Earth Day 2022

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For Earth Day 2022, I want to ask you to join me and thousands of other people in making a promise: please take our pledge to protect the planet.

The latest UN climate report looks grim. Global greenhouse gas emissions have reached record levels. Time is running out to limit global warming to 1.5°C. We're already seeing devastating consequences, including more intense wildfires and other disasters, changing weather patterns, and struggling ecosystems.

But the report and WWF's scientists also tell us: there is still time, and there is still hope—for people, for the planet, and for a brighter future.

There are many solutions to our greatest environmental problems, and everyone—including you—can play a role. We've seen the extraordinary strength of collective power. Help us reach 125,000 voices making a commitment to our planet.

Pledge to protect the planet ►

Thank you for taking action and helping to build a future where people live in harmony with nature.

Elephants Need You!

Our mission is to secure a future for elephants And to sustain the beauty and ecological integrity of the places they live; To promote man’s delight in their intelligence and the diversity of their world; And to develop a tolerant relationship between the two species.

FOR Save The Elephants:

• $525 covers the cost of a 90 minute surveillance flight to find elephants in the bush

• $472 could help safely evacuate someone injured by elephants, from a remote location to the local hospital

• $280 covers the cost of the medicine needed to immobilise and treat an elephant in trouble

• $190 covers the cost of the Rapid Response Unit motorbikes to be serviced and repaired

• $72 covers the cost of a month's food and essential supplies for the Rapid Response Unit scouts

• $56 pays for a week's worth of essential internet needed for the remote research team to download

Thank you so much for caring and giving. The elephant world is becoming less secure daily. Human/elephant conflict has replaced poaching as the biggest threat today.

With gratitude, Singer

Greetings from Kenya!

The support from WorldWomenWork in 2021 had an immediate and direct impact at Save The Elephants in protecting earth’s majestic giants.

© Jane Wynyard / Save The Elephants

Elephants like Sarara made a full recovery after being found with a spear in his stomach last October. Thankfully the veterinary team could respond quickly to save his life, as well as other elephants who experienced injuries after clashes with people.

I’ve just spent the past weekend in Samburu with the Save The Elephants team and our board of trustees (and special guest Sarara), planning for the year ahead.

At the forefront of our discussions has been an overwhelming sense of gratitude for WorldWomenWork.

Our work is 100% funded by you. Each gift you send helps study and protect elephants so they have a better chance to live their large and wild lives.

Elephants like Bora from the Winds family gave birth to twin calves last month, one male and one female. This was a very rare event indeed, as the birth of twins hasn't been recorded in Samburu for decades!

© Jane Wynyard / Save The Elephants

Save The Elephants is charging into 2022 with an ambitious new three-year strategy. 

The challenges elephants face today are different to the ones they faced ten years ago. With you in our herd, we were able to stem the poaching crisis and campaign for ivory bans which has seen the price of ivory plummet. We can now say that poaching is no longer the single greatest threat to elephants. You made this possible.

Thank you for caring about wild elephants.

2022 is a really important year for elephant conservation.

An increasingly unpredictable climate and a growing human population are rapidly becoming a dominating threat to the future of elephants.

© Robbie Labanowski / Save The Elephants

Being squeezed into pockets of shrinking wild spaces has resulted in a rise of elephants and humans clashing as they compete for space, water and food.

Your support allows us to continue our pioneering scientific research which informs important conservation decisions and actions at a local and global level.

This year, we are working on securing important wildlife corridors into law to prevent development from blocking elephants as they follow rain and pasture.

We are also training two new female scouts who will be stationed at a remote research outpost in the far north of Kenya where elephants are spending more time, far from human settlement.

The support from WorldWomenWork allows us to react to situations quickly, whilst planning for the future ahead. For a world where elephants and humans can peacefully coexist.

We can continue to do what we do because you are with us, every step of the way. 

I wanted to take the time to write and personally thank you for caring about wild elephants.

Singleton, your generosity at WorldWomenWork is saving elephants. Asante sana!

With warmest wishes from Kenya,

Frank Pope
Chief Executive Officer
Save The Elephants

Grevy's Zebra Scout Program

The Grevy's Zebra Scout Program is GZT's pioneer program. The Scouts are composed mainly of Samburu women. The Scouts have become influential decision makers within their homes, and within their communities; their voice and their actions are critical to conserving Grevy's zebra.

