EXCITING NEWS October 2023 - Read on!

There's very exciting news from Reteti this October.   They are about to have their fourth release in 7 years of elephants, into the wild!  This is a huge achievement, not only for the keepers who have done so much to care for the elephants - but for the elephants themselves, who arrived with the odds stacked against them. 

13 elephants will be released into two carefully selected, Kenya Wildlife Service-approved release sites within Namunyak Conservancy – where Reteti is located too.  Not only that, the keepers will have make-shift accommodation so that they can look after the elephants as they get used to being in the wild.  And Reteti's partners, Save the Elephants, will monitor them too. 

Read all about it here. 

UPDATE April 2023 - The Borehole Project

There's good news from the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary in Kenya with their borehole project.

Firstly, the drilling team have hit water in their borehole after drilling 256 metres.  This has two important results:  the Sanctuary has the start of a reliable, permanent water source for orphaned elehants, and it will enable the re-wilding of orphans directly from the sanctuary and into the Namunyak Conservancy.  Wild elephants will come to the water and that will mean the orphans can interact with them daily, leading to their slow and steady ingegration into the wild, either with new herds or as an orphan herd!   Read their blog about it here

Secondly, it's rained!  The elephants were out on a walk when the April rains arrived - hooray!

Late September 2023 Meet Naisimari, the newst and smallest member of the Reteti Foster Family! She is particularly fluffy and hairy. Reteti rescued her when she fell into a well...  Why not adopt her, and support the work of the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary? Adopt Naisimari here.

Introducing the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary's borehole project

The Reteti Elephant Sanctuary is based in Kenya and it takes in orphaned and abandoned elephant calves. The aim is to release them back into the wild herts adjoining Retiti.

The keepers caring for the elephants have all been trained in the care, rehabilitation and release of elephant calves.  They are recruited from the Namunyak Conservancy and they all have a deep respect for elephants.  You can meet some of the keepers here.

You can meet some of the elephants here – they are orphaned or abandoned because of drought, man-made wells, human-wildlife conflict and natural mortality.  It was the local community who wanted the Sanctuary.

The background...

Help the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary Build a Borehole

The Reteiti Elephant Sanctuary is trying to Build a Borehole which can give the elephants it cares for a supply of water, even during the driest of seasons.

Help Build a Borehole here

The sanctuary uses 20,000 litres of water a day and it has been acquiring this water from a spring in the Matthews Mountains through a pipeline of 16 kilometres that the Sanctuary has built.

However, with the help of hydrology experts, the Sanctuary has identified an aquifer close to the sanctuary which is suitable for a borehole.   They’ve drilled 200m already and need to drill to a depth of 250m to reach the water table.  The pipeline only has to be 1.5 km long to reach the Sanctuary from the borehole.

The cost of implementing all of this is just over $20,000 American dollars for the drilling and $18,246 for the pump and pipeline.  The Sanctuary is currently short by $6,294 dollars so it is asking for contributions so that the project can be done for the elephants.

Please help the Sanctuary give the elephants a sustainable source of water!
They are so close!  
Image ©LouAnne Brickhouse

The Sanctuary wants to establish a permanent, sustainable way to ensure the elephants have the water they need. 

You can also help by

• Adopting an elephant – adoptions are for a year.
• Gifting them a bottle of milk  - the video shows how much they adore it! Each elephant drinks about 8 bottles of milk a day, generally goats milk.  The elephants have a feed about every 3 hours and between feeds, the keepers take them on bush walks so that they can learn to browse, navigate and get used to the landscape.
• Donate
• Visiting the Sanctuary!
• As always, spreading the word about it.
  
  

Visit the Reteti Elephant Sanctuary's website here

The French have introduced a new lottery!

Called the ‘Loto de la biodiversité’, its aim is to raise funds for the preservation and restoration of French wildlife.

It’s a scratch card game and it offers players the chance to win up to €30,000 for €3 a card. There are up to 15 million scratch cards available

About 0.43 euros per card sold will be directed to the Office Français de la Biodiversité

The French Biodiversity Agency is dedicated to the protection and restoration of biodiversity, both in France and its overseas territories.

The lottery will debut on 23 October and it will be available at tobacconists in France.

