Tomorrow is #WorldRangerDay and the last day to send in a personalized appreciation message to the Mara Elephant Project men and women working on the frontline of conservation. These messages will be hand delivered to MEP rangers to show our collective thanks and support. https://buff.ly/3WkFNZd 📸 All our Stories
Mara Elephant Project
Conservation Programs
Carmel, IN 4,967 followers
Protecting elephants and their habitats across the Greater Mara Ecosystem in Kenya
About us
For over a decade Mara Elephant Project (MEP) has been protecting elephants and their habitats across the Greater Mara Ecosystem (GME). The GME, an extension of the vast Serengeti ecosystem, is Kenya’s most important wildlife area and tourism asset. The Mara-Serengeti Ecosystem is one of the last major wildlife refuges on Earth. Most famous for its annual migration of nearly two million wildebeest and zebra, the ecosystem is also home to an estimated 40% of Africa’s large mammals. Historically, people and wildlife peacefully co-existed when space for both did not overlap; however, as the human footprint has expanded, so has livestock and farming, pushing wild animals into smaller spaces. Elephants are a keystone species to this ecosystem and when poaching emerged as the number one threat in 2012 (96 elephants that year alone were killed for their ivory) MEP took action to successfully combat this global threat. Today, the drastic expansion of the human footprint in the region is causing devastating loss of habitat, which means MEP must expand its mission and goals to save the Mara’s wildlife and wild spaces. MEP’s vision is to see a stable and healthy elephant population co-existing peacefully with people across the GME. For over a decade at MEP, we’ve worked together with the Government of Kenya, KWS, Wildlife Research and Training Institute (WRTI), community conservancies and other conservation organizations to build a better future for elephants and their habitats. MEP is a remarkable force of dedicated men and women working together 24/7 to protect elephants, the GME, Kenyan wildlife and wild spaces for generations to come. While MEP was originally focused on combating elephant poaching, we’ve adapted to focus on finding solutions to the emerging long-term threats to elephants, co-existence and habitat loss. Our approach of monitor, evaluate and protect has worked when used in collaboration with partners to protect wildlife, communities and habitats.
- Website
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www.maraelephantproject.org
External link for Mara Elephant Project
- Industry
- Conservation Programs
- Company size
- 51-200 employees
- Headquarters
- Carmel, IN
- Type
- Nonprofit
- Founded
- 2011
- Specialties
- Elephants, Conservation, Habitat Protection, Kenya, Rangers, Technology, and Africa
Locations
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Primary
Get directions
4000 W. 106th Street
Suite 125-238
Carmel, IN 46032, US
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Get directions
2nd Floor Spring Court Watermark Office Park
Ndege Road
Karen, Nairobi, KE
Employees at Mara Elephant Project
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Eric Gitonga
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Frank-Astère NDIYO BUTOYI
Private Equity investment Director @ Amethis
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Loic Amado
Built @Uber in 10 countries across Europe, Middle East and Africa | Impact investing | Sustainable innovation | Operator
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Lindsey Dixon
Freelance Fundraising, Event Management and Charity Operations
Updates
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Enjoy a cup of Thanksgiving Coffee Company Protect Our Elephants coffee with Mara Elephant Project’s head of maintenance Sylvester Ochieng. He is tasked with running diagnostic tests, repairs, and performing maintenance work on all the MEP vehicles to ensure that our field operations run smoothly. Buy a bag today and support MEP’s elephant conservation efforts. https://lnkd.in/dvS3vwv4
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Mara Elephant Project uses EarthRanger to improve, simplify and facilitate protected-area and wildlife species conservation and management and in response to a need for advanced analytics of complex data-streams, MEP developed Ecoscope to accelerate and democratize the conversion of raw ecosystem data into actionable information. To ensure its adoption and deployment, Ecoscope must be further developed and made accessible, its users trained, and its methods applied to solve global conservation issues. With support from the Basecamp Foundation Kenya and Paul G. Allen Family Foundation and led by Dr. Jake Wall, MEP is driving the development and implementation of Ecoscope so that datasets can be easily accessed and used to answer compelling questions and there was much progress made in the second quarter of 2024.
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The Mara is a land of mixed-use spaces where people and wildlife must coexist to survive. Nothing represents the role Mara Elephant Project rangers play more than this recent video showing a MEP ranger vehicle alongside partners acting as the barrier on the ground between a bull elephant and the people living in this boma or homestead. Our rangers rapidly respond in the air and on the ground to usher this bull into a conservancy and protect the people and wildlife involved.
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#WorldRangerDay is less than a week away and you can send a personalized thank you message to a Mara Elephant Project ranger. While everyone at MEP works in conservation, we aren’t all rangers. So, several members of the support staff are joining their ranger colleagues in the field this week to hand deliver your messages of support from around the globe. Let’s show our collective thanks for their dedication to wildlife and wild spaces. https://lnkd.in/eytTH4aV
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Equipping and training Mara Elephant Project rangers to deploy drones allows them to rapidly respond to conflict both day and night. The MEP “Foxtrot” ranger team recently deployed the Elephant Cooperation Mavic 3 drone to move a herd of 26 elephants inside a fenced in settlement back to safety in the bordering conservancy. Their rapid response decreases the level of destruction and increases the likelihood of a positive outcome for both the elephants and people involved.
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"After setting up a kitchen garden at the nearby Enkipai Primary School, the ladies that attended one of our trainings showed lots of gratitude to MEP for bringing development to their doorstep and empowering them and their children.” MEP Coexistence Farm Manager Abigael Pertet
The Second School Kitchen Garden Grows - the MEP Coexistence Farm - Mara Elephant Project
https://maraelephantproject.org
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MEP joined the #WildlifeRangerChallenge organized by Tusk and Game Rangers' Association of Africa. As we celebrate #WorldRangerDay MEP rangers took part in the 2.4 km time trial run where rangers test their limits and gauge their physical fitness. The two MEP teams comprising both male and female rangers placed admirably. Congratulations to the MEP teams! #ForWildlifeRangers
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This past week, the Mara Elephant Project helicopter was in the air to support the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) vets with the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Mobile Vet Units on the ground with a treatment in the Mara Triangle. KWS vets Dr. Njoroge and Dr. Asuka treated a bull elephant with a tumor on his left eye. After treatment, he was back on his feet and rangers will remain on the ground to monitor him as he recovers. Partnerships are essential in safeguarding wildlife and MEP is working closely with other partners in the landscape to make this a reality.
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Bull elephants are known to form bachelor herds and collared elephants Polaris and Kiambi are no exception. These bulls are tracked 24/7 by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), Wildlife Research and Training Institute, and Mara Elephant Project to monitor their movements and watch closely for conflict-related injuries as they traverse an increasingly complex landscape. The MEP mobile ranger team deployed a drone to aerially monitor them, and they reported that both their collars are in good condition and Kiambi is recovering well after being treated for a wound in late May.