Three men sat waiting next to a motorbike at a petrol station in late evening.

The location was Bisil, a town in the center of Maasailand that would be hosting one of Kenya’s busiest livestock markets the following morning.

Just 60 km from Tanzania on the Namanga Highway, the market attracts customers from across the border and beyond. It’s a place where many things move through many hands.

The three men were not here to sell cows or goats - their cargo was far more secretive. They had been careful, but even the most quietly spoken whispers are clearly audible to Big Life’s intelligence network.

Whispers of these three had been monitored for several weeks, and they had no idea that the net was closing in.

Working with Big Life’s intelligence, officers from the Kenya Widlife Service arrested the men where they stood. The bag on their motorbike was opened to reveal 12 pieces of ivory, weighing 41.5 kgs in total. There was little struggle as they were taken for interrogation, and they will appear before court early next month.

We have not lost a single elephant to ivory poaching across our area of operation since 2018. But that doesn’t mean that the trade has stopped. In this case, the ivory was old, indicating it had been hidden for some time. But it underscores the need to stay vigilant.

This recent arrest sends a clear message to any would-be dealer: no matter how quietly you may whisper, you will be heard, and you will be caught.

Inflation can be a killer. Literally.

Prices are up on all products in Kenya. Poachers are taking advantage and raising their prices too. Although black market bushmeat only sells for about half the price of beef, prices have nearly doubled from a few years ago.

And that is not good news for giraffes, given their size. A poacher can get 200-300kg of meat from just one of these gentle giants, which yields close to $1,000 at current prices.

One consequence of this was discovered by our Rombo mobile unit on a recent patrol, sticking out of the back leg of a giraffe: the sharp end of a Maasai spear.

The Big Life team immediately alerted Kenya Wildlife Service and the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and monitored the giraffe during the wait. The SWT helicopter carrying a KWS vet arrived promptly, and we are grateful to both partners for their support rescuing this giraffe.

Thankfully, the spear had not penetrated too deeply, nor impacted any vital organs. The vet completed a routine treatment before sending the giraffe on its way.

Thanks to our rangers, and your support for them, we are able to mobilize help for animals that need it, when they need it.

And during times that are tumultuous for everyone, we are hugely appreciative of every donation to support this work, including from SwissAfrican Foundation for funding our mobile unit on Rombo.

Amboseli is one of the last places on Earth where large amounts of wildlife and people truly coexist, as they have done for thousands of years. Supporting both the animals and people of this ecosystem so that they both thrive is our end goal. Because of you, we know we’ll continue to be successful. 

We have faced urgent threats before. Since our inception, we have brought together local communities, scientists and policy experts, partners and donors to stop ivory poaching in Amboseli.

Together, we’ve succeeded in moving the needle for Amboseli’s megafauna species from a critical threat to a manageable one. We haven’t lost a single elephant to poachers in our area of operation since March 2018, nor a single rhino since 2016.

That success led us to dig deeper into what was needed to protect Amboseli. Beyond poaching, it’s turned into minimizing conflicts between people and wildlife, keeping elephants out of farms and lions out of bomas. We’ve broadened our community programs, supporting education and critical medical support to the most remote areas. These programs have always been implemented pragmatically with the needs of the local community driving the process. In this conservation landscape, education and opportunity are as important as our rangers and Land Cruisers. 

With our boots on the ground and eyes on the horizon, a different, but no less dangerous threat has emerged: habitat loss.

Changes in land ownership from large communally-owned areas to thousands of individually-owned parcels has created the potential for the fabric of Amboseli to unravel, its open savannahs fragmented and wildlife caught in the crosshairs. This threat is as dangerous as ivory poaching ever was. And in some ways, more insidious, because it involves complicated legal filings and land-use plans rather than rangers tracking poachers in the bush.

To win the fight for Amboseli’s future, we support local communities in navigating these complex and expensive processes, at their request. We also now pay conservation leases to directly protect habitat at risk of disappearing.

It has never been more apparent that for conservation to succeed, it must support the local communities. Lease payments to landowners in exchange for keeping their land unfenced and undeveloped is just one piece of the puzzle.

It will take resources and expertise. And it will require you, our loyal supporters.

We’re here on the ground, doing what must be done to protect Amboseli. But only with your help will we continue to be successful. Thank you for being a difference maker as we fight to protect one of the last great wild places on the planet.

Richard Bonham, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman
Craig Millar, Chief Operating Officer
Benson Leyian, Chief Executive Officer
Big Life Kenya

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Photo: Jeremy Goss

It is with much sadness that we announce that Clyde, the stalwart of our tracker dog unit, has passed away.

Bonnie and Clyde were two bloodhound siblings who were part of the fabric of Big Life for almost a decade. Since his sister Bonnie retired last year, Clyde had been holding the fort, going out on his daily patrols and responding to emergencies when called.

Unfortunately, his health started to deteriorate a few months ago. After another recent bout of illness, the vet confirmed our fears. It was cancer. Clyde went in for surgery that he did not wake up from.

Clyde was adored by all, his booming howls and infinite friendliness greeting anyone who visited Big Life’s HQ. His literal superhuman abilities have been instrumental in countless anti-poaching operations, wildlife crime incidents, and cases of community theft. He has saved many people’s lives by finding them in the bush when no human could, and his fearsome reputation has prevented many would-be poachers.

While we are very sad at Clyde’s passing his legacy will continue, with Holmes and Watson, who will soon be rejoining Big Life after their training in Tanzania.

We are deeply grateful to our donors for providing the resources needed for our tracker dog program over the years.

And we thank Clyde, for everything he did for the wildlife and people of Amboseli.

Photo: Jeremy Goss