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Today to commemorate World Elephant Day, here’s a few of my favourite elephant photos in celebration of this amazing animal…  In about a week’s time I’m going to be announcing my next safari in Africa – and it’s in the home of the world’s largest population of elephants…. Can you guess where it might be?

Lovely big elephant bull resting his trunk – taken on my group safari to the Masai Mara in Kenya last year.

Ele bromance…. I love the way you often see an old bull and a young bull hanging out together as mates, but also in a symbiotic relationship with the old one teaching the young one the ways of the bush and the young one having better hearing and eyesight than the old bull. This photo taken at Ol Donyo, Kenya, during the making of our film “Let Elephants Be Elephants”.

Elephant females stay with their mothers their whole lives, raised by a ‘village’ of aunts, sisters and grandmas in a tight family network.  Photo taken in Amboseli, Kenya during the making of the ‘Let Elephants Be Elephants’ documentary.

Botswana is one of the best places to see lots of elephants in one place, with the largest population in the world, currently stable at about 130,000 according to the Great Elephant Census. Photo taken at Xigera Camp, Okavango Delta, Botswana during my group safari there in 2014.

Elephants adore water. This magical scene was on the first night of my group safari to Botswana in November 2014, when this herd sauntered in about sunset and took a long slow drink and shower/bath. Banoka Camp.

Young elephants are so playful and take a while to work out how to use their trunk. They can sometimes be quite cheeky too! Photo taken on safari in Kruger NP, South Africa.

Etosha National Park, Namibia, where I did my PhD on black-faced impalas, is a great place to watch elephants, especially if you go in the dry season as then the waterholes are a joy to watch, with elephants having first water baths then dust baths and revelling in the whole experience. At sunset this is an incredible sight! Photo taken on my Namibian group safari last year, as a herd approached Ombika waterhole where other elephants were already drinking.  See how their trunks were raised, smelling what was going on at the waterhole.

The desert dwelling elephants on Namibia’s north west region are perhaps the most incredible of all of Africa’s elephants, having to traverse vast areas in order to find enough food to survive in their parched habitat. This photo was taken on my Namibian safari near Desert Rhino Camp last year.

Big tuskers like this one called “One Tonne” at Ol Donyo, Kenya, are under threat by poachers for their ivory. There’s still a great need to educate the public in ivory-buying countries that when you buy ivory this kills elephants in the wild.  Elephants need their ivory for foraging and defence, but sadly it has become their curse as it makes them a target for illegal traders.  We can all help by spreading the word.

Currently our team at Let Elephants Be Elephants is sharing the Ivory Free campaign all over Thailand, with our partners at Wild Aid and the Thai soccer team, the War Elephants.  Head to our Facebook site and share the ads like this one to help spread the word that it’s not cool to buy ivory!

Now I’m off to the Serengeti to see if I can find some elephants to celebrate in person….  Apparently there’s the odd wildebeest and zebra come to town too for one of the biggest migrations on the planet.  Back real soon….  Happy World Elephant Day!  Share this with someone else who loves elephants.

What have elephants got to do with football and martial arts?  Well more than you might think!

Thailand has long been a hot spot for the illegal ivory trade, which is why the Let Elephants Be Elephants team targeted this country for the next phase of our campaign.  We have seen some stronger measures in Thailand in the last year, including changes to the legislation around ivory and a public ivory stockpile destruction by the government, but there is still much to be done to raise awareness of the issue in Thailand.

Let Elephants Be Elephants is very proud to be a partner in WildAid‘s new campaign to stop ivory trade in Thailand – Be Ivory Free.  The Thai soccer team, the ‘war elephants’, along with Thai Hollywood martial arts star Tony Jaa, are the ambassadors for this campaign locally, encouraging people all across the country to say no to ivory.  The core message is that success is achieved through hard work, not by wearing ivory from poached elephants.  Take a look at the advertisements going out this week below.

