YEAR OF THE TIGER: FOUR WOMEN, THREE BIG CATS, TWO CONTINENTS, ONE MISSION
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On a dark night in southern Kenya, a lioness approaches a Maasai livestock enclosure (or boma), her eyes trained on a cow. A short distance away, a Maasai warrior stands ready, spear poised, to protect his livestock from predators. Their goals are the same: provide for their families at any cost. In the Chinese calendar, the tiger represents strength and bravery. With their work in Africa and India, four WINGS fellows have dedicated their lives to helping people who experience human-wildlife interactions, especially with three big cats: lions, tigers, and leopards. For the local people who share the boundary of their village with the border of a wildlife reserve, the possibility of human-wildlife and livestock-wildlife interactions is an everyday reality. These four women and their organizations have undertaken the task of not only showing that the value of life extends beyond that of humans, but also that, with education and assistance, local villages can mitigate the conflict and consequences from these interactions.
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Tiger, Centre for Wildlife Studies
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| The lioness mentioned above is named Nalotu, meaning “the fearful one,” in Maa, the Maasai language. She got this name as a cub because she was fearful of humans. Both she and her family have stalked and killed livestock in the human settlements in and around Kenya’s Amboseli National Park. Nalotu is one of several lions being tracked by the Lion Guardians in order to understand the hunting and living patterns of lions while also allowing the personal knowledge of each lion to foster understanding, compassion, and a deeper willingness to work with lions rather than killing them. Dr. Leela Hazzah, executive director of Lion Guardians, was awarded the 2009 Field Research Award for her work with lions and conflict mitigation in Kenya. One of the organization’s chief initiatives involves working with local Maasai populations in the community-owned lands just outside of the Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya, to understand how their daily lives are affected by lions and how to find a balance between the lives of the lions and the livelihoods of the villagers. The initiative dispatches Mobile Conflict Response Teams to villages when an encounter with a lion is reported. The teams use an array of methods including reinforcing bomas, community liaisons, mock hunting, lion identification and tracking, and night patrols to minimize incidents of depredation. The website's introductory video about this initiative explains that their success stems from understanding “both the factors pushing lions to attack livestock and the factors that are making livestock more vulnerable to attack.” Dr. Hazzah and the Guardians have found a way to quell fear, increase livestock protection measures, and humanely protect lions so that the Amboseli ecosystem can be shared by all. Not far away, Dr. Laly Lichtenfeld, co-founder and CEO of African People & Wildlife, works to promote peaceful coexistence between the lions and people that inhabit communal lands in northern Tanzania. Because of her belief in finding the balance for communities and nature, she earned the 2019 Women of Discovery Award for Conservation. One of the organization’s key values is collaboration. Their website states that “we champion partnerships and believe people and organizations must join together to solve conservation challenges.” One of the newest efforts launched by African People & Wildlife is the African Women in Conservation Initiative, which breaks down barriers that hold women and girls back from conservation opportunities. The initiative will elevate more rural women like Yamat, who grew up next to Tarangire National Park with a fear of lions compromising her family’s livestock and livelihood. According to the Initiative’s webpage, “While receiving an education, Yamat began to learn about the value of lions to her country. Today she works with African People & Wildlife to promote coexistence and measure programmatic impact while serving as a local role model for women’s leadership.” Yamat is only one of several examples of how Dr. Lichtenfeld and the team at African People and Wildlife have already shown success in helping women transcend traditional roles, create opportunities for themselves, and take a leading role in conservation. Further south on the African continent, Thandiwe Mweetwa works as the project manager for the Luangwa Valley Team of the Zambian Carnivore Programme. Her interest in balancing conservation with human goals won her the 2018 Conservation Award. When asked about her work in Zambia, she explained, “I have had the opportunity to start working on understanding and addressing human interaction with big cats in our area as settlement patterns change and livestock numbers increase.” Mweetwa and her team work closely with the Department of National Parks and Wildlife and local conservation groups to not only mitigate human-wildlife conflict, but also act against bushmeat trading, snaring, and poaching. The combination of these efforts has allowed Mweetwa to make a measurable impact on the lives of lions and local populations. She told WINGS that the Zambian Carnivore Programme is “building a robust human-carnivore conflict mitigation program which is the first of its kind in Zambia.”
