save the elephants – Moonlion Safaris

Above: Female elephant in Talek River, Maasai Mara – Copyright Rupi Mangat

Published: 15 December 2018

It’s sunrise but there’s still a full moon in the sky. The dawn light is magical while the sprawl of the Mara is enchanting. In the soft light, the gazelles gambol and the warthogs graze on knees bent, their necks too short to reach the ground.

Dawn in Maasai Mara - Copyright Rupi Mangat — Dawn in Maasai Mara – Copyright Rupi Mangat

New-born foals suckle at their mothers’ breast while the tiny warthog babies vanish into the grass nervous of people. It’s the season of plenty for the herbivores with so much grass around. Well-fed and healthy, they give birth soon after the rains turning the vast grasslands into a nursery. Continue reading “Magic in the Mara” →

Published in The East African Nation media 7-13 October 2017

Laos in Southeast Asia, virtually unheard of in Africa is now the leading retailer in ivory, mostly sourced from recently poached elephants in Africa

Laos is now the hot-spot for rich Chinese tourists to gamble and purchase things they can’t do so easily at home – like jewellery and carvings from elephant ivory, rhino horn and consume wild animal products from endangered species – like tigers and bears.

Much of the ivory smuggled by criminal syndicates from Africa is processed into Buddhist items such as rosaries and figures of Gwan Yin - the Goddess of compassion, for Chinese customers Copyright Lucy Vigne — Much of the ivory smuggled by criminal syndicates from Africa is processed into Buddhist items such as rosaries and figures of Gwan Yin – the Goddess of compassion, for Chinese customers Copyright Lucy Vigne

Continue reading “New Market for the African Elephant” →