France already has a Heritage lottery which has funded restoration projects for over 745 heritage sites in France since it started back in 2018. So the French government are hoping that this new biodiversity lottery will be as successful! The hope is that it will generate €6.5m in revenue soon after the launch.

The Office Français de la Biodiversité is going to be distributing the funds out to nature conservation projects, and so far over 60 charities have applied for grants. A committee will decide on who gets awards, and these will range from €50,000 euros to €1 million.

One of the aims behind this new lottery is to make people aware of the challenges in protecting and restoring natural habitats, and to make biodiversity more accessible.

Good luck to everyone buying a ticket! Perhaps more countries can follow suit?

A French jackpot lottery winner created a fund to protect the environment. (April 2022)

If you’re looking for a way to increase your fitness in 2024, one thing you could do is to make a decision to walk, run or cycle for animals.

A number of charities have opportunities to raise much needed funds through doing a sponsored walk or run or cycle.

If you’re walking to benefit both yourself and others, it can be a powerful motivator – you have a reason to get moving to help others and do something for them.  If you think you could walk a 5 or 10 mile sponsored event, that could be a great way to give yourself something to aim for.

Of course, if you’re also walking or cycling rather than taking the car, that can be a great way to help cut your carbon emissions – get fit – save yourself money – and get some me time. It can also be a great way to get more in touch with nature if you walk without headphones as you look around you, listen to the birdsong and take in fresh air. You may see places you wouldn’t ordinarily see on your daily route and give you the chance to take in the beauty of it, and help you connect with nature and the natural world.

The RSPCA has a list of charity challenges you can do to help raise funds for them and they won’t be alone.  Check your favourite charity to see what they have to offer.  Here are some with fundraising opportunities - some more challenging than others!

The RSPCA - they have a #50MilesForAnimals challenge for instance

World Land Trust - help them conserve acres for wildlife and local communities

Cats Protection (they have a number of challenging events), miaow miaow

RSPB - Royal Protection of Birds

WWT - Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust

Whichever charity you choose to support, let’s get moving for animals in 2024!

Give Scottish wildcats a paw up…and help save the Highland Tiger

Wildcats were once widespread in Scotland and sad to say, they are now on the brink of extinction there. The population is viable no longer.

Why have their numbers reduced so much?

• Habitat loss
• Persecution
• Breeding with domestic cats
• Disease

So we need to take action and POUNCE TO HELP before things get even worse.

Saving Wildcats (#SWAforLife) is a project which is dedicated to the conservation and recovery of Scottish wildcats.

And the project aims to:

• Establish the first large-scale dedicated conservation ‘breeding for release’ centre for wildcats, bringing wildcat experts together with a dedicated veterinary unit and a specialised pre-release training programme so that the cats can hep develop the life skills they need for a wild life.
• Grow the population of wildcats through releasing wildcats into the wild – the aim is 20 a year, potentially within the Cairngorms National Park. They’ll all wear a special GPS collar so that both movement and behaviour can be recorded
• Remove threats facing wildcats in the Highlands, thereby creating other safe areas where wildcats can be reintroduced
• Work with local communities to work out how best people can benefit from the presence of wildcats

Take a look at the Independent's You Tube Channel report when Scottish wildcats were released into the wild!

This is an exciting project.  And there are a number of ways in which you can get involved and help save the Highland Tiger!

Ways to help the Scottish wildcat

You could sponsor a Scottish wildcat such as Cranachan
Find out more here
Image copyright Saving Wildcats

1. Sponsor a wildcat from £5 a month – this could be the purrfect gift for a cat lover!
2. Donate, as a one off or monthly
3. Raise funds through Just Giving
4. Subscribe to the Scottish Wildcats mailing list so that you can hear all the news and discover how you can help
5. Donate straight to the wildcats in the conservation ‘breeding for release’ centre through the Amazon wishlist
6. Help classify wildlife in images taken with camera traps (find out more about that here)
7. Become a Co-op member and contribute towards the project as you spend instore!

Here's how to identify a wildcat - if you think you've seen one, you can report your sighting.  This is the case for wildcats you see that are alive, or who have sadly died.  

