Feel Good Friday - Game Rangers International

Today is World Ranger Day, a global tribute to the men and women who risk their lives every day protecting wildlife and wild places, which makes this the perfect moment to spotlight Game Rangers International.

Founded in 2008 and headquartered in Lusaka, Zambia, the mission of Game Rangers International (GRI) is "empowering Rangers and local communities to conserve nature." What began as a small effort to support rangers in Kafue National Park has grown into a holistic conservation model spanning three landscapes across the country.

Zambia's wildlife faces relentless pressure from poaching and human-wildlife conflict, and rangers stand on the front line to protect it, despite being chronically underfunded and under-resourced. Rangers are often asked to work long, dangerous hours with limited pay, equipment, and support, which are exactly the conditions World Ranger Day was created to spotlight. GRI starts by providing rangers with welfare, training, and operational support so that they are empowered to safeguard our natural heritage.

GRI's Elephant Orphanage Project rescues calves orphaned by poaching and conflict, then guides them through a rehabilitation journey that can take more than a decade before they're ready to rejoin a wild herd. Other programs include the Zambia Primate Project, rescuing and releasing monkeys and baboons victimized by the illegal wildlife trade, a Resource Protection Programme that trains and equips anti-poaching rangers with rapid response capabilities, and a Community Outreach Programme that has engaged more than 25,000 children in conservation education.

Since they began, GRI has helped apprehend more than 1,850 poachers and traffickers, released 19 orphaned elephants back into the wild, and released over 800 rescued primates with an exceptional 85 to 100 percent survival rate! Their goal is to empower 500 Rangers by 2030 and safeguard 5 million hectares of wild space.

GRI is also taking part in this year's Wildlife Ranger Challenge, an annual event uniting ranger teams across Africa to raise funds and recognition for their work, with donations matched dollar for dollar.

If you’re inspired to support GRI, you have many options. Adopt an orphaned elephant or primate, volunteer with their conservation programs, shop for merch, make a donation, or amplify their message on social media. Follow GRI on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn or YouTube.

Happy World Ranger Day! 

I'm Ready to Go Home, But is My Plane?

No. The answer is no. After mechanical issues that could not be resolved, we were told our flight would leave 9 hours later than scheduled. That meant I would miss my connecting flight and the one that followed. The upside is, I'm blogging from the Hyatt regency in Taipei where I was able to sleep for 5 hours before going back to the airport to get on a plane that will get me home 14 hours later than planned. At least I'll get home. 

Now to wrap up the trip. The food tour of Chinatown in Bangkok was fantastic. We tried so much food including dumplings, steamed buns, duck, pork, squid, and my new favorite dessert dough that has been deep fried then grilled then covered in pandan sauce which has a coconut like flavor. So delicious!

Then it was off to Chiang Mai. Compared to fashion-forward Bangkok this is a small town full of shabby dressed tourists with a similar vibe to Siem Reap. I was in my element. It's also filled with over 100 wats and what seems like 100 coffee shops. It was here I hit my limit and stopped taking photos each time I passed a temple and instead thought "Oh, Buddha. Cool." 

I got a Thai massage at a business that trains and employees formerly incarcerated women to be the masseurs. A one-hour massage only costs $9! I also signed up for another food tour, this one even more adventurous. A lot of stops in the market visiting vendors who have run their booths for decades making sausages, pork leg, pork belly. I finally succumbed to peer pressure and tried both silk worm larvae (kind of mushy) and crickets (a crunchy snack). Hey, when in Southeast Asia. 

Friday was a visit to Elephant Nature Park, which I posted about the other day. It was very special to be able to walk among the elephants and hear about their stories of being rescued from logging or the tourist trade. Watching them frolic, yes I said frolic, in the river was also fun. And we got to spend 15 minutes in Cat Kingdom with 2000 rescued cats! I wanted to visit with more of them but one sat on my lap so I stayed with that cat the entire time. And... in the souvenir shop, I saw an elephant carved out of flip flops. It was done in partnership with Ocean Sole, an organization I visited in Nairobi and made a short video about back in 2007 when they were called UniquEco. So cool to see.

A trip to the night bazar for some local food and souvenirs and here we are, about to board the plane for the final leg home. It's been great to see places I haven't been before and inspiring to see what local people in both Cambodia and Thailand are doing to improve the lives of people and animals in their communities.

As has become the usual with these posts below is a selection of photos from this section of the trip. Thanks for following along!

Feel Good Friday - Elephants Alive

Tuesday is World Elephant Day, an international event dedicated to the preservation and protection of the world's elephants. That makes today the perfect Friday to highlight the work being done by Elephants Alive. 

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Hoedspruit, Limpopo, South Africa, the mission of Elephants Alive is “to ensure the survival of elephants and their habitats, and to promote the harmonious co-existence of elephants and people.”

Elephants are a keystone species, meaning they have a disproportionately large effect on their natural environment relative to their abundance. According to the Elephants Alive website, in the last 100 years Africa’s elephants have declined by 97%. That’s why the work they do is so important. You can watch this one-minute video for a quick overview or keep reading for more details.

