Big Game Archive
Trampling the Election
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Politics, Wildlife Management on September 7, 2010
The human/elephant conflict is becoming a major campaign issue in both Kenya and Tanzania. Soon, efforts towards resolution will lose out to the calls for culling.
Western wildlife NGOs and local researchers have been working tirelessly on human/elephant conflicts over the past decade. They haven’t gotten very far. It’s hard to keep six [...]
Mue or Zoo to the Rescue?
Posted by jimheck in Aberdare, Big Game, Wildlife Management, Wildlife Research on August 24, 2010
Two beautiful African animals face extinction because wildlife officials and scientists can’t agree on how to reintroduce zoo-bred individuals. And interestingly, it’s now become something of a contest (battle?) between the American zoo-world, and the American museum-world.
According to the IUCN, the mountain bongo and Rothschild giraffe face extinction in the wild if immediate efforts [...]
Lions before Gorillas
Lions, hyaena, topi, waterbuck, warthog, and of course lots of kob, filled our two days of game viewing in the Ishasha sector of Queen Elizabeth National Park (QENP).
This is the closest it came to rivaling game viewing in Kenya and Tanzania. This group – like the vast majority of travelers – come to Uganda [...]
Kyambora Gorge
Like Alice walking through the Looking Glass, we stepped down into the magical Kyambora Gorge for our second chimp trek.
Only 40k from Mweya, Kyambora is a world onto itself. It stretches 21 km into the Kazinga Channel and is at no point more than about 200m wide and often much less, but about 150-200m [...]
A Scenic Wow : QENP
Beautiful scenery, weird and abundant localized wildlife, and great fun on the Kazinga Channel headlined our day in Queen Elizabeth National Park.
QENP wraps itself around the Ugandan side of Lake George, and all of Lake Edward, and includes the famous Kazinga Channel which connects the two. Because of the on-again, off-again disturbances in Uganda’s [...]
Lions going extinct? Or Maasai?
Posted by jimheck in Animal Attacks, Big Game, Community Based Tourism, Mara, Safari Lodges on May 21, 2010
Richard Leakey’s excellent wildlife consortium, Wildlife Direct, said today that “Kenya’s lions are on the brink of extinction.” Exaggeration or real warning?
Probably both.
The organization’s warning followed an incident in late April where three lions were poisoned in Lemek, a private wildlife conservancy north of Kenya’s famed Maasai Mara game reserve.
Wildlife officials arrested the alleged [...]
Drought Ends Maasai Culture?
A remarkable study released yesterday by wildlife experts in East Africa that details the effects of the 2007-2009 drought unintentionally and benignly predicts the end of Maasai culture.
Reading way between the numbers of surviving zebra and elephant, I see an imminent end to Maasai pastoralism, the foundation of Maasai culture.
But first to the survey itself, [...]
Nairobi National Treasure
Yesterday a leopard was photographed multiple times in Nairobi National Park. It’s been years since there has been such positive news about the wilderness park that lies immediately adjacent the mega-metropolis of Nairobi.
Is this positively Green, or is it just a temporary reflection of heavy rains?
This adds to the carnivore resurgence here. An [...]
On Safari: Migration Outstanding
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Great Migration, OnSafari on March 23, 2010
It was slightly wetter than normal for my Gustafson safari which ended Monday, and the migration was outstanding!
The unequivocal highlight was the day we left Olduvai Gorge for Ndutu, spending the entire day on the grassland plains northeast and south of Naabi Hill. We drove and drove and only rarely found areas with no [...]
Elephant Now Safe, Are People?
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Politics, Wildlife Management on March 22, 2010
Elephant are safe for the moment, but what about the people they’re trampling?
The CITES convention in Doha yesterday strongly rejected Tanzania and Zambia’s petition for a one-off sale of warehoused ivory. I think that’s the right decision, but will others step up to protect ordinary citizens?
(And note that the Obama administration became a pivotal [...]
Ivory Sink Hole
Tanzania conservation authorities have plunged into quicksand and the sink hole could take all of East Africa with it.
This weekend Tanzania confirmed that it was aggressively trying to convince the 175 members of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to approve the sale of elephant ivory.
All the surrounding countries except Zambia strongly [...]
Back on (a wet) Track!
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Great Migration, Serengeti, Weather on January 19, 2010
As we enter the great migration season in Tanzania everyone ready to go (including me) wants to know the state of the veld. Well – dare I suggest it? – it looks… wonderful.
I wanted to say “normal” but normal doesn’t exist, anymore, in these confused eras of global warming. But frankly that’s what [...]
Rhinowash
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Charity, Poaching, Wildlife Management on December 26, 2009
This week’s arrival in Kenya of one of the most endangered animals left on earth was not the cute Christmas present the world media reported.
In fact, the relocation of 4 of the remaining 8 northern white rhino in existence, into a country where poaching is becoming epidemic, may be one of the most stupid moves [...]
Dave’s Winning Video
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Ngorongoro Crater, Tarangire on December 8, 2009
I am sent hundreds of hours of video and thousands of photos every year, and I love watching them all. But this takes the prize!
The prize winner is by one of the nicest guys I’ve ever guided on safari, Cleveland veterinarian, Dave Koncal. He is not a photographer or cinematographer by trade, but [...]
More Poaching Evidence
Posted by jimheck in Big Game, Poaching, Wildlife Management on November 30, 2009
European governments have joined Kenya to keep pressure on the Obama administration to end its silence on supporting continued protection of elephants during the upcoming CITES convention in March.
Today, officials from Kenya’s police and army, led by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), released photographs and other details of a huge inter-country sting operation against illegal [...]