Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary

I'm sorry I have been slacking on posts recently, directed research, food, and sleep have taken up the majority of my time the past couple of days. Last week we went to the Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary. It was a very impressive sanctuary with a bunch of antelopes, warthogs, zebras, and wildebeests. The weather was perfect for a safari! The main reason I wanted to post about Kimana Wildlife Sanctuary at all is because of the picture above. Although the wildlife sanctuary is supposed to be a peaceful place with plenty of habitat and food for animals and accommodating to people at the same time there are real issues that still go on. We saw this elephant on the side of the dirt road we were driving on. It was even more horrific and disturbing in real life than it is in the picture. This elephant had been shot with a poison arrow or spear from outside of the sanctuary but made its way into the sanctuary before dying. It was unclear whether the face was cut off by a poacher to sell the tusks or by a member of the Kenya Wildlife Service who also took the tusks but did so to keep poachers from selling them. Either way, this is a real issue that happens all over Kenya and Tanzania and it is so sad to come across. Things like this remind me why I decided to study abroad in Africa in the first place. It is insane to see how such an enormous animal could be the victim of a crime committed by such a small creature in comparison and it is so important to teach people that this is not an okay way to treat wildlife.