You can do your part to spread the word by going to Let Elephants Be Elephants’ Facebook site and sharing the advertisements far and wide across your social networks.  If you have connections in Thailand, please send these messages directly to them.  And of course, as always, never buy ivory when you are visiting Thailand or any other country.  Let’s keep up the momentum and make sure everyone knows that it’s not cool to wear ivory!

It’s been a while coming, but much goes on behind the scenes when it comes to developing awareness programs for species like elephants and rhinos in Asia.  Those of you who know me personally know that the awareness raising never stops when it comes to elephants and the ivory trade.  Last week, my conservation safari group of Singaporeans, British and Aussies talked at length about conservation and what still needs to be done while deep in the desert dunes of the Skeleton Coast, inspired by the arid-adapted wildlife of Namibia and those magnificent desert-dwelling elephants.  Next week I’ll be in Brisbane talking to about 200 Queensland business women at the Australian Women in Leadership symposium about what we can learn from elephants about leadership (and of course, how we can help the elephants too).  Even though we’ve made good headway lately, we can’t afford to lose momentum and we need you to keep spreading the word too.

I’ve spent much time thinking about and talking to others in the know about how to have the most meaningful impact for this cause in the last year.  Sometimes it’s more impactful to team up with other organisations that are getting results than to go it alone.  I’m very excited to say that the Let Elephants Be Elephants campaign (LEBE) is now teaming up with global wildlife trade organisation WildAid and the Thai soccer team, known as the ‘War Elephants’, to raise awareness of the illegal ivory trade in Thailand.

Wild Aid ambassador and martial arts TV star Tony Jaa is making a stand to stop the illegal ivory trade as part of the broader campaign that LEBE is supporting

If you’ve signed the pledge to say no to ivory at the LEBE website, you will have received our latest newsletter today announcing this new partnership.  Just in case you missed it, here it is below as well.  The ads will be released in the coming months and spread across Thailand, so please help us spread the word by sharing our posts on the campaign in your social media networks.

LEBE X WildAid joining forces to stop ivory trade in Thailand May 2016   We’ve been a little quiet lately, but that’s because over the past year we’ve been consolidating our efforts raising awareness of the ivory trade to date in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore and Indonesia, and working on a strategic approach to keep spreading the word across South East Asia with key partners in Thailand. The Thai government has made some significant strides to get on top of the illegal ivory market in the past year, including destroying over 2 tonnes of ivory last August and taking some steps to legislate against the illegal trade. But Thailand’s ivory market remains one of the largest in the world and there is still a great need to make people aware and change behaviour around buying ivory, both local Thai and visiting Chinese. Africa’s elephants are still in crisis. The situation remains particularly dire in west and central Africa, and in countries like Tanzania, which once boasted huge populations, but has lost 60% of its elephants in the last 5 years. The significance of the enormous losses in elephant lives was just highlighted in Kenya’s burning of 105 tonnes of stockpiled ivory, as well as its stockpile of rhino horn, representing about 6500 elephant lives (and 450 rhino lives). The demand must stop. It’s heart breaking to think of so many of these incredible giants reduced to ash in a funeral pyre directly resulting from human greed and corruption.

WildAid Telegraph UK

On the back of this bold statement by Kenya, we are very pleased to announce that this year LEBE is partnering with WildAid in a ground breaking ivory awareness campaign in Thailand. Building on WildAid’s highly successful ivory campaign in China and Hong Kong, our joint Thai campaign will increase awareness among the Thai public about the elephant poaching crisis in Africa and the link to ivory products sold in Thailand, as well as persuading Chinese tourists not to buy ivory. Joining Thai martial arts actor Tony Jaa (Ong Bak series, Furius 7, Skin Trade), who is already an ambassador for the Thai ivory campaign, is the Thai national soccer team, named ‘Chang Seuk’ (War Elephants).The line up encouraging the public to get behind this cause includes Coach Zico, one of Thailand’s all time greatest soccer players, now leading the team towards a berth in the 2018 FIFA World Cup, Jay Chanathip, known as ‘Messi Jay’, named best player of the 2014 ASEAN Football Federation tournament. The campaign will launch in the coming months, and we’ll be asking you to get on board and help us continue spreading the word to stop people buying ivory!Nadya, Tammie & the LEBE team

