Stories

The Cats of Samburu

This young male, named ‘Loirish’, is known for being quite a naughty boy. We found him lurking in the bushes in the Buffalo Springs Reserve, next to an elephant that had died of natural causes that we needed to identify. Needless to say, the job...

Hold on tight and watch out for those Acacia…!

Having an elephant mission to go on is always so much fun. This time we had discovered early in the morning that a female, name ‘Drachma’ had set foot in Buffalo Springs for the very first time. It was therefore important to get out and find her...

Night Time Visitors

When sleeping in a tent in the bush, each night I wonder what kind of nocturnal activity I may get to listen to next. At the slightest sound of munching, grumbling or digging I try to secretly peer through a corner of the window into the darkness to...

Fun with the kids

Today was a very special treat as the local school in Westgate was having a big ceremony to celebrate the opening of several new buildings that had been donated to them by various groups, including STE.What was also wonderful for them was that the...

First impressions-Jessica Powell

Hi everyone, my name is Jesse and I am doing a 7 week internship here at STE in Samburu. I graduated last July in a BSc Hons in Animal Management and am thrilled to have been given the opportunity to gain real field experience in elephant...

Monitoring elephants along Mt. Kenya Corridor

In November 2010, the Mt. Kenya Elephant corridor by sponsored largely by Virgin Atlantic was commissioned. The elephant corridor seeks to provide an alternative natural passage for the jumbos in the Ewaso ecosystem, away from their historical...

A passion for leading jumbos away from conflict

While many would call monitoring wild animals a ‘strange career’ of sorts, to Susie Weeks and Festus Ihwagi, it is a passion, an inspiration.Last weekend, the final touches to the new face of conservation: a migration corridor courtesy of Mt....

A few days elephant spotting by the river….can’t be bad!

I have now completed one of my three weeks at camp and I can’t believe where time is going. I hope the next two weeks don’t go as quick. The weekend has flown by as we have been out carrying out the long term monitoring of the elephants around...

Counting mammals….or should I say dik diks?

After four days at camp slowly working through the first elephant in the collaring data for my project, I headed out into the field with three of the STE team to find some elephants (this is the best medicine for square eyes from staring at an excel...

The fun of data crunching!

I have now moved on from the head office at Nairobi and I am based at the research camp at Samburu National Reserve. After a couple of game drives and two afternoons of rain, I have spent my time here trying to work out the easiest and quickest way...