World Ranger Day: In Celebration of Ol Pejeta Conservancy Rangers

World Ranger Day:

In Celebration of Ol Pejeta Conservancy Rangers

July is a very special month for Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

We get to shine a light on the heroes of the conservancy, our rangers, as the world celebrates them on World Ranger Day, 31st July.

The rangers on Ol Pejeta conservancy are the lifeblood of our conservation activities. These brave men and women transverse the 110,000-acre sanctuary every day, walking upwards of 20 kilometres to ensure wildlife and our communities are safe. As a result of their diligence, we are coming up on five years of no poaching!

As we celebrate our rangers, we would also like to honour our other conservation champions; the fencers, herders, and logistics teams, whose contribution may, at times, go unobserved, and unsaluted. They are an integral part of our success and play an enormous role in the day-to-day operations at the conservancy.

As part of our celebrations for our heroes, we are focusing on the activities they have been up to recently to show you a snippet of what it takes to be a wildlife ranger at Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

Detusking an elephant

A 55-year-old male elephant, named Gorbachev, lost its sight in the early 2000s. After that, he stuck to the areas he knew and rarely left the conservancy. In 2005, our team took the difficult decision to detusk him to protect him from poaching, which he was more at risk from without his eyesight.

In recent years, Gorbachev's tusks have grown back and he quickly learnt how to use them for some mischievous activities like breaking fences. We had to intervene when his incidents of human-wildlife conflict increased substantially, putting him, the rangers, and the community in danger.

Our wildlife team and the Kenya Wildlife Service decided to shorten his tusks a few weeks ago, hoping that shorter tusks would discourage him from breaking into nearby communities. Whilst such an intervention can sound and look quite dramatic, our ranger and veterinarian teams take great care to ensure the animal is well taken care of, even days after the exercise.

"I have known Gorbachev for over 20 years, and I worry about him when I hear he has broken into the community. I have been keeping an eye on him after the detusking, and I am happy to see him doing well and staying out of trouble," says patrol ranger Stephen Elimlim.

Adding to the Rangers' skills

Two of our rangers, Simon Irungu and Simon Nakito, successfully completed drone training and are now certified drone pilots!

With such a vast landscape, keeping track of the species that call Ol Pejeta home can be challenging. This is why Shea Stephens, a US-based licensed drone pilot, held a

Two of our rangers, Simon Irungu and Simon Nakito, successfully completed drone training and are now certified drone pilots!

fundraiser to purchase a drone and training equipment for our rangers. Thanks to his efforts, we can now use drones to monitor more extensive areas faster and give us a bird’s eye view of activity in the bush.

"I am so excited to learn how to fly a drone," patrol ranger Simon Irungu says. "It always looked so hard to do, and I am so proud to now be licensed. I look forward to seeing how it will improve our patrolling efforts."

Re-collaring a lion

Collaring some of our lions helps us monitor pride movements, helps us understand their range and patterns, and is important in preventing human-wildlife conflict.

The collars are made such that they loosen and fall off the animal after two to three years. Once this happens, in cases where the lion in question is still active in the pride, our ranger team is deployed to fit another collar.

Collaring some of our lions helps us monitor pride movements, helps us understand their range and patterns, and is important in preventing human-wildlife conflict.

In July, thanks to our rangers, we re-collared Sellah, a female lioness, who is the leader of her pride. Those who have been lucky enough to see Secret Safari: Into The Wild, Sellah is the daughter of Sior - who sadly died last year. Sior was a fantastic hunter and it looks like Sellah is well on her way to continuing her mother's legacy and taking care of her pride.

"I was heartbroken for the pride when Sior died." says Samuel Mbogo, a tourism guide who followed the pride throughout the filming of the programme.

"I am so happy to see Sellah step up as the hunter and glad that because of collaring technology I can track and see how they are doing."