Protecting Elephants and Rhinos in Malawi

With your support, Animals of Malawi in the Majete Wildlife Reserve has completed its fourth year of critical data collection with Earthwatch Institute. This year, 5 teams of 25 total volunteers joined Dr. Alison Leslie and her research team in Malawi to download camera trap photos, conduct game counts in vehicles or on foot or at waterholes, collect dung and scat samples, carry out vegetation surveys and share research with nearby schools and communities.

Unfortunately, no volunteers signed up for November or December. This has been a challenging year for volunteer travel, which is quite susceptible to severe weather, health scares, terror threats, political unrest and economic downturn. However, the research must go on. This is why your financial support is so incredibly helpful and impactful: donations like yours give Dr. Leslie and her staff the resources they need to continue their data collection, even in the absence of volunteers.

The data collected is used to manage the various populations of elephants, rhinos, buffalo, numerous antelope species, and the larger predators such as lions, leopards, and hyenas. And it’s paying off - in July 2016, five excess game species were translocated from Majete to Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve and Liwonde National Park, two other parks in Malawi that were recently acquired by the African Parks management organization that oversees Majete. Because of Majete’s successful wildlife management efforts, two more parks are now on the path to recovery.

In other news, Dr. Leslie was recently announced the winner of the prestigious IUCN-Crocodile Specialist Group (CSG) Conservation Award for her contribution to crocodile research in Africa! Dr. Leslie will hold the award until May of 2018 when the next meeting of the IUCN-Crocodile Specialist Group takes place in Argentina.

Dr. Leslie’s research in Majete will resume in June 2017. 14 volunteers have already signed up to join this work, so we are hopeful that this is a sign of rebounding volunteerism. In the meantime, thank you again for your ongoing support of Earthwatch’s wildlife conservation efforts in Africa. Your involvement will help protect threatened wildlife and restore these iconic landscapes. We look forward to sharing Dr. Leslie’s analysis and conclusions from her 2016 work early next year.

With gratitude,

Heather Wilcox
Director of Annual Giving & Advancement Services
hwilcox@earthwatch.org
978-450-1208 

P.S. Remember, you don't just have to read about this research from afar... you can be at the center of the action as an Earthwatch research volunteer! Please follow the link below to see which teams are accepting volunteers for 2017.

Links:

• Majete Wildlife Reserve Earthwatch Expedition homepage