Reaching Great Heights
They start their lives with the shock of a 5-foot drop to the ground, but are standing upright in 30 minutes, and running in hours. Their tongues can grow to 1.5 ft long, allowing them to deftly pluck leaves from the thorniest branches, and their hearts have to generate double the pressure that other mammals do to get blood to their brains on top of their long necks.
These extraordinary animals were previously thought to all be one species, but recent research suggests that there are actually four. The total number of giraffes of all species has dropped by 30% in the last four decades, largely as a result of habitat loss and poaching.
The endangered Maasai giraffe, which is found in Big Life’s area of operation, has declined from an estimated population of 63,000 to the current estimate of 35,000 individuals. While this is alarming, there is some good news to report. The giraffe population has quadrupled over the past 10 years in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem.
This is surely something to celebrate on #WorldGiraffeDay as it shows what is possible when communities, supported by caring individuals around the world, come together to holistically care for the environment that both humans and wildlife need to thrive.
But giraffe have already gone extinct in seven countries in Africa, and there is no reason to think it won’t happen again without conservation action. In Amboseli, they are still targeted for bush-meat poaching, hit by vehicles on tar roads, and caught in snares and fences. Through our work to protect giraffes from poaching and to protect their habitats, we aim to ensure that the Amboseli ecosystem remains a stronghold for this species far into the future.
Photo: @jeremygoss#giraffe#giraffes#animals#conservation#wildlife#nature#eastafrica#endangeredspecies#maasaigiraffe#amboseli#africa#conservation
WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT
There are two worlds in Amboseli, and the difference is night and day. A wildlife corridor in an area of intense human activity has a traffic pattern that reflects it.
Here’s a glimpse over a 24-hour period at a pinch point in the Kimana Wildlife Corridor, where Big Life leases a thin stretch of land (70m wide at its narrowest) to funnel animals safely through a ribbon of human development, over a tar road, and into the natural habitat beyond.
The Kimana Corridor is the most heavily used route for animals moving to and from Amboseli National Park and the Kimana Sanctuary, which connects with the east of the ecosystem and on to Tsavo West National Park. Big Life rangers also help protect both the corridor and the sanctuary, providing safe passage through the ecosystem in more ways than one.
By day, the pinch point bustles with humans and their livestock, moving to and from grazing areas and markets. At night, the human world goes to sleep, the car traffic on the road thins, and the wild takes over.
There is little separation between humans and nature here. Animals have had to learn how to navigate the changes caused by human development, just as humans must manage living with wildlife on their land.
Humans, livestock, and wildlife rely on the same resources across Amboseli: water, grazing areas, and corridors to move between those areas. What is good for wildlife is good for people, and vice versa, and this makes Big Life’s work to protect these natural spaces doubly important.
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Twenty years ago, the local lion population in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem was headed for extinction. Today, the ecosystem is home to more than 250 lions. So, when we capture camera trap images like this, we can’t be anything but grateful to our supporters and lion conservation partners for helping to ensure scenes like this are not a thing of the past. Hard work from all involved has led to the lion population in our area of operation being one of the few lion populations in all of Africa that is growing, not declining.
The core component of Big Life’s Predator Protection Program is livestock compensation. Through Big Life’s Predator Compensation Fund, since 2003 in participating areas, Maasai livestock owners are paid a portion of the value of their livestock loss to predators on the condition that no predators are killed in retaliation. Since inception, retaliatory killings have virtually stopped.
The second part of our Predator Protection Program is the Maasai Olympics, an organized sports event based on traditional Maasai warrior skills designed to replace the long-held tradition of hunting lions as a mark of manhood, bravery, and prestige. After COVID-19 put the 5th Maasai Olympics on hold, we are thrilled that they will resume this year in December.
Thank you for your help to save these iconic cats.
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When it comes to human-wildlife conflict in the Greater Amboseli ecosystem, Big Life’s rangers are the peacekeepers. They are committed individuals who spend nights on call, ready to respond to elephant crop raids at a moment’s notice. They understand the long-term conservation value of protecting both wildlife and human interests. Because if conservation supports the people, then people will support conservation. Tolstoy’s death was a pivotal moment for the Big Life rangers who have dedicated themselves to the wildlife and wild lands of East Africa.
