BIG CAT WILDLIFE RESEARCH AND CONSERVATION VOLUNTEER IN KENYA

As a volunteer, the data you gather will contribute to the Mara Predator Conservation Program; a flagship initiative by Kenya Wildlife Trust. This program brings together the community, conservancy rangers, and tourism camps in Naboisho Conservancy to help secure the future of lions, leopards, cheetahs, and wild dogs in the Mara conservancies through tracking, monitoring, and understanding wildlife behavior. You will go on daily safari game drives to identify and monitor big cats, as well as notable elephant bulls and matriarchs moving through the conservancy. Data will then be input to relevant databases to inform conservancy management plans and wider conservation policy.

Conduct regular game counts along transects or within sample areas to monitor the distribution of wildlife across the conservancy and their trends over time. This empowers conservation efforts by measuring the improvements in wildlife density and movement patterns in the conservancy. In particular, volunteers collect data on elephant sightings, including the location, size, and composition of elephant groups. Elephants require huge dispersal areas and move between Maasai Mara National Reserve, neighboring conservancies, and community land. This data is reviewed regularly by the conservancy management and is also shared with researchers to ensure coordinated ecological monitoring efforts spread across the Greater Mara landscape.

Like all wild areas, the Naboisho Conservancy faces problems such as soil erosion and invasive species which can significantly impact and alter the environment in a detrimental way. Volunteers partake in conservation initiatives to enhance the health of the ecosystem for it to successfully support its inhabitants. These initiatives are conducted in cooperation with the conservancy management team and include, alien plant species removal, soil erosion control, grass monitoring, game drive routing, road identification, litter picking, and road repair.

Koiyaki Guiding School is a facility that provides a quality education in guiding and conservation to local Maasai youth who want to get involved in the tourism industry by becoming safari guides. Through the school, Maasai guides can obtain certification with the Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association. Over the last decade, hundreds of Maasai youth have graduated and found employment in the ecotourism industry. Through teaching, you will help open up employment opportunities for community members, promote and encourage conservation of the Maasai Mara ecosystem, and meet and talk to locals who will offer an intimate insight into their community, culture, and country. Some of the topics volunteers cover includes customer service, guiding principles, languages and culture, and many more.

Community education and empowerment are inextricably linked to efforts to protect wildlife. There are several schools in the vicinity of the conservancy, but many of them lack basic facilities and are plagued by a shortage of teachers. Volunteers engage with students at the local primary schools to raise awareness of the importance of conservation.

Volunteers develop teaching plans and implement them at Wildlife Club at the primary schools every week. This has led to a 70% increase in participation by students in their school wildlife clubs – thus instilling a passion for wildlife in the next generation.