A Full Day of Flying and an Introduction to the World of Private Wildlife Conservation

July 18, 2007 – Kenya

It was still dark outside when we heard Charly interrupt our dreams with a, “Dally dally, Kinder. It’s time to get up.” Ugggggghhhhh is pretty much the response he elicited. Nonetheless, the two of us were up shortly thereafter and quickly pulled on a warm layer of clothing before zipping and locking up our suitcases. It was time to head out. We had to catch a Safarilink flight from Nairobi up north to Nanyuki.

Safarilink is notoriously untimely and can arrive anywhere from 2 hours early to 2 hours late, but we hedged our bets and went for right on time. We were dropped off at Wilson Airport at 7:15 and were happily early. The flight was still scheduled to leave at 8AM.

The airport check-in was housed in what looked like a department store meets NASA control station. It was strangely homey, with its cozy orange chairs and café bar. And you could look straight through a partially sand blasted glass wall to see a hanger with new planes. Alex and I ate a small breakfast and drank extremely sweet canned fruit drinks that were covered with Arabic wording. Still exhausted, we couldn’t help but fall asleep in the cozy orange chairs. At 8 O’clock, the check-in counter attendants called our names and we stepped onto a van. The driver played loud hip hop music that definitely woke us up and we were dropped off at the departures terminal. As we looked at the field of tiny Cessnas getting fueled and cleaned, an airport official told us that the other eight passengers for our plane just called Safarilink. They got stuck in traffic, so the plane would be leaving late. We bought skittles at the convenience store and avoided paying the airport official the bribes he asked for.

Our flight was short and sweet and we landed in Nanyuki at midday. At the airport, we met Giles Davies. Giles is a friend of a friend. He is also a guru when it comes to private wildlife conservation. He is on the board of about twenty-some-odd private wildlife conservancy organizations and the founder of several of these. His life began in Kenya, but he did his schooling in England and ended up marrying a French girl, Jesmina. Jesmina told us, “He was always saying I want to go back to Kenya, I’d love to go back to Kenya. So I said, alright then, let’s go.” (I really like Jesmina! Giles is lucky to have such an adventurous wife). And here they are, living in a beautiful house near Nanyuki with their two adorable sons: Spencer (3.5 years old) and Oliver (1.5 years old).

In fact, this is the house we were trying to get to as we left the Nanyuki airport, when our car suddenly started to shake uncontrollably. Giles’ was borrowing on of his neighbor’s cars because his plane was temporarily being serviced. It felt like the wheel axes were misaligned and like the car was about to rattle itself to pieces. Rather than have an accident, we turned around and went straight back to the airport. Jaime, one of Giles’ friends arranged a helicopter ride straight to Ol Pejeta Conservancy (which would have been our next stop anyway) and we took it.

Ol Pejeta is one of Giles’ projects. It is located on the Laikipia plateau, a region where it is almost impossible to grow crops due to limited rainfall. As such, Ol Pejeta has traditionally been a site for cattle herding. When people first began herding there, they assumed that wildlife and cattle are mutually exclusive. They thought that the two would compete for food and resources (not to mention that lions would eat the cattle). However, it was difficult to keep away all the wildlife. As more elephants moved into the region from the north and farmers began to encroach from the south, the cattle herders had smaller and smaller areas to herd. The profitability of cattle herding in the region plummeted and the owner of Ol Pejeta tried to sub divide the land and sell it. Fortunately, the entire ranch was purchased by FFI (Fauna & Flora International) and then ownership was passed to the Kenyan Ol Pejeta Conservancy.

It is now a rhino conservancy. What does that mean? From a cash flow perspective, it means paying twice the money to manage the same area. The owners must install electric fencing around the perimeter and purchase appropriate tracking and monitoring equipment to keep tabs on the rhinos. More importantly…it means saving the rhinos, of course :-)

The worldwide black rhino population basically went into freefall the past century. Starting at around 100,000 in 1900, the numbers are now thought to be around 500. Although Ol Pejeta (with 90,000 acres) has the capacity to support over 120 rhinos, it currently has only 74. But 74 is 30 more than they had in Winter. Just this February, Ol Pejeta received 30 black rhinos from Solio Rhino sanctuary in central Kenya. Transferring rhinos is important to avoid overstocking at any one reserve and to keep the rhino breeding rates high. Did you know that Rhinos naturally control their population size to correlate with the carrying capacity of the land? As their population reaches carrying capacity, rhinos start to give birth to more males and the calving period lengthens from 2.5 to 3.5 years. Over time only new males remain and there are no longer as many offspring because there are fewer females to become pregnant. Very smart animals! If only humans did the same.

While at Ol Pejeta, we had a chance to talk with the rhino security team and the executive director of Ol Pejeta, Richard Vigne. At age three, rhinos are given a tag (which is placed in their front horn). This is used to track the rhinos, so the security team can check on their location at all times through Google Earth. The tracking devices also help the rhino veterinarian find any rhino that has been attacked by lions or humans. Plus, the tags are an added deterrent to poachers who fear they will be tracked when they try to sell rhino horn. Poachers are the main rhino-killers. Right now, with the price of rhino horn the highest it’s ever been, the security team is very anxious. It is no comfort to know that Kenyan law does not heavily penalize poachers and most poachers can easily pay bail with the income they earn from selling rhino horn.

From a business perspective, it is interesting to see how the Ol Pejeta team has diversified their portfolio. Like most wildlife conservancies, the majority of Ol Pejeta’s money comes from tourism (they run a seasonal tented camp and a lodge house). However, tourism is a fickle industry and they need to mitigate losses when there’s a downturn (particularly since Ol Pejeta is a for-profit business and can’t simply rely on grants). As such, they have also invested in 4000 acres of wheat and thousands of cattle. In fact, they have successfully pioneered wildlife and cattle integration by building lion-deterring cattle pens for during the night. Ol Pejeta also earns a lot of tourism from its Chimpanzee Sanctuary, which has 41 chimpanzees.

With so many different business aspects to discuss, we didn’t leave Ol Pejeta until dinner time. Giles borrowed a car from the security team, and we drove to his house for the night. At the gate, we were greeted by three blood hounds, three half blood hounds, one wild dog, two little boys, and Jesmina. Giles and Jesmina have quite the animal menagerie (not to mention a gorgeous house that they built themselves). After looking at “flogs” (aka frogs) in the pond outside with Spencer, we all came in for drinks and dinner. Spencer and Oliver were put into bed and we sat around the fire, enjoying the warmth and good conversation.

The house is amazing. It has thick clay walls and tall thatched roofs, huge couches with sleeping dogs, an orphaned bush baby (like a deer), and a dik dik (small antelope). The latter two run around in the garden and sometimes even in the house!