The boy wandered 11 miles from his home through wilderness that surrounds the national park. Tsavo east is an incredibly important reserve, and together with Tsavo west, together protect one of the biggest single ecosystems of east Africa.
He was eventually found by a pilot who works for the Sheldrick wildlife trust. He got separated from his brother, when trying to return home from a day herding livestock, when a storm came up. More than 70 people had taken part in the hunt for the boy, and ended up tracking his prints for countless days (without food).
Thankfully, while there was no food, having rained recently, there was plenty of water sitting on the surface of the earth. 5 nights after disappearing, they chief contacted the Sheldrick wildlife trust to say tracks had been found. Incredibly, however, they were 9 miles from the village.
It is worth remembering that, while in south Africa wildlife is generally restricted to large reserves, in east Africa, many of the reserves are too small for animals to live there all of their lives. Instead they are required to migrate through the human landscape to other reserves. This issue is nowhere near as bad as it is in India (generally even the smallest reserves have tens of lion) but it still means that wandering wilderness that is not part of a national park does still have significant risks.
Having said this, in most instances, humans are not on the menu for most predators in Africa. Indeed, for the majority they will hear humans from some distance and get out of the way. Now a small boy might not cause this fear, but it might.
We need to find a way to fit a square peg in a round hole, by both protecting and extending protected areas, while at the same time improving the standard of living of those living around these areas.
This is the sole purpose of our “in the shadow of mankind” section. I just hope that we can get it performing soon enough. We need your help.