Typically I write and show you beautiful things that make me smile. But this is something we should all be aware of, told by one of my favorite photographers Nick Brandt:
Part of me was reluctant to tell people that these elephants had been killed. You want to believe that these beautiful elephants are still wandering the African plains. But in a very short space of time, most of the large-tusked elephants featured in my books have been killed by poachers for their ivory.
With increasing population, widespread cell-phone service, and ever-greater road access, it’s getting more and more easy for the poachers. As things currently stand, it is no longer a matter of if a big-tusked elephant is killed, but when.
Announcing BIG LIFE FOUNDATION
The captions beneath the next photographs explain it all
(just double click the picture):
(just double click the picture):
Part of me was reluctant to tell people that these elephants had been killed. You want to believe that these beautiful elephants are still wandering the African plains. But in a very short space of time, most of the large-tusked elephants featured in my books have been killed by poachers for their ivory.
Since 2008, there has been a huge increase in demand from China and the Far East for ivory, and as a result, elephants are being wiped out at an alarming rate. The numbers are apocalyptic : it’s estimated that as many as 35,000 elephants are being poached a year, 10% of the entire population of Africa's elephants each year alone.
And it’s not just elephants. The lions are being poisoned at an incredible rate too. It’s become so bad that there are next to no lions left outside the national parks. Giraffes are also being killed at a faster rate for bush meat. There are even contracts out on zebras, as their skins are the latest fad in Asia.
The Kenya Wildlife Service is underfunded and understaffed. The rangers and scouts employed to patrol the Amboseli ecosystem are few and far between, despite the efforts of a few good, but also drastically underfunded, non-profit organizations in the area. And on the Tanzanian side, where most of the poachers come from, there is almost no-one to stop the wholesale slaughter.
I simply can no longer watch this escalation of destruction of this extraordinary ecosystem and its animals. The time has come to act. With that in mind, I have started my own non-profit organization, called Big Life Foundation.
Our first appeal is a broad-scale anti-poaching plan for the Amboseli ecosystem with the intention of moving boldly, urgently, to get the money into place as fast as possible to halt the poaching.
In early August, the Foundation was conceived with a complete, comprehensive plan of action in place. At the end of August, Richard Bonham, one of the most experienced and highly respected conservationists in East Africa, was hired as Big Life’s Director of Operations in Africa. In September, the first $230,000 was donated. Literally days later, the first three anti-poaching outposts along the border were being bought and built and more anti-poaching teams brought in. A top training instructor for the all the scouts and rangers in the region has been hired. More equipment bought. Landcruisers for the mobile anti-poaching teams are on order.
It’s a great start, and we are already making a difference. But we need to do so much more and can only do so with more donations. We are operating with an urgency because we know that we don’t have time to wait. Within the last few weeks, several of Amboseli’s most amazing bulls have been killed. And those are just the ones that we know about. Every day, without exaggeration, it is getting worse.
We’re hoping that we get the poaching under control in Amboseli as fast as we can, and then start approaching the issues long term, and further afield across East Africa. There is so much to be done to protect some of Africa's most magnificent wild animals from being all but wiped out in the near future.
To learn about what we are already doing,
and what we are going to be doing,
and what we are going to be doing,
please visit our website :
Thanks for your time, and any donations that you can make.
Nick Brandt
Look at these beautiful animals .... and take a minute to think about what Nick has just told you.
