecosystem within the context of the wildlife of East Africa, I think what we are doing is critical.  My belief is that to be truly effective, you need someone in charge right there on the ground, with the ability to direct and co-ordinate operations first hand, to work in close partnership with the Parks, the local communities, and with the other NGO’s, to marshal everyone’s resources for maximum efficiency for everyones’ benefit. With Richard Bonham as Big Life’s full-time Director of Operations in Africa, we have this. Richard has lived in the Amboseli area for decades, knows all of the key players there, and has a better understanding than anyone of how to address the multiple problems.    Meanwhile, on the Tanzanian side, Damian Bell is Big Life’s Operations Manager in Tanzania. As founder of Honeyguide Foundation, he has an outstanding relationship with the local communities and wildlife departments, perhaps more so than anyone else in Northern Tanzania. On the Tanzanian side, there has been almost no-one to stop the poachers having free rein. And when poachers have come into Kenya from Tanzania to kill elephants before escaping back over the border, they have simply gotten away, because there was no cross-border anti-poaching team with which to communicate or co-ordinate.  Now, two of our most significant arrests of poachers have been ones who escaped from Kenya into Tanzania and, through coordination of our Big Life teams in both countries, were able to arrest those poachers, poachers whom for as long as two decades had been systematically poaching Amboseli's wildlife whilst evading the authorities. 

What is your answer to the following: Is all the money which is being donated to the various and numerous NGOs really making a difference, or would it be better spent funding a militarised force to provide 24/7 protection for wildlife in Africa?  No, militarised personnel can only ever be one part of the solution.If you went solely that way, you'd never win. First and foremost, you have to have the support of the local communities. For example, realistically, even with patrol vehicles, our 100+ rangers so far cannot possibly begin to cover 2 million acres on their own. The way they are truly able to be effective is to rely on informers' information - most of the arrests of poachers come from information supplied by informers. 

What assistance is the Kenyan and Tanzanian Governments and wildlife authorities offering to your initiative? So far, we have great support for our initiatives. Kenya Wildlife Service and Big Life are working closely together to great effect. KWS are going to be providing training for our rangers, supplying us with two armed rangers for each of our outposts, later in the year, and they have also promised to give some of our rangers Kenyan Police Reserve status, so that they can be armed. KWS completely appreciate our help in protecting the huge buffer zone areas around Amboseli. Further evidence of KWS's support is that when we had our official launch of one of the outposts, the Director of KWS and the Chairman of the Board both came for the opening. In Tanzania, our Operations Manager, Damian Bell, of our partners Honeyguide Foundation, is working closely and effectively with the Wildlife Division and the all-important village councils. At the Tanzanian launch, all three of the administrative regions in which we're working sent their most senior government people to pledge their support.

Problem animals and human vs. wildlife conflict. How will those you work with counter such problems, if such instances occur within your areas of operation? Human/wildlife conflict occurs constantly in our area due to the large amount of farmland in the Kilmanjaro foothills and on down from there. We devote a significant amount of ranger patrol time to these areas, where elephants raid the crops, etc. Thunder Flashes - a harmless noisy pyrotechnic - are used by our teams to scare off the elephants. These only work so much before the elephants come back, so constant vigilance is required. But since we put our rangers in patrolling, the number of elephants being speared and poisoned by farmers has dropped massively, which is very encouraging.

Subsistence poaching versus professional poaching syndicates. How do you deal with the two facets of poaching: and, what kind of poaching are you tackling? Solely ivory poaching, or the illegal bush meat trade as well? Do you, for instance, have a reward payment scheme that has been initiated for communities which don’t poison lions, or which go out and assist in snare removal for example? In my opinion, the single best use of donor money for wildlife protection, is money for a network of informers. We have vastly expanded the pre-existing network of informers, and greatly increased the rewards - up to $1500 for information leading to the arrest of someone caught with ivory. It was information from our informers that led to Big Life teams arresting of two of the worst, most prolific major poachers and their gangs in the Amboseli region, poachers who had been systematically poaching for the last two decades, and whom up until that point, the authorities had been unable to pin anything on. We are focused on ivory and illegal bush meat poaching. This isn't just limited to catching the poachers, but also catching the traders, and trying to follow through as much as we can on all prosecutions.

