YOUR OL PEJETA AN UPDATE FOR OUR MOST VALUED SUPPORTERS
WELCOME TO ‘YOUR OL PEJETA’ Greetings from a cold Ol Pejeta. It is our “winter” season so whilst the sun shines there is often a real “nip” in the air. Actually it is a lovely time of year in many respects, with plentiful forage for the wildlife and new young animals everywhere you look. Warthog reproduction appears to have been especially prolific this year! Normally our tourism high season would have commenced by now. However, as a result of the COVID 19 pandemic and the complete cessation of international travel, as well as most local travel, our tourism revenues have slumped to all time lows. As an organisation we are now forecasting that overall tourism revenues for the year will decrease by over USD 4m against an annual budgeted income of USD 5.6m. And, whilst local tourism will hopefully begin to pick up during July, we do not expect international tourism to return in any meaningful way until mid-2021! This really is a crisis of incredible proportions and we are very very financially stressed as a result. In order to try and survive we have had to undertake a wide-ranging program of cost cutting measures, including salary cuts at all levels of the work force, even as we try to maintain the operational capacity necessary to protect our wildlife and support our local communities. However, with all the best will in the world, however hard we cut costs it will not be enough. As a result we are leaning heavily on the philanthropic goodwill of people all over the world to help us through this horrendous period. You are part of the community of people who has contributed to our programs with your very generous gift(s), for that we are enormously appreciative and we say a sincere “thank you”. You are helping us and our mission significantly, and over 170 rhinos continue to thrive as a result. This awful period in all of our lives will come to an end sooner or later. We need to keep going and keep doing all possible to survive in the interim. Rest assured that once we are through the worst, and domestic and international travel can begin again, we will be here to welcome you all on safari in the best traditions of the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. Thank you and sincerely, Richard
Front cover photo: northern white rhino close up | Justin Mott
IN THIS ISSUE Our rhino family is growing, thanks to you Keeping our chimpanzee safe during, and post-COVID-19 Evolving technology ... and how we are keeping up Finding balance for happy communities and happy wildlife Saving a species from extinction amidst a pandemic
Elephant on Ol Pejeta | Asilia
OUR RHINO FAMILY IS GROWING, THANKS TO YOU It has been a long, and sometimes heartbreaking, journey to get to where we are in our rhino population, a journey that started with just four black rhinos in 1989. You have walked beside us over the years, rejoicing with every birth and mourning over every death. You have been there to support our rangers, who in turn have laid their lives on the line to protect these animals. Last year you helped us reach our 2020 goal of 120 black rhinos on Ol Pejeta (reaching 130 by the end of the year), and celebrated two consecutive years of zero poaching with us. This is the current carrying capacity for rhinos on our 90,000 acres. and we soon hope to expand into the 20,000 acres secured by the government - known as the Mutara Conservation Area. Since January, we have welcomed four new healthy black rhino babies, bringing our total number to 134. Out of these rhinos, 106 have been given names by many of you in memory and honour of your loved ones, places you have visited, and so many other inspirations. The rhino naming programme has been a major source of support for our rhino patrol unit. Every time they mention a rhino by its name, they remember that you are out there cheering them on. It costs us about US$10,000 per rhino each year to take care of them, ensuring that they are happy and free in a natural environment - and we couldn’t do it without you. We asked Emma Adams, a long time friend of Ol Pejeta, who recently named a southern white female rhino, Asali, what our rhino programme means to her: “We were excited to be afforded the incredible opportunity to be a part of conservation in action by naming one of these incredible animals, contributing to the protection of this unique, special and iconic animal - and thus the wider ecosystem which they inhabit. For us, I believe that giving these creatures a name makes their importance more tangible to people, it gives these individuals identity which hopefully will help serve as a driver to further support the vital work that Ol Pejeta does, not only by directly protecting the species but also working with local communities to make sustained change and appreciable positive changes to our world. It also gives us a brilliant excuse to keep visiting Ol Pejeta in the hopes of seeing Asali in the future.” We look forward to a world where rhinos can exist and thrive without the threat of extinction caused by humanity.
