Tag archives for elephant
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Explore the wilderness with us… This week we share the “golden wilderness”! The rich colors and textures of the wild can never be replaced or surpassed. Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When…
Explore the wilderness with us… This week we share the “golden wilderness”! The rich colors and textures of the wild can never be replaced or surpassed. Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When…
Explore the wilderness with us… This week we share the “golden wilderness”! The rich colors and textures of the wild can never be replaced or surpassed. Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When…
Explore the wilderness with us… Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When the earth’s last wild places are gone, all we will have are fenced off protected areas dependent on constant intervention to persist…
In September 2010, we departed from Seronga Village in two “mokoros” or dug-out canoes on an adventure of a lifetime…. No one we knew had ever done this before and the raw energy of that “first-time” was inspirational. We filmed what we could and took some amazing photographs, but remained focussed on the research and…
Explore the wilderness with us… Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When the earth’s last wild places are gone, all we will have are fenced off protected areas dependent on constant intervention to persist…
Explore the wilderness with us… Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When the earth’s last wild places are gone, all we will have are fenced off protected areas dependent on constant intervention to persist…
Explore the wilderness with us… Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When the earth’s last wild places are gone, all we will have are fenced off protected areas dependent on constant intervention to persist…
Botswana and Zambia, two premier wildlife destinations, recently banned all trophy hunting within a few months of each other. This move heralds a major shift in thinking about how Africa’s wildlife resources will be managed in the future. Why did they do this? In short: Corruption fueling unsustainable hunting and poaching that threatens species survival.…
Explore the wilderness with us… Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When the earth’s last wild places are gone, all we will have are fenced off protected areas dependent on constant intervention to persist…
Explore the wilderness with us… Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When the earth’s last wild places are gone, all we will have are fenced off protected areas dependent on constant intervention to persist…
The magnificent Congo Basin is made up of patchwork mosaic of rivers, forests, savannas, swamps and flooded forests. This tropical wonderland is home to forest elephants, lowland and mountain gorillas, bonobos, and buffalo, as well as the enigmatic okapi and a multitude of monkey species. The Congo Basin is an ancient refuge for biodiversity on the…
Explore the wilderness with us… Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When the earth’s last wild places are gone, all we will have are fenced off protected areas dependent on constant intervention to persist…
Explore the wilderness with us… Within the next 10-15 years we will see the last-remaining wilderness area on earth dominated by the demands of growing human populations and undermined by accelerated climate change. When the earth’s last wild places are gone, all we will have are fenced off protected areas dependent on constant intervention to persist…
Most people are surprised and alarmed when they are told that the Okavango Delta is not a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This is about to change with nomination scheduled for February next year and declaration in 2014. The word, “Okavango”, like “Amazon” and “Congo”, evokes the powerful sense of place in the “wilderness” and imagines an untamed place characterized…
Who would have known that one day the African green pigeons of the enigmatic and seemingly infinite Congo forests would ever need our help? Just the same as New Yorkers cannot imagine Central Park without their pigeons, we should not consider a Congo forest without green pigeons flying high above the forest canopy and congregating…
The Crucifix Moment – Slaughter of Innocence
Posted by IZILWANE on August 5, 2012 How does the slaughter of elephants happening now across Africa affect the innocence of children? For the makers of the film Lysander’s Song, they are inseparable. Cyril Christo and Marie Wilkinson’s five-year-old son Lysander was the inspiration for their project, a deeply-felt outcry against the illegal ivory trade. The rampant killing of these great…
Saving the African Elephant
Posted by IZILWANE on August 5, 2012 2011 marked the worst year for elephant poaching and illegal ivory trading since the height of the trade in the 1980s, according to the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). Following this lamentable news, both the British Parliament and the US Congress held hearings to address possible steps that the United Kingdom and the United States,…
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In recent weeks, human-wildlife conflict in Kenya has grown more severe. This week, Maasai warriors rampaged across the Amboseli ecosystem, following an unsuccessful interaction between tribal leaders and the Kenya Wildlife Service. Not far behind the recent killings near Nairobi National Park and elsewhere in the Amboseli ecosystem, Kenya is again plagued by back-to-back…
Izilwane Remembers Lawrence Anthony: Conservationist and Environmental Diplomat
Posted by IZILWANE on March 15, 2012 
The world is saying goodbye this month to one of the most fascinating conservationists of this generation. Elephant Whisperer – so-called because of his ability to understand and calm otherwise violent and terrified elephants – Lawrence Anthony passed away from a heart attack on March 2, 2012, during a business trip to Johannesburg, South…
Living alone in the wilderness far away from civilization had long been a dream of mine. The great writers, scholars, prophets and leaders all took inspiration from the wild. Our religious totems, coats-of-arms, symbols, artworks, stories, myths, poems, legends and writings all bear testamant to the profound impact nature has on us. We named rivers, lakes and…
Name That Mammal
Posted by Ford Cochran on July 31, 2009 As I mentioned not long ago, National Geographic Weekend radio host Boyd Matson (at right above) and producer Ben Shaw invited me to join them on a trip across town to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Boyd and Ben had an appointment with biologist Kristofer Helgen, a 2009 National Geographic Emerging Explorer who…
Rule Number One
Posted by Ford Cochran on May 28, 2009 I’m gearing up for a National Geographic Expeditions Weekend Photography Workshop that begins tonight, and asked my good friend and fellow staffer Tim Greenleaf (who manages the Nat Geo Expeditions website) if I could borrow some equipment. He obliged—thanks Tim! When I stopped by his office this morning to pick it up, he asked if…
Posted by Photo by Jodi Cobb/NGS The first ivory auction in ten years sold over seven tons of tusks to Chinese and Japanese bidders in Namibia today, raising more than U.S. $1,200,000 for elephant conservation, the Associated Press reported. The sales will continue over the next two weeks in Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa. In total, nearly…
Photo by Michael Nichols/NGS Endangered forest elephants are avoiding Central Africa’s roadways at all costs, according to a new study by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Save the Elephants. The animals associate roads with poaching, which is rampant in the Congo Basin, say the authors of the study published today in the journal Public…