Where do you see the greatest threat to wildlife coming from in the Amboseli ecosystem, and what methods are you employing in order to combat it? Two, really : Obviously, the recent massive escalation in poaching for both commercial and bush meat; and the ongoing population pressure and loss of habitat, which obviously leads to human/wildlife conflict, in the form of spearing and poisoning, from elephants to lions, hyena and cheetah on down.

Big Life Rangers in Kenya, Jan 2011.

Other than the usual educational programmes, how do you integrate local communities into your efforts? Do you employ local people in positions of authority? 99% of our employees are local. The only non-locals are Richard and our Field Co-ordinator, Llewellyn DYER. We feel that it is essential to employ the local community - to engage them emotionally and economically in preserving the wildlife so they can se how they benefit. As an example, a month or so ago, a lion killed a cow of a village elder. The Masai warriors went on the hunt to kill it, but the village elder told them not to, as his son now worked as a Big Life ranger.

Fighting fire with fire. Following on from the recent report in www.theeastafrican.co.ke entitled “Militant groups fuel poaching in East Africa” are you prepared to place your scouts and wardens in mortal danger, and what will be their rules of engagement? What equipment, arms will they be supplied with in order to counter the well armed and trained criminal poaching syndicates? The rangers are aware of the risks of their job. Part of our responsibility is to train them for dangerous situations without putting themselves at undue risk. In fact, the Tananzian rangers wrote a song which they sang to us just this week, part of the lyric of which go something like this: "mother, I have a job as a ranger. If I die, don't cry for me, because I am doing it for conservation..."  In terms of weapons, the Tanzanian rangers are getting their weapons in the next month, and in Kenya, the Director of Kenya Wildlife Service has promised us that our rangers will receive Kenya Police Reserve status by the end of the year. In the meantime, they work closely and effectively with Amboseli's KWS teams. They seem to appreciate the support we can give by protecting wildlife in the huge buffer zones around the park and are planning to put two armed rangers into each of our camps in a few months. And to help them, we have donated a new Landcruiser to their single armed Wildlife Protection Unit to help them implement their mission.

Big Life Rangers in Tanzania, April 2011.

At the recent International Conference on Biodiveristy, Land Use and Climate Change in Nairobi it was suggested that many of the problems with the future viability of the natural resources of Kenya (for instance) revolves around the lack of a cohesive central organisation to co-ordinate the many public - private partnerships in conservation, landowners, businesses etc. Noting your comment on your website “With particular emphasis on countering the recent alarming escalation of poaching of African wildlife, Big Life seeks to work together with other NGO's in the areas to consolidate, coordinate and collaborate on all information and resources, so that as a team, maximum efficiency and effectiveness for protection of the ecosystems can be realized.” Do you see the future of Big Life Foundation taking a proactive role in this wider area or are you satisfied if you can work in the Amboseli ecosystem and make change in that important area? In Amboseli, we are urgently acting to stabilise the situation. On the one hand, it grieves me that we are not addressing more than this one admittedly huge and critically important area, but I also know we should not move on to other areas in desperate need of help until the situation is stablised in Amboseli with an ongoing stable funding base. As and when we achieve that, I would want to direct funds elsewhere, but only using the same template that is working in Amboseli - with someone with intimate knowledge of the place and the people who lives there, running the project on the ground. 

Also coming out of this conference were concerns regarding the new Kenyan Constitution and the effect that the two tier government will have on the abuse of natural resources. For instance, funding to county councils being reduced to such low levels that to survive they may have to exploit natural resources in their area to such an extent that survival of the wildlife is threatened even more. Now that you have a Foundation with the goal to ”help slow down and ultimately halt the further destruction of the natural world” do you see yourself becoming more political in the future? You pretty much have to get political. Not just locally, but also nationally and internationally.  Locally, county councils are beginning to understand the economic benefit of wildlife and good environmental stewardship to their natural areas.  Nationally, we need to do everything we can to persuade the government of the same - something that seems to be a problem with just abut every government on the planet with the exception of a few like Costa Rica.   And internationally, we have to exert urgent pressure on the governments of the Far East to make far more efforts to enforce the illegal trade in animal parts. I wish I had more time to engage in the international aspect, to target the problem at its source, but there are only so many hours in the day. So in the meantime, I hope groups like Wild Aid continue their incredibly hard but important initiatives in China and the rest of the Far East, to educate the people there as to the terrible destruction being wrought in Africa as a result of their desires.