Gentle Giant Falls

I have to share the immensity of the problem facing elephants today. Above is one of about 12 of the last super tuskers in Kenya, Wide Satao - named after the original Satao killed in 2014. Saving The Elephants has been studying and tracking him for years.

"As you will see from the attached photo, his giant tusks weighing over 100lbs each are still intact. A few years ago, the value of his tusks would have been the biggest threat to his life. Instead, this bull spent his last few years being speared and shot at by humans, and finally died from starvation in a landscape ravaged by drought.”

The human-elephant conflict is escalating as people are desperate to keep their cows, camels and goats alive in this environment and can’t be kept out of the preserves. Young kids are getting seriously hurt and have to be rushed to hospital by the newly established Rapid Response Team. The medical and surgical bills are over $25,000 for 3 young girls.

Your help is needed desperately. You are WWW.

With hope and gratitude,

Singer

Human Elephant Conflict - The Maralal Story

Empowering Women In Conservation

In 1998, there was a great need to empower women in conservation which today has reached an intensity unimaginable then. The Mama Tembo ELEPHANTS, Mama Simba LIONS and GREVY’S ZEBRA Grassland Mamas work together addressing: CONSERVATION OF ENDANGERED SPECIES - CLIMATE CHANGE - GRASSLAND RESTORATION - MEGA INFRASTRUCTURE. All the Mamas work tirelessly on these various problems in the hope that they can lessen the impact from these catastrophic issues.

Women are playing an ever more impressive role!

Habiba © Save The Elephants

ELEPHANT SCHOLARSHIPS

Habiba 19, is the oldest of five and responsible for her family. She escaped female genital mutilation and works to end this ritual. $7,000 is the cost of her four year Geo-information Technology degree. She also has a scholarship to study coding at Google and recently said, “I hope one day I will be able to use my coding skills to make the world a better place and to help save elephants."

MAMA GREVY, head of Grassland Mamas photo © Singer Rankin WWW

THE POWER OF MAMAS

"Mama Grevy, she just continues to grow in her leadership role. It's just so amazing to witness that powerhouse of a woman, who has come from such a humble background to being one of the most respected women in Westgate."

HABIBA (same name also) First Elephant Orphan in WWW Funded Study photo © Singer Rankin WWW

ELEPHANT ORPHANS

We continue to learn about the incredible resilience of elephant orphans in particular with a focus on looking at movements of orphans relative to their mother’s historical behavior. The nuance and complexity of their responses to the difficult situation in which they have been thrust continues to amaze.

I can’t emphasize enough the magnitude of your support. None of this would be possible without you. Please be proud of what you make possible even though it is on the other side of the world… the world is all ONE.

OUR YEAR END APPEAL

1 camera for documenting the land - $350

1 grassland champion salary - $850 per year

1 high school scholarship per year - $1500

1 4 year college scholarship - $7,000

1 lion radio collar - $7,500

1 elephant radio collar - $10,000

Again words cannot express my thanks and gratitude for all that you do!

With hope,
Singer

Heartbreaking Drought

Grevy’s zebra, lions, elephants and many more are stressed due to lack of food and water as a result of extreme drought in Kenya.  The zebra are receiving supplemental feeding on all their ranges ( see Bernard in photo above ).  A small group of WWW Adventurers were in Kenya in Sept 2017 visiting our projects and even then there was a drought. We were so fortunate to have been able to help Bernard feed the Grevy’s.

Today the situation is desperate.

In The Guardian newspaper on Sept. 15, 2021, "National disaster declared in Kenya as crops fail after poor rains and locusts, while ethnic conflicts add to crisis...  President Uhuru Kenyatta declared the drought in Kenya a national disaster."

Climate change is everywhere causing havoc. 

Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save The Elephants in Kenya has expressed our deepest feelings eloquently:
 

In a world full of uncertainty
You gave protection, hope and new life.
To reach out over thousands of miles
Across the globe to save a species,
And support co-existence with human beings
Is one of the most idealistic
And altruistic actions you can take.                                    

"Through aerial patrols, we've noticed some interesting elephant behavior occurring. Changes in rainfall distribution has resulted in elephants expanding into previously unknown territory, such as north of the Chalbi Desert, nearing the Somali & Ethiopian borders. Elephants were largely wiped out from these areas by the ivory trade, and the people that live there are no longer used to having them around. So it is good news that they're going back into a range that they last occupied in the middle of the 19th Century! But we do need to shepherd them with aerial support and community engagement in these new areas." Save The Elephants

Save the Elephants is the only organization who routinely track the elephants by air that far north, guiding ground teams and collecting the data that will protect their migration routes into the future.

