While the world anticipates the upcoming summer Olympic games in Paris, here in Amboseli, we’re preparing for a different kind of Olympics.

The next Maasai Olympics finals will take place December 14, 2024.

This unique event is more than just a competition—it's a powerful celebration of Maasai culture, athleticism, and wildlife conservation. By promoting sports over traditional lion hunting, the Maasai Olympics helps protect our precious wildlife and fosters a spirit of community and conservation.

Join us in celebrating this incredible event that showcases the strength and unity of the Maasai people and their commitment to preserving nature. Stay tuned for more updates! Learn more about the Maasai Olympics.  Photo: Jeremy Goss

Night after night, lions were breaking in.

It wasn’t always the same household, and not always the same lions, but the people of Olbili village were running out of patience.

The primary culprit was a lioness struggling to feed her four six-month-old cubs, and livestock in night-time enclosures are easy prey. Big Life compensates these losses, but there is a limit to human tolerance of repeated attacks. After surviving one spear wound, it was only a matter of time before she ended up dead.

We are grateful to Lion Guardians for tracking and identifying her, and to the community who agreed to let her stay in the area, so long as she was fitted with a GPS satellite collar (also supplied by Lion Guardians).

Big Life meanwhile had two mobile units working in the area to contain the conflict. Once she was found in a suitable place for darting, a quick response from Kenya Wildlife Service meant that the collaring operation happened smoothly, and she was soon reunited with her cubs.

Her location will now be broadcast to both Lion Guardians and Big Life’s radio room, so we can intercept her whenever she gets too close to community areas, keeping her alive and out of trouble.

This seemingly straightforward outcome is a culmination of decades of hard work and community relationship building by Big Life and Lion Guardians. By responding quickly to conflicts and community needs, we have slowly earned enough time and tolerance to allow problems to be solved, rather than speared.

Outside developers see Amboseli as the wild west, somewhere they can score cheap land and do what they want with it. ‘KiliAvo Fresh’ was one of these - they bought 180 acres in the Kimana Wildlife Corridor and cleared and fenced it to plant avocados.

The problem was they hadn’t properly assessed their environmental impact, consulted neighbours and stakeholders, or taken account of land-use management plans. As a result Kenya’s environmental management authority (NEMA) revoked their development permission, kicking off a 4-year legal saga…

The resistance was led by the Kimana community, represented by an association called ALOCA, but Big Life ended up embroiled in the court battles. KiliAvo’s cases failed repeatedly, the most recent blow coming last week in a dismissal of their case by the Kajiado Environment and Land Court.

KiliAvo will be allowed one final appeal to a higher court, but we hope that we are close to the right outcome.

Big Life’s CEO in Kenya, Benson Leyian, said of the court’s decision, “It’s another win that reinforces the message: there are regulations and land-use plan in Amboseli that have been put in place to protect the livelihoods of local communities, and the natural environment that the people depend on. These plans are enforceable by law, and you cannot get around this.”

Added Samuel Kaanki, ALOCA Chairman, “Today is a cause for celebration in our community, we feel that we are being recognized by the government and the courts. This farm, and others that could follow if it was allowed to continue, threaten our livelihoods and culture.”

There are other non-compliant farms in the area, including Ngong Veg who have made a public commitment to return the land to conservation but taken no such steps yet. We hope that this will be a signal to them and others; farming is important, but not in the middle of one of the most heavily trafficked elephant migration corridors in Kenya. Photo: Jeremy Goss

To dart, or not to dart?

The vet and rangers stood under one tree. Vronsky, one of Amboseli’s “super tuskers,” stood under another nearby.

Vronsky was just coming out of a period known as musth, a state of heightened sexual behavior accompanied by a rise in reproductive hormones, which can lead to an increased risk of complications during anaesthetization.

But the injury to his leg was worsening, and he was having trouble walking. If left untreated, he would certainly die. In the end, the decision was an easy one.

The darting was straightforward, but the wound turned out to be anything but. There was a deep puncture that was cleaned and treated, but more worrying was the discovery of trauma to the leg joint. It was impossible to tell how he got the injury. The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust-funded KWS vet did what he could, but Vronsky’s chances of a full recovery were maybe 50/50.

After the anesthetic was reversed, there was a brief scary moment when he struggled to get up, but with a rope around one of his giant tusks, a Land Cruiser was able to pull him into an upright position, and he stood from there.

In the days following, Big Life rangers tracked Vronsky daily. Each day, he was walking more easily than the last. The swelling slowly subsided, and more than a month later, we are happy to report that he appears to have made a full recovery.

Our partners at Amboseli Trust for Elephants (who also assisted during the treatment) have monitored him since birth, and so we know that Vronsky turns 48 later this year. Thanks to this intervention he should make it to that birthday, and hopefully many more! Photos: Jeremy Goss Watch the reel on Instagram.