Thanks to the arrival of the rains over the last two weeks, the sky’s orange haze has been replaced by clear blue and Amboseli’s celebrated far horizons seem to stretch even further.

To catch a thief, one must think like a thief. Better still, bait the thief and have them lead you straight to the where the rest are hiding.

This might seem like the opening to a spy thriller, but this is often how Big Life’s intelligence network operates. Last week, one of our undercover intelligence officers was provided information about a huge cache of snares set deep in the Kibwezi Forest, one of Kenya’s last groundwater woodlands whose springs host many rare and interesting species. With three of its four borders surrounded by human development, the pressure on the Kibwezi Forest from poachers and loggers is considerable.

This recent operation, initiated by Big Life intelligence and conducted by KWS and SWT, resulted in a staggering 160 snares being uncovered in the space of a week. Monitoring and preventing wildlife crime is a delicate and complicated process, and this recent incident highlights the importance of collaboration between conservation organizations in tackling this issue.

Learn about how we protect wildlife. 

There’s no better way to see what’s happening on the ground than with eyes in the sky. If those eyes can see in the dark it’s a game changer entirely, so we are excited to announce that we have recently acquired two thermal drones.

Until now, drones weren’t logistically or financially realistic, but that’s changed thanks to our collaboration with Expert Drones Africa. Our two newly qualified drone pilots, Corporals David Ntinina and Agostino Mutinda, were trained by our partners at the Mara Elephant Project (MEP), who have been using drones for some time.

MEP have shown drones to be a cost-effective means of chasing elephants out of human settlements and farmlands, by swooping down on them to push them back to wild areas. Since Big Life’s Drone Unit went live last month, we’ve already had success doing the same, preventing elephants from raiding farms on multiple occasions.

But with the drones’ ability to see in the dark with their thermal cameras, we’re already discovering a wider and exciting range of uses, including the ability to monitor illegal activity in rough terrain at night.

The threats to Amboseli’s wildlife are constantly changing. To stay on top of them, Big Life has always been ready to adopt new technologies and strategies. From the Maasai Olympics and our Predator Compensation Fund, to being the first cross-border anti-poaching organization in East Africa, to early adoption of operational management software, EarthRanger, we do what must be done to protect Amboseli’s wildlife and wild lands.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates on how we’re putting these drones to work!

📸: Joshua Clay

The illegal wildlife trade is the fourth largest illegal activity worldwide behind arms, drugs, and human trafficking.

The Kenyan port of Mombasa is the fifth busiest in Africa, handling over 1.5 million shipping containers every year. Illegal wildlife items are smuggled to the port via the Mombasa Road, which links with Kenya’s capital, Nairobi and beyond.

To combat this, our intelligence network has eyes and ears everywhere. The primary focus has always been stopping the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade, but there are a myriad of other wildlife crimes that pop up on our radar.

Recently, we were alerted to two individuals trafficking five live terrapins in Kibwezi, one of the Mombasa Road’s busy towns. In a joint operation with the Kenya Wildlife Service, they were arrested just as they were about to take their defenseless cargo to Mombasa where they would have been shipped to exotic pet buyers halfway across the globe. The vehicle they were using was expensive, and the main trafficker wore flashy clothes, indicating that they were likely working for wealthy clients.

The two suspects were charged on two counts in contravention of Kenya’s Wildlife and Conservation Management Act and are to appear before court. The terrapins meanwhile have been released, back into their natural habitat.

This case serves as a reminder that not all wildlife criminals hide in the shadows, some operate in plain sight. Whatever their methods, our intelligence network rarely fails to track these people down and stop them. Upper left 📸: Joshua Clay