“Today was the saddest day in my job as a ranger, having lost one of the elephants that I treasured the most. I’m scared for the other tuskers, but we will do whatever has to be done to keep them safe. All I can say is rest in peace Tolstoy, we will miss you.”
— Job Lekanayia, Big Life ranger
Please support our efforts to keep the peace. Link in Bio.
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So, the fence has been successful. Why then, you might ask, is Tolstoy dead?
We aren’t able to build crop-protection fences along boundaries that are likely to change in the future. Sadly, Tolstoy was a habitual crop-raider in an area where land ownership and boundaries are currently in flux, and so this area has remained unfenced.
As many of you know, the Greater Amboseli ecosystem is currently going through a process called land subdivision. Large communally-owned land areas are being divided into small privately- owned parcels. This will define the boundaries of agriculture across the ecosystem. Once these future boundaries have been established then we can continue the fence-building.
In the meantime, Big Life’s rangers need to fill in the gaps. Big Life has six vehicle-based mobile ranger units spread across the ecosystem. These 55 rangers spend their nights on call, ready to respond to elephant crop-raids at a moment’s notice. They are the peacekeepers, and it is thanks to their extraordinary commitment and work that Tolstoy lived for much longer than he otherwise would have.
We are going into a difficult time now. The long rains failed this year, and human-wildlife conflict will be particularly intense over the coming months before the rains return.
Managing human-wildlife conflict is fundamental. Where there is conflict, there is anger toward wildlife, and where there is anger toward wildlife, animals will die. With Big Life’s holistic conservation approach, we can see a future with space for both wildlife and people, and it is important that our partner communities can too.
Annual cost to keep our rapid response rangers in the field: $135,000
Help us keep the peace. Donate today – link in profile.
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Photo: @jamessuter#rangers#amboseli#community#conservation#eastafrica#africa#nonprofit#endangered#elephant#elephants#endangeredspecies
In the five years from 2012 to 2016, we recorded 36 conflict-related elephant deaths in our core area of operation. Something needed to be done, and in 2016, you—our supporters—gave us the funds to start construction of a solar-powered electric fence, a barrier to separate elephants from humans and their crops.
Today that fence is 100 km long and has achieved exactly what we had hoped. In the last three years, we have lost only six elephants to conflict in our core area, and because of the fence, only two of those were in retaliation for crop-raiding.
The reason is simple: the fence has reduced crop-raiding by more than 90% in the areas where it has been installed. This fence helps elephants, and it helps people.
But a fence is not impenetrable. Elephants are extremely smart and will exploit the smallest weakness in any barrier. At the worst times of year, there are multiple elephant attempts to break the fence each night, and the difference between success and failure is maintenance.
Big Life employs a team of thirty-three fence-checkers to do exactly this. They walk every inch of the fence daily, checking for problems and patching breaks. They are as much a part of a working fence as the electrified wires themselves.
Annual cost to maintain the fence: $139,000
Help us keep the peace and mitigate human-wildlife conflict.
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Tolstoy was one of Amboseli’s treasures. There are perhaps as few as thirty elephants like him alive.
‘Super-tuskers’ are elephants that have at least one tusk weighing 100 pounds or more. The genes that give rise to these incredible creatures are gone from most of Africa, systematically eliminated by hunting and poaching pressure. Most of the super-tuskers that have survived live in the Greater Amboseli-Tsavo ecosystem.
Tolstoy’s huge tusks put him at tremendous risk through the worst of the ivory poaching years. Big Life’s rangers worked hard to protect him through that dark time, and to lose him, at age 51, to human-wildlife conflict was both tragic and a shock.
Tolstoy never meant any harm, and you can be sure that the person who killed him would rather have been asleep in his bed at home than throwing spears at elephants in his field. The farmer probably didn’t even know that it was Tolstoy in the darkness.
If anything, this makes his death even more pointless and upsetting, especially for the rangers who have spent years of long nights patrolling the farmlands that Tolstoy frequented, doing their best to keep him and other elephants out.
Human-wildlife conflict is a battle in which there is no winner, only losses on both sides. Big Life’s job is to minimize those losses, and to help keep the peace.
Help us protect elephants like Tolstoy. Help us keep the peace.
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Photo: @jeremy.goss#elephant#elephants#humanwildlifeconflict#amboseli#africa#eastafrica#wildlife#animals#conservation#endangered#endangeredspecies