Born Free Podcast

Wildlife rangers in developing nations have one of the most notoriously dangerous and unpredictable jobs around. While they might have the latest technologies and ammunition to defend wildlife, often their own basic welfare requirements are severely lacking.

In this episode, we bring you the story of The Sockstar Project, a charity that strives for change by providing rangers in Africa with products like bars of soaps, toothpaste, women’s sanitation products and socks. Its two main areas of support are for wildlife conservation NGOs Game Rangers International, in Zambia, and National Park Rescue, in Zimbabwe.

They are both key players in the fight for African elephant conservation, and operate where poaching is a very real danger for elephants and the people protecting them. The project is making a difference, quite literally, one boot at a time.

Virginia McKenna OBE tells us about the brave decision she and her husband took back in 1964 to travel to Kenya, with three children in tow, to film Born Free. It became a family classic that followed true story of the rescued lioness, Elsa, who was released into the wild. Little did they know that wildlife would become their inspiration and true calling. Bearing witness to the animals they worked with being shipped to various captive establishments, they established Zoo Check, a body to prevent captive exploitation. Since then, the charity has developed into the international wildlife conservation and animal welfare charity, the Born Free Foundation. Virginia continues as Born Free’s matriarch today, responsible for encouraging generations into wildlife protection and lending her voice to campaigns against animal cruelty.

In this episode she gives a personal account of how our attitudes to animals have changed since she began campaigning, how she finds nature in every day modern life and what she hopes for the future of wildlife.

In this episode, we speak to Dr Matt McLennan, Director and Co-Founder of the Bulindi Chimpanzee & Community Project, Uganda. Here, chimpanzees live alongside farmers in rural areas of the country and often come into conflict with one another.

Matt tells us what it’s really like living alongside our closest relatives, how they are able to cross roads, and how they share similar behaviours and emotions as us! Alongside chimpanzee research, the project identifies ways for sustainable human-chimpanzee co-existence, including creating alternative livelihoods to those that contribute to deforestation, providing energy-efficient stoves and water boreholes to increase living standards, and an extensive tree planting programme.

To find out more about the project visit: https://bulindichimpanzees.weebly.com/

Can humans and tigers live alongside each other peacefully in one of the most populated countries of the world? That’s the daily challenge for rural communities in India, which is home to about 3,000 – or 70% – of all wild tigers left worldwide.

We find out from Dr Nikki Tagg, Born Free’s Conservation Project Manager how Born Free’s Satpuda Landscape Tiger Partnership is working across central India to support Indian NGOs in their own work, within their own communities, to show that co-existence with tigers is possible.

Did you know there are more than 3,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises in captivity worldwide today? Even though places like SeaWorld have committed to a breeding ban of their captive orcas the same has not extended to other whale and dolphin species.

We talk to Sam Goddard, Born Free’s Campaigns Officer, about why bottlenose dolphins, beluga whales and sea lions are treated so differently from their relatives.

Fighting wildlife crime

Wildlife crime consultant Greta Iori is fighting to protect Ethiopia’s wildlife, one elephant at a time. Specialising in ivory-related crime and the protection of elephants, she is responsible for championing an alliance protecting the most northerly population of elephants in the horn of Africa.

With a deep love for wildlife and for her home country of Ethiopia, Greta’s role has given her a unique perspective on the world. We met up with Greta to find out more about her work, country, affinity for elephants, and how she stays motivated in a world where wildlife is under ever-increasing threat.

For more info about Greta's work, follow her on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theitaliopian/