Training the next generation of biologists to help save elephants and lions in Nigeria

Dennis Andrew

The goal of the internship with WCS in Yankari Game Reserve is to provide field training and conservation experience to a young Nigerian biologist so that he may acquire the necessary skills and attitude to become a potential conservation leader of the future.

Managed by Bauchi State Government in collaboration with WCS, Yankari contains the country’s largest elephant population and one of only two populations of the Critically Endangered West African lion.  Hunting for bushmeat, illegal livestock grazing and crop raiding by elephants are the main conservation problems.  There has been relatively little work with the surrounding communities but a schools-based education and awareness program is producing encouraging results and an elephant guardian program has helped reduce levels of human-elephant conflict around the reserve. The internship objectives will be to: