Did you know that in 2018, Big Life’s community rangers patrolled 91,404 kilometers on foot and 277,891 kilometers by vehicle? Our ranger units share 14 patrol vehicles among them. That’s a lot of fuel and hours spent in the car, searching for injured wildlife, responding to requests from the community, tracking down suspects in the bush, and delivering equipment and rangers wherever they need to be.

In the bush, roads (where they exist at all) can be treacherous. Massive erosion from occasional heavy rains, livestock traffic and overgrazing, wildlife crossings, and thorns the size of your hand from native acacias all make travel interesting. Which is why being a driver is a critical job.

Meet Corporal Mejai Ole’Kumari. He’s one of Big Life’s drivers, frequently on patrol with Mobile Unit 4.

He’s worked for Big Life for eight years and is a local resident of the area he helps patrol on Rombo Group Ranch. His role and tenure mean he’s been involved in responding to most of the incidents that happen in this area, including the tracking and arrest of the two notorious poachers responsible for the killing of six elephants featured in The Ivory Game (available on Netflix, for those who haven’t seen it).

His job as a ranger supports both of his wives and their children. We’re grateful to Corporal Ole’Kumari for his commitment to conservation and for all his hard work protecting wildlife and wild lands.

Please show your support for rangers like Mejai Ole’Kumari 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.

Photo: Clifford Pickett

In the lead up to World Ranger Day on July 31, we’ll be featuring stories about a few of our community rangers. You already met Sesei Loormoni. Today, let us introduce you to Corporal Olchurie Kapasei.

Corporal Kapasei started with our Rombo unit as a Constable six years ago. After demonstrating solid bush skills, he was transferred to Big Life’s Rapid Response Unit (RRU), which responds to urgent crises in the areas adjacent to our core area of operation. Kapasei’s work in the RRU helped to protect the perimeter and boundary areas of Big Life’s protection. As a result, he was chosen for formal training with the Kenya Wildlife Service’s ranger course at Manyani and selected for firearms management.

In the war against wildlife crime, armed rangers are a necessary part of the equation, and Kapasei has spent several years carrying one of Big Life’s firearms’ licenses. As an armed Constable, he was moved back to Rombo and promoted to Corporal, now moving between the three units in Rombo wherever a gun might be necessary for operations to protect wildlife and wildlands. His work has involved him in countless incidents over the years, including the tracking and arrest of two notorious poachers responsible for poaching six elephants in Tsavo West.

Before he was hired to become a ranger, Kapasei was a local Maasai herder. Although he never completed formal education, his bush skills and endurance are unrivaled, and his contributions to conservation and his personal sacrifices are ones we should all celebrate.

Thank you, Corporal Kapasei.

Please consider supporting our rangers by making a monthly donation. Doing so enrolls you in our Ranger Club, and maximizes the impact of your gift by providing reliable funding that our rangers can count on.

The first 15 people to sign up as Ranger Club members (or existing members who increase the amount of their monthly donations) during the month of July are eligible to receive a limited edition Big Life tote bag.

Without rangers, our world would look very different. Without rangers, the war against wildlife crime cannot be won.

In celebration of World Ranger Day on July 31st, Big Life will be sharing the stories of a few of our amazing rangers. Rangers who work day and night, making personal sacrifices, to protect wildlife for the benefit of all.

Today, we’d like to start by introducing you to Constable Sesei Loormoni.

Constable Sesei Loormoni is a man who is not afraid to follow a lead in order to solve a case, no matter how dangerous it may be.

Sesei has worked with Big Life for eight years and is stationed with the Rombo unit, in the south of Big Life’s area of operation on the Kenyan side of the border with Tanzania. One of his core strengths has been his work with the local informer networks. In his first several years working in Rombo, a significant percentage of arrests were made thanks to Sesei’s intelligence work.

Once, many years ago now, an elephant was found that had been poached, its ivory missing. Sesei slipped into civilian clothes and set out into the community to network. After asking around, he found a friend who had a lead on a possible suspect. Following the lead, Sesei investigated and learned that the suspect not only had the means and opportunity to have made the kill, but had also recently hidden something near his boma. With Sesei’s information, the area was searched and the suspect was arrested. The missing ivory was recovered, and justice was served.

Sesei has been a strong part of Big Life’s ranger team for many years. His job supports multiple family members, including many children, and we’re grateful every day for his commitment and sacrifices. 