Southern white rhino calf | Renee Roaming
Chimpanzee | Renee Roaming
KEEPING OUR CHIMPANZEES SAFE DURING AND POST-COVID-19 News of a global pandemic earlier this year changed everything we thought we knew about our year ahead. Suddenly, people and organisations had to shift and adapt to new ways of doing business, alter how they interacted with both loved ones and strangers. For us on Ol Pejeta, this meant that on top of protecting our staff, we had to take extra care to make sure our wildlife were safe; especially our chimpanzees. Even though it has not been established that COVID-19 can affect chimpanzees, they are very closely related to humans and this means any diseases we carry could also affect them. Your support, with special recognition to the Arcus Foundation, has helped us to create a happy and safe environment for these great apes, and we do not want to reverse so many years of good work. We have, therefore, put in place some serious protective measures. As soon as cases were reported in Kenya, our management, in consultation with other great ape sanctuaries and veterinarians, closed off the sanctuary to the public. This also included all research and volunteer staff. In addition, only essential chimpanzee staff are allowed into the sanctuary and are expected to be in full protective gear, and are subject to daily temperature checks. Our committed caregivers have been in complete isolation with their beloved chimpanzees and most have not seen their families in months. We have also suspended all non-emergency medical procedures of the chimpanzees. Emergency procedures are to be undertaken by veterinary personnel in Personal Protective Clothing (PPE) at all times, to avoid crosstransmission of infections. These measures are reviewed as necessary as our Ministry of Health updates the country on the progress being made in regards to COVID-19. We do not take the support you have shown to our chimpanzee sanctuary lightly, and want you to be part of every step we take in the upcoming months to make sure both the staff and chimpanzees are safe. It is our hope that as things ease globally we will be able to share with visitors, once again, the delight brought to us by our wildlife, but it is clear that many systems will need to be in place for this to happen. Thank you for all the love you have shown our rescued chimpanzees through your adoptions, donations, past visits and spreading awareness on their plight. You are the reason we are able to give them a second chance at life in a natural environment.
EVOLVING TECHNOLOGY‌ AND HOW WE ARE KEEPING UP In the world we live in right now, there is a new invention with every waking day. It can be quite overwhelming, especially when the very lives you protect might depend on how well you can stay ahead. As the home of the last two northern white rhinos in the world, being one of the largest black rhino sanctuaries in Africa and having a sanctuary for rescued chimpanzees, we are a target to many individuals who may not have the same conservation values as we do - to put it lightly. On one hand, we have amazing people like you who do their best to help us save wildlife, and on the other, we have criminals who will do anything to make a profit off of innocent animals - including using the best technology they can find. This means we have to stay one step ahead. One of the ways we are using technology for conservation is through a software, data integration and visualization platform developed by Vulcan, the company founded by tech pioneer and philanthropist Paul G. Allen, named EarthRanger. EarthRanger is built to monitor and help analyse activity in a protected area to mitigate wildlife poaching and assist with ecological monitoring. It also aids in the keeping of records through the reports generated and stored within the system. These records make it easy to track and address events/incidents happening on the ground within the conservancy. We have seen great success since we started using EarthRanger in March last year. We have been able to digitally create reports pertaining to events happening in the conservancy and action or keep for future use, depending on the case. The platform has also been super useful to our ecological monitoring team when it comes to animal tracking. Animal tracking is important as it lets us understand an individual’s movement, home range, and act if it goes into neighbouring communities, thus preventing a case of human-wildlife conflict. Perhaps the most important function of EarthRanger is the effective security monitoring of the 90,000-acre conservancy. At any one point, we have over 200 rangers on patrol, but all this without communication would be futile. We have been able to integrate our radios into EarthRanger, allowing us to get real-time locations of our rangers in the field. We have also, just recently, succeeded in the integration of our tracked vehicles into the system. This will allow our security team to be in a better position to deploy resources in the field. Once an issue is reported, the team in the control office is able to correctly determine which vehicle or ranger is closest to the problem area, in order to immediately address the issue. We are looking forward to exploring the many other ways we can use this platform to protect the wildlife that you have so generously trusted us to take care of.
