Safari Blog Post of the Day - July 22nd, 2009

Elephants Battle to the Death in Kenya

When we can, we'll be updating you with quick stories from around the wildlife blogosphere - primarily safari blogs - that safari goers may find interesting.

Today's story is from the Milgis Trust. The Milgis Trust was established in 2004 for the purpose of protecting wildlife and the way of life of local people in Northern Kenya. The Milgis Trust comprises 8000 square kilometers, and its location in Kenya can be viewed in the map below:

This blog post is a short read posted by Helen Douglas-Dufresne of the Milgis Trust which recaps a story of two elephants fighting to the death. Apparently one of the elephants was able to pierce the other's lungs with his tusk leading to his death. The tusks were actually removed from the carcas of the loser of the battle to prevent poachers from collecting the tusks. A photo of one of the tusks along with more details is provided within the blog post.

Tonight on 60 Minutes here in the United States, there was a special about Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique. An American entrepreneur, Greg Carr, cashed in with a partner as the co-inventors of voicemail. Greg walked away with $200 Million and decided to put his entrepreneur skills to work to make the world a better place.

Gorongosa National Park is a 1,500 square mile park in the middle of Mozambique which was an extremely popular tourist destination around 50 years ago. Wildlife was plentiful. Multiple wars sent the country into poverty, and the wars combined with poaching decimated the animal population - especially the big game.

Greg is working on helping the people of Mozambique and actually has an agreement with the government of Mozambique to develop the park over the next 20 years. The key is to bring in more wildlife which will in turn bring in more tourists which will help to prop up the local economy. Greg is doing this responsibly and has a team of scientists to ensure that he reintroduces the right species into the park in the right manner.

See the full video at CBS.com.

   

While animals and wild areas are often the draw to visit Africa virtually everyone is touched by the people.  This often results in people asking me how they can give something back to the wonderful people of Africa.  Today I'm going to highlight two very special projects that show how different chartable involvement can be.

Network 4 Africa

I had the pleasure of being involved during the early formation of Network 4 Africa.  The focus of early work has been in Rwanda but successes there will now be applied in Uganda and the Darfur region.  What I love about this organization is the emphasis on providing skills and support logistics for people, primarily widows and orphans from the genocide, that allows them to create their own self-sufficient and sustainable future.  Please read the latest newsletter to see the many ways that Network 4 Africa is deeply involved on the ground at the community level and the great success this approach is producing.

International Medical Corps: "Saving the Lives of Malnourished Children" -- An Online Vote Can Make a Difference! 

It seems like starving children is a major issue that will never go away.  Typically my personal preference is to try and identify small charitable organizations that are working from the ground up like Network 4 Africa that are building a foundation rather than providing subsistence aid.  However, the International Medical Corps now has a technology breakthrough to address this long running problem and that deserves attention.

New ready-to-use food (RUF) comes pre-packaged in individual servings, is stable in hot climates, does not need to be mixed with water (thus avoiding contamination) and even tastes good.  RUF is cost-effective and generally children will fully recover from malnutrition within a month, this cure has a greater than 90% success rate.  This could be a huge breakthrough in treating starving children.

Currently this project is one of 5 finalists for a $1.5 million dollar cash prize from American Express.  Having those funds would allow for a wide scale demonstration of how effective use of RUF is to treat malnutrition and best of all that money can save many children’s lives.  Vote Now!