TRANSCRIPT
In Uganda, the number of endangered mountain gorillas is on the rise, with tourism funding crucial conservation efforts.
Foreign visitors pay around $1200 for a permit to see them in their natural habitat, funding local communities and incentivising the protection of these animals.
With a portion of the fees collected going back into communities, former poachers now work alongside conservationists to stop others from setting traps.
Philemon Mujuni, a reformed poacher, says many former poachers have changed course.
“The gorillas have increased because there is no more going to the forest to hunt, there are no more traps and even Uganda Wildlife Authority have employed very many rangers and those people like we reformed poachers, we protect where our village is so that no one can enter and kill those gorillas.”
From facing extinction in the last century to now seeing population numbers exceed 1,000, the outlook for mountain gorillas looks positive.
In Kenya, the fight to protect rhinos from poaching and genetic decline is underway.
In the 1970s, tens of thousands were killed for their horns, decimating the population.
But a new era of protection is slowly but determinedly changing the story.
Rangers from the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy and the Kenya Wildlife Service carefully notch the rhinos' ears with small, uniquely shaped cuts to help conservationists track and monitor individual animals.
Each unique shape and notch on the ear forms a kind of fingerprint code, which helps conservationists track and monitor the individual animal.
In 2025, 46 rhinos have been notched.
Phillip Muruthi, Vice president of Africa Wildlife Foundation says this is to prevent the animals from inbreeding.
"The smaller the population of a species that you are managing, you will do what we call biological management. So you do not want mother and son breeding for example because you may have genetic implications and so one of the advantages of notching and individual identification is simply to manage the population and allow them to grow faster without causing any genetic bottlenecks."
In Zimbabwe, home to around 100,000 elephants, conflict with villagers has been growing as climate change worsens competition for food and water.
For generations, people have banged pots and pans to try to drive the wildlife away.
Now, a new approach is fitting some elephants with GPS collars and tracking their movements.
Local councillor and farmer Senzeni Sibanda says the new method means people are warned ahead of time.
"We have strategies that we use to ward off elephants when they come close, because they know the sound of gunfire, if you do this, they run away (claps). Secondly, we use empty water bottles, we still bang pans, but now, we get warnings in time and rangers react more quickly.”