EarthRanger software in action in our Control Room | Rio the Photographer
Lioness on Ol Pejeta | Alisha Jani
FINDING BALANCE FOR HAPPY COMMUNITIES AND HAPPY WILDLIFE Receiving a call to capture a lion that has crept into a neighbouring farm may sound like a Disney story, but here on Ol Pejeta, it is just another day for our rangers. Over time, we have developed open lines of communication with our communities, with projects and outreach programmes supported by you. This has really helped how we work with our neighbours, mitigating human-wildlife conflict, and consequently playing a big part in preventing the poaching of our wildlife. One such case happened not long ago. Our security team received a call from the workers at nearby Kibosha farm: a lion had been sighted and everyone was concerned about staff and livestock safety. Quickly collecting our trapping cages – donated to us by the Bently Foundation – and other tracking equipment, our Ecological Monitoring Team went out in search of the big cat. Finding a predator who has spent its life practicing stealth and blending in with its surroundings is no easy feat, and evening soon approached. There were still no signs of the lion. Eventually, our team noticed footprints and called in the help of a nearby Kenya Wildlife Service team (KWS). Over the course of the night, the team located the lion, safely darted it and translocated it in the traps to a location where they could wait for it to safely wake up. Even more recently, we got another call from the neighbouring community of Marura, who reported that there was a hippo going into the village and eating crops. The hippo took advantage of the rainy season to find a way to leave the conservancy. Whenever it rained heavily in the afternoon, the water in the river would rise, and at a section of the fence near the river, he would find a way out. With an adult weighing about 2,750kg, hippos are one of the deadliest animals, killing over 500 people in Africa each year - more than any other animal. This has also made them the target for many wildlife killings as communities try to protect their loved ones from possible attacks. Without such a report from our neighbours and our intervention, this hippo could have ended up dead or killing someone, and we want a world where those are not the only options. We have since mended the fence in case of continued rains, to ensure that the hippo stays within the conservancy. If our neighbouring communities understand that conservancies and wildlife parks’ core mandate is to enable and promote peaceful coexistence between wildlife and people, they tend to be more willing to collaborate - and not to be caught up as middlemen in the illegal trade of wildlife. All the aid you send our way to foster these relationships is invaluable.
SAVING A SPECIES FROM EXTINCTION AMIDST A PANDEMIC Last year, you shared with us the triumph of watching groundbreaking ovum pick up procedures on the last two northern white rhinos on the planet. Najin and Fatu were such champions that from the two procedures in August and December, scientists were able to develop three viable pure northern white rhino embryos, which are now on ice. We were excited to see the progress that would be made this year, but a pandemic lay in waiting. So far, we have had to postpone an ovum pick up procedure that had been scheduled for May, and we still don’t know when things will turn around for international travel. Simultaneously, the consortium of scientists working on the project was conducting research using southern white rhinos, since they have more readily available oocytes. The future of the northern white rhinos rests in the successful transfer of embryos into a southern white rhino, as Najin and Fatu are unable to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term. Therefore, any progress in this area is a win for both species. Working with a young female southern white rhino, Makena, who lives in the Serengeti Park in Hodenhagen in Germany, the scientists were in May able to extract 12 oocytes from the seven-year-old and subsequently mature them in the Avantea laboratory in Italy. We received the news that seven of them were successfully fertilised with sperm from a southern white rhino from Salzburg Zoo and four embryos developed, making this BioRescue’s most successful egg collection and embryo creation in white rhinos so far! They are currently preserved in liquid nitrogen. What does all this mean for Najin and Fatu? It means that we are that much closer to bringing their species back from functional extinction. The success of such procedures revives the hope that advanced assisted reproduction technologies are well established, assuring the survival of the northern white rhino in the near future. “We believe that experience and knowledge gained through work with southern white rhino females in European zoos will lead to a successful pregnancy with the pure northern white rhino embryo in Kenya in the foreseeable future, “ – says Jan Stejskal, Director of Communications and International Projects at Safari Park Dvůr Králové, and coordinator of the international efforts to save the northern white rhino. Many thanks to you for donating towards this extraordinary cause, which will be an incredible story in world history, setting a precedent for the reversal of extinction. Thanks also to the wonderful team working on this, the passionate conservationists and scientists who are relentlessly determined to see its success.
Najin, one of the last two northern white rhinos | Chris Ang
CONTACT US If you have any questions about our work and the impact of your donation, please contact: Elodie Sampere on +254 / 727 341 612 elodie.sampere@olpejetaconservancy.org or Hetal Ganatra on + 44 / 7842 780 902 + 254 / 733 300 555 hetal.ganatra@olpejetaconservancy.org
THANK
YOU