"We are relying on our two Cessna aircrafts to cover a lot of ground. They are an integral part of the work we do - from surveys and monitoring, to track and rescue when needed, and we need to ensure we can keep them operational at all times.” Save The Elephants

I spoke to Shivani at Ewaso Lions in Kenya this morning and she said it was absolutely heartbreaking with reminders of the 2009 drought. This is bringing back memories when so many animals died, domestic and wild.

Lion at parched Ewaso River - photo © Singer Rankin WWW

Ewaso Lions is starting a drought response program as conditions are only going to get worse with very low rainfall predicted.

Again words can not express my thanks and gratitude for all that you do!
Never forget we are in this together.
With gratitude and hope,

Singer

Orphaned But Not Alone -How You Helped Rescue Shaba

Shaba barely got to know her mother. A member of the Poetics family, Shaba was 20 months old when her mother was tragically shot, presumably by poachers.

Both Shaba and her older sister were found in terrible distress, running in circles around their mother’s body. Shaba hadn’t yet been weaned so a tough decision was made to airlift her by helicopter to Reteti—Kenya’s only community-run elephant sanctuary. Thankfully her sister re-joined the Poetics family.

As you can imagine, Shaba was traumatized on arrival at Reteti. It took a long time for the team to gain her trust. Just like you would your own baby, they spent day and night talking and singing to her— anything to calm her down and make her feel safe. In the end, thanks to their expert care and devotion, Shaba eventually accepted a bottle and became stronger.

Young elephants need love almost as much as they need food and water. A bond quickly developed between Shaba and the keepers at Reteti. It was then she started to show motherly instincts to new orphan arrivals at the sanctuary—greeting them when they arrived and teaching them how to walk along some of the steep paths in the area. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Shaba quickly became matriarch to the entire orphan herd.

Younger elephants feel safe with Shaba, pictured with former Save the Elephants employee, Rimland Lemojong who now works at Reteti.

Today, Shaba, aged six, has been successfully rehabilitated into the wild at neighboring Sera Rhino Sanctuary alongside nine of her stable-mates. The young orphans, which Save the Elephants fitted with tracking collars, are learning both about survival and integrating with wild elephant society.

Now the anchor of a tiny orphan herd, Shaba is teaching us much about orphaned elephant behavior.

And, because of everything we’ve learned about Shaba and the rewilded orphans, we can help create a brighter future for other orphaned baby elephants like her.

Thank you for safeguarding their future and for being there when we needed you the most.

Because you cared, these little elephants now have a chance to grow to mature males and females and eventually venture out beyond the safety of the Sera Rhino Sanctuary to be truly wild once more -thanks to people like you!

repost from Save The Elephants

Celebrating The Life Of Naramat

COST FOR ONE RADIO TRACKING LION COLLAR - $ 7,500

In the last 20 years, the African lion population has declined by 43% and lions now occupy only 8% of their historical range in Africa. In Kenya, there are less than 2,500 lions that remain. The reduction in lion numbers is primarily due to habitat loss and conflict with humans, typically when lions kill people's livestock.

Ewaso Lions' critical work identifies key habitat and lion corridors and manages conflict by alerting communities to lion presence when they venture close to villages or areas with livestock. They deploy GPS-fitted collars on lions. Unlike many collaring exercises which are strictly for research purposes, lion collars in Northern Kenya save lives. The warriors stop conflict before it starts especially with an initial alert from a radio collar.

The atmosphere in camp with the team has now changed. Intense conflict not only with people but with animals is increasing due to severe drought. The river dried up in June and who knows when the rains will come. People’s tolerance is in crisis mode so if a lion kills livestock an intolerable situation immediately arises. Radio collars are an absolute necessity to know the location of lions and the ability to diffuse volatile situations as they arise. Due to the drought predators have no prey, due to lack of food to feed upon, so livestock then comes into play.

LOLGEETI COLLARING photo by Ewaso Lions

WWW has committed to one collar, the cost of $ 7,500. Please join WWW by making a donation in honor of Naramat, the community lioness whose existence was proof that coexistence between people and lions is possible. She was tracked everyday for 13 years and was killed recently by another lion leaving four offspring, one of whom has been killed.

NARAMAT photo Ewaso Lions

The world we live in today is extremely fragile. The wild world is shrinking dramatically due to population increase and development. We must fight this and invest in our future. Please join WWW and make a donation. Your support is so important. WWW could not make a difference without you.