Elephant with Half-Ear (Winston), Amboseli, July 2010. Killed by Poachers August 2010. © Nick Brandt 2011

What responsibility do you feel that frequent travellers to wildlife in Africa have to maintain the ecological future of the wilderness they love to visit? For instance, it has been suggested that tourists put more pressure on their guides to behave ethically; that they become better informed about the environmental credentials of the camps and operators they use; that they should be more responsible with how and where they spend their money and that they would be better served by donating more of their safari dollars to conservation and give up some of their visits. I absolutely wish that visitors on safaris would research the lodges and tour operators with environmental responsibility and make the effort to only go with these. There are some great, environmentally responsible lodges and operators out there, but there are also thousands who are anything but. If you go with the right operators, you know that some of that money going back into the local community and helping, directly or indirectly helping the local wildlife. You won't get that with the likes of a Somak who don't give a damn about anything other than a quick profit. For them it's just bums in beds, quantity rather than quality, at the expense of the environment, the animals, and of the local communities. For those operators and lodges that don't give a damn, they are being short-sighted not putting anything back - no-one will come if there are no animals left.

There is a lot of discussion on many forums regarding your methods of photography and post production. Do you feel that the added mystery provided by fellow photographers not being sure how you achieved your end result enhance the desirability of your images? I do get irritated at some peoples' certitude that some of my images could only have been engineered in Photoshop, when in actuality, they were the result of frigging weeks and weeks of endless waiting for all the right elements of animals, location and light to align. I almost feel like I have to release the more inferior, flawed frame just so it doesn't look so perfectly arranged, while that 'perfect' frame took me forever to get. There's also one effect I used to do that people are convinced is created in Photoshop, which is actually a physical impossibility, and is achieved all in camera in a very crude, simple way.  I don't feel that the added mystery enhances the desirability of the images. I just don't see why everyone these days needs to know everything about how every technique is achieved by every photographer/filmmaker/musician/painter etc. Coca-Cola keeps its recipe secret. I keep some of mine, as I would expect many other artists to do. All you need to know about my photos is that what is in the final print maintains the integrity of what was actually there at that moment in time - those animals, in that place, under that sky.

What do you say, if anything, to the professional wildlife photographers who turn up their noses at any photography of wildlife that isn’t a totally realistic depiction of the scene in front of them? Not comparing myself, but just as an analogy, it's equivalent to a landscape photographer turning up their noses at Ansel Adams or Edward Weston. For them, the negative was just the first step towards the final image. I am not personally interested in taking purely documentative photography. I want it to be interpretative, subjective, personal. My final prints do maintain the integrity of what was there in front of me at the time - those animals in that landscape under that sky were all there. But the grading of the image, the burning and dodging of the image is often very detailed. I do however think that I over-worked my photos in the early years - in a way that embarrasses me now, and ironically, it's the most crude, worst aspects of that early work that I see most copied. The grading is much more subtle now.

Given this resistance to a more artistic approach to showing wildlife, what advice would you give to a new photographer who wants to pursue a career as a wildlife photographer but not in a traditional manner? I do not in any way consider myself a wildlife photographer. A wildlife photographer photographs a more documentative view of the world, usually attempting to shoot animals in moments of high action. I am much more interested in capturing animals simply in the state of Being, as sentient beings not so different from us, living within an astonishing natural world that is disappearing fast. And as will eventually be more clearly revealed in the third part of the trilogy of books, showing the way they and the natural world they inhabit are being destroyed. But I really have no particular advice to any photographer, other than always photograph for yourself, never for others.  But that applies to any artist in any art form.