To support our rangers and the work they do, please consider making a donation. You can join our Ranger Club by donating monthly to Big Life, maximizing the impact of your gift by providing reliable funding that our rangers can count on.

The first 15 people to sign up as Ranger Club members (or existing members who increase the amount of their monthly donations) during the month of July are eligible to receive a limited edition Big Life tote bag.

You may know the story coming out of Tanzania by now. If you don’t, brace yourself.

Across the border from our HQ in Kenya, trophy hunters have killed 5 elephants in the last 8 months. This follows a 29-year period during which elephants were protected from trophy hunters in the Enduimet Wildlife Management Area of Tanzania, thanks to an unofficial moratorium agreed on in the mid-90s. We don’t know the reasons for Tanzania’s change of heart but can only guess that it boils down to money.

Amboseli’s elephants are habituated to humans, making them easy targets for hunters, and they frequently cross the border between Kenya and Tanzania, because the ecosystem spans both countries.

The identities of the dead elephants are not known, aside from 35-year-old Gilgil, identified by the Amboseli Trust for Elephants. The hunting companies burned their bodies and refused to provide photos; however, we know that Gilgil and at least one other elephant were tuskers in their reproductive prime.

Tuskers are bull elephants with at least one ivory tusk weighing more than 100 lbs. There are estimated to be fewer than 50 in all of Africa, and at least 10 of them live in the Amboseli ecosystem that Big Life helps to protect. Tuskers are rare and physically magnificent, but Big Life strives to protect all elephants, regardless of their tusk size.One of the ways we do this is by supporting 20 rangers in two mobile units in Tanzania’s Enduimet Wildlife Management Area, just across the border from Amboseli. It is especially painful for those rangers to know that the very animals they have dedicated their lives to protecting are now at risk of being legally shot by trophy hunters.

We are outraged. But because hunting is legal in Tanzania, there’s not much we can do inside Tanzania besides working with partners to petition the authorities to stop issuing permits to hunt elephants in this cross-border population. In the meantime, our rangers in Enduimet will continue to protect those elephants from the illegal threats they still face.

To be clear, we are not attempting to fundraise off the back of something we can do little about. However, we’d be remiss not to acknowledge it, and we are also not sitting idly by.

As frustrating as the situation is, in addition to lobbying in Tanzania, we are doing everything we can on the Kenya side of the border to protect this special elephant population.

This starts with monitoring elephants like Esau, one of the many Amboseli elephants who frequents Tanzania. He recently sustained bad wounds in a fight with another bull, and the process of darting him for treatment of his wounds presented a unique opportunity: he could also be fitted with a tracking collar.

Because research elephants with tracking collars are widely considered off-limits to trophy hunters, our belief is that a collar will help to keep Esau safe. We can tell from the tracking data that he has since traveled deep into Tanzania, where he continues to move freely.

Trophy hunting may be the most topical, but it is only one of the threats faced by Amboseli’s elephants.

We don’t talk about conflict as much anymore, because of the success of our 100 km elephant fence that has saved elephant lives and farmers’ incomes. This hard boundary between farmers’ crops and elephants has reduced conflict by 90%+ since it was built but requires ongoing maintenance to manage elephant breakages and everyday wear and tear.We obviously can’t fence an entire ecosystem, so we also have dedicated mobile ranger units that respond to human-elephant conflicts at a moment’s notice, keeping elephants out of farms day and night.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s been 5 years since the last confirmed poaching of an elephant in our core area of operation. This is a result of tens of thousands of kilometers of ranger patrols each year, supported by vehicles, aircraft, and undercover intelligence operations. From 2017 to 2023, our intelligence network was responsible for the confiscation of 6,000 kg of ivory and the arrest of 389 ivory traffickers.

We are now leasing 100,000 acres of elephant habitat, securing space for elephants and other wildlife that have large spatial needs. This is just the start; we believe that 500,000 acres of core habitat needs to be protected in the long run.

We need to maintain this success, as we continue to do more and do it better. Protecting this ecosystem requires multiple collaborative and innovative approaches, and none of it is possible without your support.Your support is vital to protecting their habitats, mitigating human-wildlife conflict, and ensuring the survival of these intelligent and amazing animals for generations to come.

Thank you for your compassion and for supporting our mission to keep wildlife and wild lands in East Africa protected for the benefit of all.

Big Life is registered in the USA as a 501(c)(3) charity (EIN 27-3455389). Donations are tax deductible as permitted by law.