A main focus of Elephants Alive is tracking the movements of elephants. In the last 29 years, they have collared and tracked over 200 elephants and identified and named 2000 more. This enables them to to inform reserve managers, conservationists and landowners about elephants seasonal activities and vegetation impact. It also allows them to find ways to reduce human-elephant conflict. 

Tracking allowed Elephants Alive to identify elephant corridors across South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Eswatini, and then work with local farmers in those corridors to develop alternative sustainable livelihoods to supplement their incomes and increase their economic resilience.

Elephants Alive has also been tracking trees. Since 2004, they’ve monitored 3000+ individual trees to understand elephant impact. This includes trees containing nesting sites of endangered birds such as the southern ground hornbill. 

The program that brings it all together is the Bees, Trees, Elephants and People program. Elephants don’t like bees, so Elephants Alive trains people how to install beehives in trees to protect them from elephant impact. In addition, the bees pollinate the trees and community members make “elephant friendly” honey and beeswax products to sell. There is an all-female anti-poaching unit in southern Mozambique called the Black Mambas who has installed 100 beehives!

Relocating elephants that wander off private game reserves, removing snares, and rescuing orphaned elephant calves round out their work with the elephants. Their community awareness work includes training the Black Mambas, introducing grandmothers to the study elephants and engaging young people from disadvantaged communities in wildlife through photography.

If this has inspired you to support Elephants Alive and the work they do, you can make a donation and become an elephant guardian and as always, amplify their work on social media. Follow Elephants Alive on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn and subscribe to their YouTube channel. Happy World Elephant Day!

Feel Good Friday - International Elephant Foundation

Monday, August 12th is World Elephant Day which makes today a great day to learn about the International Elephant Foundation.

Founded in 1998 and headquartered in Azle, Texas, the mission of the International Elephant Foundation (IEF) is “to support and operate elephant conservation and education programs in managed facilities and in the wild, with an emphasis on management, protection and scientific research.” 

The African Forest, African Savannah and Asian elephant are all endangered species. Only 400,000 African elephants remain on the continent, and the estimated population of Asian elephants is 40,000 - 50,000, one third of which are living in human care. As the human population on both continents grows, people move into elephant habitat which results in both a loss of habitat for the elephants and more frequent human elephant conflict. This puts all involved at risk of injury and death.

In order to encourage the peaceful coexistence between humans and elephants, and to protect elephants and their habitats, IEF provides grants to institutions, organizations and individuals engaged in the field of elephant conservation, research, health, management, education and improvements in husbandry of elephants in human care. 

This 4-minute video discusses past IEF projects, while the following are examples of projects being done in 2024. The Big Tusker Project in Kenya provides aerial surveillance of elephants with tusks weighing over 100 pounds each. This helps with census and scientific research as well as anti-poaching operations. Guinea Forest Elephants is focused on education campaigns, prosecuting wildlife offenses and tracking elephants in the Ziama Biosphere Reserve. Conservation Response Units in Sumatra use “captive elephants, their mahouts, and forest rangers for direct field-based conservation interventions to support the conservation of wild elephants and their habitat.”

IEF also funds and produces publications for the improved management and welfare for elephants in human care, and holds symposia for conservationists and researchers to share conservation and research outcomes. In 2024, IEF awarded over $625,000 in funding to these projects, bringing their total contributions since they began to over $9 million. 

If you’d like to support the International Elephant Foundation and the organizations they work with, there are many ways to do so. Make an old school donation or sponsor an elephant. You can also amplify their work by following IEF on Facebook or Instagram and subscribing to their YouTube channel.

 

Feel Good Friday - Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary

It's been a few months since Feel Good Friday focused on animals so today we're going to Thailand to learn about the Boon Lott's Elephant Sanctuary.


British traveler, Katherine Connor, was inspired by the courage of a young, very ill elephant named Boon Lott (survivor in Thai) when she was volunteering at an elephant hospital in Thailand. So inspired that she launched an international fundraising campaign to get him the medical treatment he needed and stayed in Thailand to help care for him. When he died, she created the Boon Lott Elephant Sanctuary in his name.

As stated on their website, "BLES strives to rescue and protect the elephants of Thailand from abuse and ultimate extinction. We provide a safe home where we focus on individual survival and growth in numbers." With the use of elephants in industry in Thailand ending in 1989, many of the mahouts (people who care for the animals) began using their elephants for illegal logging or tourist entertainment in order to feed their families and their elephants. City life, and often being pumped with drugs, reduces the elephants'  life expectancy due to stress and malnutrition.

Not only does BLES care for the animals, they also employ local mahouts to work at the sanctuary. Again from the website, "We are deeply committed to our village community and provide jobs and housing to several mahouts and their families. We encourage local participation in BLES activities and promote education about elephants and their plight as well as the environment."

Want to get directly involved supporting BLES? Take a trip to Thailand, stay at the sanctuary and work as a volunteer. With room for only 6 guests at a time, you need to plan ahead since they are currently fully booked through April, 2015!

If you're not able to visit, you can adopt an elephant for $30/month. Profiles of the sanctuary elephants can be found here. More ways to stay involved from the comfort of your own home - watch a short video of frolicking elephants here. Read a more in depth article at this Christian Science Monitor link and be sure to like their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @BLESELE