Saving Wildcats has been shortlisted for the Great British Wildlife Restoration competition, organised by BIAZA (British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums).  This is a one-off award scheme which recognises the amazing work being done to restore native species.

A number of organisations and businesses are involved Saving Wildcats, so good luck to everyone involved, especially the wildcats themselves!

#SWAforLIFE

Visit Saving Wildcats on You Tube 

Saving Wildcats is supported by the LIFE programme of the European Union.   It is led by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) in collaboration with NatureScot, Forestry and Land Scotland (FLS), The Cairngorms National Park Authority (CNPA), Norden’s Ark, Consejería de Sostenibilidad and Medio Ambiente y Economía Azul de la Junta de Andalucía.  Releases are conducted by Cairngorms Connect.  

Did you see Steve Backshall’s two part programme on badgers recently?  Channel 5 had this amazing couple of hours of TV with Badgers: Their Secret World in which we got to see a wild European badger giving birth on camera.

Badgers: Their Secret World also showed us nine week old cubs emerging from their sett for the first time, and we found out what badgers will do to keep a clean, tidy home.

You can see the episodes here (you need to sign in to Channel 5 to do that)

Which brings us to October – or should we say, #Brocktober – a whole month to celebrate badgers.

The Badger Trust and Scottish Badgers come together to celebrate our love for this native, British wildlife species.  Both charities are dedicated to the conservation and protection of badgers

There’s a special day right at the end of the first week, with National Badger Day on the 6^th (#NBD23). 

Please make Space for Badgers!

This year, the Badger Trust is encouraging us all to make Space for Badgers, and there are a number of ways we can do that:

• Help protect local green spaces so that badgers can thrive in their natural habitats
• Learn how to live with badgers – leave space for them
• Get involved in the State of the Badger, a citizen science project, to help the Trust understand the population health of badgers and ensure they have a future
• Take a look at responsible badger watching tips – so that you can get to know local badgers!
• Use the Trust’s free planning and development guides to help protect badgers’ homes

Please find out how you can make #SpaceforBadgers

#NBD23, #Brocktober #LoveBadgers #SpaceforBadgers

Visit Scottish Badgers

How can you help badgers?

1. Find out more about them! 
2. Be a badger champion – fundraise, educate the next generation of badger champions using the Badger Trust’s free education resources
3. Spread the word about how amazing badgers are and the campaigns to protect them.  Tell people about the threats they face and what can be done to help them.
4. Join the campaign to stop the badger cull.  Over 210,000 badgers have died – and yet they are vital eco engineers;  the Trust says they “rejuvenate the soil and provide shelter and nesting sites for other wildlife, like pollinating insects”.  You can see the reasons why the badger cull doesn’t work here.
5. Give badgers a break – over 50,000 were killed on roads last year so please slow down and report deaths and injuries to the campaign, and raise awareness
6. Developers should have a look at the Badger Trust’s  guide for developers to safeguard badgers from planning and development activities
7. Have a look at Living with Badgers which has advice on badgers & gardens – and what to do if your woof ventures down a badger sett 
8. Sign up for the Badger Trust’s newsletter
9. Become a member of the badger clan and give the Badger Trust your support! 
10. Why not join a local badger group?  Badger groups are run by volunteers and there may be one local to you which you can find out here.  They offer varying services – these depend on the number of volunteers and when they’re available 

Now, Scottish Badgers have ways to get involved too:

Get Sett Scotland is aiming to create a nation of badger champions in Scotland by 2025.  And there are a number of ways you can get involved – such as becoming a Badger Champion or taking part in the national survey of badgers.  You can also donate and become a member, or do some shopping at the Scottish Badger shop.   You can report a badger and you can earn your stripes!

Earn Your Stripes is a skills development to support the next generation of wildlife champions, and it’s a partnership between Scottish Badgers and the Scottish Wildlife Trust.  Although it’s aimed at 16 to 24 year olds, anyone can take part, and thanks to the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the course is free!

All you need to do is to complete 4 modules:  Meet the Mammals, Tracker School, Wildlife Conservation and Threats and Championing Wildlife

Why not use this #Brocktober to discover lots about badgers and see what you can do to help them?

Image copyright Badger Trust