by Chris Bodenner
Yusuf, a keeper, sleeps with three orphaned baby rhinos at the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in northern Kenya. The youngest rhino on the right was orphaned when poachers killed his mother on Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The largest rhino, Nicky, is not an orphan but is being hand-raised because her mother is partially blind. On the woman who took the photo:
Montana-based photographer and filmmaker Ami Vitale is shedding some much-needed light on the illegal wildlife trade and poaching of animals taking place in northern Kenya. She recently launched a crowdfunding campaign in conjunction with The Nature Conservancy and the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT), using photography as a platform to show how local communities are working to protect their wildlife from the heavily armed criminal networks of poachers that are devastating to the rhinos, elephants and many other plains animals of Africa. … While her initial goal has just been reached, she has now turned her sights on to other related and achievable goals, like providing educational, visual storytelling initiatives for the NRT—a collective of 26 indigenous groups in northern Kenya.
In addition to Vitale’s website, you can follow her work on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Nikon, her Montana workshops, and her storytelling seminars with NatGeo. Previous Dish on animal poaching here, here, here, here, here, and here.
The Dish 