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Dr. Karanth with students, Centre for Wildlife Studies
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| Dr. Krithi Karanth, the Executive Director and Chief Conservation Scientist at The Centre for Wildlife Studies, was chosen to receive the 2019 Conservation Award for her work with tigers, leopards, and conflict mitigation in India. One of the organization’s main initiatives is Wild Shaale, a school program for children living in areas around wildlife parks. The children of families who experience human-wildlife conflict can develop a negative view of the wildlife around them, especially if what they are afraid of is a predator they know little about. Through the implementation of four modules, Wild Shaale casts a light on the unknown, teaching children what tigers, leopards, and other predators are and how to stay safe and curious about the animals they share their world with. One of the most successful ways of doing this is through an art project where the children color their own cat masks, showing them that each tiger and leopard has its own markings, its own personality, and its own journey, just like each child. In an interview with WINGS, Dr. Karanth shared that for her, “it is truly the people that live next to these wildlife parks and with wildlife that will be the decision makers on whether things survive into the future or not.” She continued to explain that elephants and tigers do not affect our daily lives, but they do for these children, so “them being tolerant of losses and having a positive attitude towards nature makes a huge difference.” The overwhelming success of each initiative proves that the strength and bravery associated with the tiger is also present in the people that seek to balance their lives with the big cats they share their environments with. The evolving work of Dr. Hazzah, Dr. Lichtenfeld, Mweetwa, and Dr. Karanth will continue to tap into the strength and bravery of local populations in hopes of creating a world where humans and big cats can safely share their existence. The Year of the Tiger for westerners is a lifetime of bravery for the men, women, and children living on the edges of wildlife parks.
Written by Emilie Welles, Communications and Development Associate ewelles@wingsworlquest.org
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Article Photographs:
1) Nalotu, provided by Lion Guardians 2) Tiger, provided by Centre for Wildlife Studies, "Doctoral Program 2022" brochure. 3) Dr. Karanth with Students, taken by Anubhav Vanamamalai/CWS, "WildShaale_20201209-IMG_2421"
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Letter from the Director
Hello WINGS community,
We are thrilled to introduce you to the remarkable work of the high-achieving women in science and discovery that Wings WorldQuest supports and celebrates. In the coming months, we look forward to sharing more exciting news and stories, connections with new explorers, and important dates and events. In the meantime, please connect with us on social media or reach out to learn more about our work and mission.
Thank you for helping us make such an incredible impact over almost two decades. We could not have done it without you. Please help us continue to make lasting change by donating here to our Fellows and Flag Carriers programs.
With gratitude,
Carrie
Carrie Maloney
Executive Director
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Save the Date
Save the date for the 2022 Women of Discovery Awards Gala. The event will take place on October 19, 2022, at Tribeca 360° in New York City.
WINGS will award Women of Discovery fellowships to five extraordinary women whose research ranges from cave diving and fresh water conservation to primatology and ethno-conservation.
We look forward to adding these trailblazers to our growing network of Fellows and Flag Carriers around the world. More details to follow soon.
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Women of Discovery Highlights Here is a sampling of what our Fellows have accomplished in the past few years:
Diva Amon (2020 Sea Award) co-authored a peer-reviewed article addressing the inequality and dangerous conditions in ocean research.
Arita Baaijens (2014 Humanity Award) is working on "Language for the future, in coversation with the North Sea," a project that is creating an algorithem to speak like the North Sea.
Mandë Holford (2019 Humanity Award) was named a 2022 Allen Distinguised Investigator.
Darlene Lim (2019 Air & Space Award) was appointed the Deputy Project Scientist for the NASA VIPER lunar rover mission.
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In MemoriamThe Wings community is saddened to learn of the passing of Dr. Susan Shaw. Dr. Shaw became a WINGS fellow in 2009, having been nominated for her work in environmental toxicology and its effects on marine mammals and fishes in the Northwest Atlantic.
Dr. Shaw’s name and reputation will be remembered widely in the scientific community, and her contribution to our oceans, environment, and planet will be carried on through the younger generations of scientists and explorers that she inspired and mentored.
Dr. Shaw once shared with WINGS how important it is to “seek out ways to advance in your field and show leadership because you are needed” - advice that becomes more important every year.
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