I went to Samburu over the weekend for the Annual Education Party for the Save the Elephants (STE) sponsored children. This would be my last time to see all the kids together and introduce them to the new STE Education Officer.

We had a great day together. The children watched some wildlife films. I then gave a talk informing them about my next career move and introducing them to Arnold, my replacement. The kids were great – they gave me letters, cards and presents and I was really touched by their efforts. David and Daniel, from STE, also gave talks and it was a great morning. We gave out prizes, had lunch and then went out for a game drive. One of the girls had never seen an elephant before and after we drove up to a family of elephants, she was in awe but almost threw herself out of the car because she was so scared initially! We also saw 5 cheetahs feeding on a kill which was very cool.

I am glad I got the chance to say bye to the children, and am happy knowing that I will still see some of them over the next few years as I go about with my fieldwork. They have been part of my life for almost 4 years now and it is hard to say goodbye. One of the old STE students, Raphael Lekuraiyo, is now part of the Ewaso Lions team and I am delighted to have him on board and begin basic fieldwork within West Gate Conservancy.

This was my last weekend in Samburu for a long time. I won’t be back until December now as I will be spending a few months in Oxford from September to end of November. I was really happy to have spent these days in Samburu, saying bye to my colleagues, camp guys and the sponsored children. I’ll miss Samburu; this will be the longest that I will be away. I am really excited to be heading back to the area in December to begin my fieldwork.

Port Elizabeth, South Africa – 1st-5th July 2007

Report from the Conference held on the theme of “One World, One Conservation, One Partnership”.

I travelled to Port Elizabeth (PE), South Africa on the 29th of June, via a few hours stop over in Johannesburg.  I had only heard about this conference a couple of months ago and it was the first one to be held in Africa, as previously they had been held in the US and UK.  With the venue this time being  South Africa, I decided to make the effort to travel down to PE, hoping there would be an African focus on the agenda.  This year’s theme for the conference was “One World, One Conservation, One Partnership” and was held at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth.

I had teamed up with some of my colleague/friends and we were extremely fortunate to have been given a place to stay in central PE.  Our hosts, Jennifer and Robert Brooks (and their 6 cats) were so hospitable and also gave us a car to get to Summerstrand each day.  Our temporary home was located very close to St George’s Park (home of South African cricket!) and had stunning views of the PE harbour.

We made ourselves familiar with our surroundings over the weekend and registered at the Sports Centre at the university.  On Sunday the 1st of July, we attended a workshop given by the Wildlife Conservation Society.  I weaved in and out of this workshop and also spent time at the “Teaching Conservation” workshop which I found very useful and also met some great people here.  The actual conference started the following day, and it commenced with plenary sessions, most of which I found to be quite dull and uninteresting.  This was followed by presentations on various topics which were given every 15 minutes.  It took a while to get used to all the rooms where these talks were being given and there was a lot of running around from one to another.  But eventually, I got used to this and made it to most talks which I had marked down and wanted to attend.

I attended the Young Women Conservation Biologists (YWCB’s) meeting on Tuesday the 3rd of July and I met the other YWCB’s here (mainly men!) who worked all over Africa.  I gave a short talk on how I became a conservationist and the challenges I have faced to date, which was well received by the audience.  It was a fun pizza evening, after which we made our way to the beach party at Happy Valley; a huge elaborate spread laid out for the all the delegates on the beach.

The conference was a fantastic venue for networking and meeting new people.  There were conservationists from all over the world attending the conference.  Kenya had a large contingency; represented by Kenya Wildlife Service, African Wildlife Foundation, Save the Elephants and others.  Delegates to the conference were working on multiple subjects from marine and terrestrial focusing on species such as elephants, lions, and much more.

I felt privileged to hear a talk by a Kenyan lady, Esther Wangari who spoke on gender issues and more, and how these have affected conservation.  I felt her honesty and bravery in speaking up was much needed in this conference.  I was also thrilled to meet the lion researchers working in India and to see what work they do there.  Meeting the “silverback” conservationists was a bit scary!  I hope to get better at introducing myself and meeting them in the future.

Overall, it was a great experience.  I met many new people and hope to attend another SCB conference in the future, where hopefully one day I can even present a paper on my future research findings.  The next SCB conference is in July 2008 in Tennessee USA.  But for now, the next conference I will be attending is the Felid Biology and Conservation Conference in Oxford, England, in mid-September this year.  More updates then!

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