The Lions in the headlights.
Cathy Buckle takes to the bush for Zamcon, the Zambezi Valley Conservation Project and reports back
ZAMCON Hands-on, ethical conservation 26 January 2024
Dear Friends of ZAMCON,
Thank you all for reading, sharing and contacting us about ZAMCON, our exciting new conservation project in the Zambezi Valley. Thank you for your interest, enthusiasm and support and for the wonderful donations that are taking our words on paper ever closer to reality. There’s a long way to go but we couldn’t do this without you and are so grateful for your involvement.
This morning I received this short message from Blake, on the ground in the Zambezi Valley, and this beautiful photograph taken with his mobile phone. What better sight than this to inspire, motivate and give hope for the future. Here’s what Blake told me:
“I was doing a random night patrol which I do from time to time just to let poachers know that I’m out there after dark. It was about 9.30pm and very overcast when I came across this little family of lions lying on the road, a young male, a female and two cubs.
As I drove up, they moved to the side and I watched them in the headlights for about 25 minutes. The bush is quite thick and green now and the lions were completely relaxed. When I saw this little cub hiding behind its dad it reinforced with me exactly why we need this ZAMCON conservation and anti-poaching unit.
We have to be able to keep seeing lions in the wild like this, relaxed and with cubs. When you see this, you know that you’re getting it right and that your work isn’t in vain. It isn’t just the lions, it’s all the species because without them the lions wouldn’t be there and wouldn’t be reproducing.
Everything is interconnected out here in the wild; doing one thing like controlling bush fires promotes regrowth gives food for grazers and browsers which in turn attracts predators. This is the motivation we need in our wild places: to keep on working at it, one day at a time, to share these little success stories with the public, to tell children and to help everyone understand why we do conservation and why we must keep doing it.”
Please share this newsletter with your friends and colleagues.
Thank you for joining us in ZAMCON.
Cathy Buckle and Blake Muil
For more information on ZAMCON, to contribute or to join this mailing list please contact Cathy:
[email protected] https://cathybuckle.co.zw