It’s that time of year again, and it seems to have crept up so quickly (or maybe I’m just getting old!).  Now at the end of our second year in business at Matson & Ridley Safaris, Andy and I wanted to thank you for your support and to wish you a wonderful Christmas and new year.  I’ve put together this short video (scroll down to see it), which I hope you’ll enjoy, sharing a few special memories of my adventures with you in the last couple of years in Botswana, Kenya and Namibia.  Thanks to all who shared their photos for this, but in particular a big thanks to all the people who made these journeys so wonderful in Africa’s most incredible wild destinations!

Stormy sundowners in Kenya’s Maasai Mara, July 2015

For me, it’s a real joy to be able to reflect back and know that our fledgling safari business is helping support so many worthwhile on-ground conservation initiatives, from the Save The Rhino anti poaching efforts in Namibia, to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation, David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust and the Mara Naibosho Lion Project.  Those who come on my safaris often get to meet some of the dedicated people behind these operations.

And of course, just by supporting Matson & Ridley Safaris, you’ve helped me continue to keep spreading the word in the Let Elephants Be Elephants campaign, around Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Australia and even in my new base in the Netherlands.  The LEBE campaign has raised approximately SGD$40,000 (almost US$30k) for awareness raising on ivory trade in Asia since its inception, and Nadya and I have spoken at dozens of schools, events, conferences and government departments across the region.  A new study by Save The Elephants just revealed that growing public awareness through campaigns like the one by WildAid in China have played an important role in the halving of the price of ivory in the past year, a truly outstanding result that will help reduce elephant poaching.  Our LEBE campaign continues in Southeast Asia in 2016 – more news to come on that soon.

The LEBE team at one of our awareness and fund raising events in Hong Kong, with the team from the Hong Kong Elephant Society, Jane Goodall and Richard Bonham of the Big Life Foundation (photo: Hong Kong Elephant Society)

But I think our biggest contribution through Matson & Ridley Safaris is the benefits your safari bookings provide in terms of local employment in Africa.  Wilderness Safaris recently released a breakdown of how your safari dollars are spent, and most enlightening for me was that about two-thirds goes to local employment.  This is so important!  In Africa, conservation of wildlife is directly related to the economic benefits people get from wildlife, and so this really is a win-win scenario for both people and wildlife.  In rural areas where these camps are, there are few other economic opportunities for people, so ecotourism done right can be a real lifeline.  Asilia Africa, who we work with to plan your East African safaris, focus on education and conservation, as well as community partnerships to deliver long term sustainability that benefits local people.  You can read more about their positive impact and approach to sustainable business development here.  When you go on one of our safaris, either independently or with me, don’t forget to ask about all the incredible work these ecotourism companies are doing to ensure that you not only have an amazing experience but that the local people and wildlife directly benefit from the monies you spend.

Providing local employment in rural areas in Africa is one of the most important contributions made by ethical safaris (photo: Wilderness Safaris)

Very soon we’ll be launching the new Matson & Ridley Safaris website, but in the meantime you can find us on the Matson & Ridley Safaris Facebook page – like us here to see the latest updates on all our safari offers and opportunities, and you can share your photos there too.  We have big dreams for our conservation work – please help us get there by spreading the word about our ethical safaris!

Don’t forget it’s not too late to sign up to join me in northern Zimbabwe in September next year, and I still have one spot left for a single woman sharing in North West Namibia in May (last minute discount available for the latter).  There are great deals available for family and group safaris in 2016 all over Africa’s safari regions, especially if you go in the green season.  May 2016 be a year of adventure, excitement and inspiration for you all and I hope to see you by the campfire under a starry African sky soon!