It seems to be a great and logical fit that a photographer who is able to show a more sympathetic, aesthetic and soulful view of wildlife would, as a consequence, want to preserve that wildlife. Is this in part, why you formed Big Life Foundation? Initially, when it was first suggested by a few people that I start my own Foundation, it seemed to me like a very self-aggrandizing and self-important concept, which made me extremely resistant to the notion. But I began to realise a few things : when it came to Amboseli, money for wildlife protection was in dangerously short supply, and that, through virtue of the audience for my work, and some wealthy collectors of the prints, I had access to potential major donors in a significant way. Of course, that means nothing if you can't back it up with serious ideas and intent. And so far, that has proven to be the case.

Are you planning to inject personal funds into Big Life Foundation, or are you using your profile to encourage others to provide the funding required?  This leads into the question - why should we donate and support your foundation over others? I've injected a lot of personal funds to help get the ball rolling, about 10% of our raised funds. I was fortunate enough to have two of the best collectors of my work, Fiona Druckenmiller and Stan & Kristine Baty, inject a combined $700,000 so far into Big Life. We really owe Big Life's existence to Fiona's fantastic initial generosity, and faith in my intentions before anything had been proven. Why should people donate to Big Life over others? With no internal bureaucracy, with Big Life's Director of Operations, Richard Bonham, being right there on the ground, donor money goes where it needs to go, and it goes there fast, efficiently and effectively. We don't hang around. We can't afford to. That's why within just a few months, the poaching in Amboseli has been significantly reduced, and some major, prolific long-term poachers finally arrested. We are also working in a unique area where there was next to no protection, which was crazy considering Amboseli has, in my opinion, the finest elephant population in East Africa. The template, the methodology we are applying is working very well, and if we receive enough money to the point where our operations are sustainable and stable in the Amboseli ecosystem, we can then apply that to other areas in East Africa in critical need of help. 

Elephants Walking Through Grass, Amboseli 2008. Leading Matriarch (Marianna). Killed By Poachers, 2009. © Nick Brandt 2011

In fifty years time, how did you see the state of African wildlife? Well, in the space of far fewer years than that, at the current rate of destruction, there will be no animal populations of any consequence left outside unprotected areas. It's already happening at shocking speed.  Where there are animals, those areas will have to be protected, not just under the guise of official Parks and Reserves, but also through concession areas, and large buffer zones to Parks like we are protecting in the Amboseli ecosystem. I also think there will be more fenced-in glorified giant zoological parks like Lake Nakuru in Kenya. Of course these cannot accommodate migratory animals, or sustain a species like elephants who plough through an enormous amount of vegetation daily.

However, constant vigilance will have to be maintained. Local communities will hopefully see more and more the value of preserving the wildlife for their local economy, but it always only needs a few bad seeds, be it corrupt government or external militia looking to make a fast profit, to destroy those precious remaining areas in a nano-second. Add into the mix both climate change from a combination of deforestation and global warming, and the ongoing pressure from a fast-growing population, and the resultant pressure on diminishing natural resources, will make it even harder to maintain even those protected areas.

However, I would not be devoting the enormous amount of time and energy to preserving this stunning world if I did not think that we stood a chance of preserving certain critical areas like the Amboseli ecosystem (but then I think every natural area is critical, and I just wish that we had enough money to protect all of them starting NOW).

The first anti-poaching camp was inaugurated on Oct. 17 at Kimana, very near to the Tanzania border. This has been one of the places that has seen the worst poaching in Amboseli, as it is so near the border. It's where Igor, the 45 year old bull elephant in the Elephant Drinking photo was killed in 2009. We'll have the second camp up and running in Kitirua, another hotspot down at the other end of Amboseli, but also on the Tanzanian border, very soon.

Today, Christmas Day, while much of the world is on holiday, the Big Life team and KWS arrested another two ivory dealers.  In addition, there are over 200+ Big Life rangers out there on high alert, as poachers always recognise that Christmas is a time to cash in, while in theory, our guard is down.  So on this day, let us think of all those dedicated men out there on the sharp end, and wish them luck going forward into the new year.