Let me park links to some of my photos in this blog until I can get around to setting up a special website. Since many of the images are of elephants and Amboseli, it shouldn't be too much of an intrusion. Thanks for stopping by...

Prof. Wangari Maathai's passing has stunned us all. Purity Waweru, our Office Manager, said she has lost her role model. Cynthia Moss said on the ATE FaceBook page, "This is a great loss to Kenya and the world. She was an amazing woman; we must all try to follow in her footsteps."

A group of concerned elephant-friendly NGOs (non-governmental organizations), comprising members of the Kenya Elephant Forum (KEF) met for a two-day retreat at the Elsamere Conservation Centre on the shores of Lake Naivasha during the last week of November.

The purpose was to devise strategic actions to ensure continued international attention to the threat to African elephants from growing human populations and the demand for ivory fueling the recent upsurge in poaching.

Cristina and I flew down for the service in Oloitokitok last Saturday. Here are a couple of images to share.
The service was fine, as such things go. We arrived too late to hear the eulogy of Raymond's grad school friend, Scott Allen, but got the tail end of Mr. Githinji's thoughtful tribute.

When the drought breaks in Africa, it doesn't mess around: we've had 69mm (just under 3 inches) since the New Year.

As Echo's family continues to mill around rather aimlessly in several small groups, I thought I'd share a couple of images of her and the story of how she got the bump on her bottom.

Many of you must by now be appraised of the scam that was recently perpetrated on Project Manager, Soila Sayialel. The details are being circulated via email and on the Kenya security alert networks, but we thought it would help to post the third-person version here as well...

Statement on suspected incident of criminal use of scopolamine

Cynthia heard an NPR interview with Kevin Bacon concerning his new charity initiative based on the much-circulated factoid about the nature of exponential series that each of us is six degrees (or handshakes or phonecalls...) from Kevin Bacon (or Bill Clinton or Nelson Mandela...). Have a look at http://www.sixdegrees.org/. Seems a great concept. Cynthia has created her own badge. Will try to add my herewith and hope it doesn't cause the CMS to crash!

Mr. Michael Joseph
CEO, Safaricom Ltd.
Nairobi

Dear Michael,

I just came back from Amboseli a week or so ago; hadn't been for a couple of months.

Sad to report that the perennial vista of the sweep of Kilimanjaro rising from the plain has an appalling blemish: the new Safaricom mast on Ontawua hill.

Pangani Giant Land Snail

The Easter weekend rain chased away the elephants from central Amboseli National Park, but it brought out many other interesting creatures, like the Pangani Giant Land Snail (Achatina megapodus) pictured here. It was about 5:00 PM on Good Friday, and the rain was pelting down. I went out with an umbrella to check on the solar battery bank and surprised this fine specimen who appeared to have been radulating for calcium on some of the elephant lower jaw collection. The Panganis usually only occur south of Kili, but climate change and the heavy rains must be causing a range shift. This is the first one I've seen in Amboseli in nearly 40 years, although Cynthia and Iain Douglas-Hamiliton used to have a pet female in Lake Manyara. They become quite tame, but can play havoc with a small kitchen garden.