The finals of the Wildlife Quiz Championships were held at Lilongwe Wildlife Centre on Saturday, and it couldn’t have been more nail-biting stuff!

Preparations began six months ago, back in December last year. Schools across Lilongwe were chosen to compete based on their commitment to their wildlife clubs. In the lead up to the first rounds in March, all learners from those schools were invited to take part in workshops run by the LWC team, through which 1535 children took part for a chance to be one of four to qualify to represent their school. Schools then competed against each other for a place in the championship through the regional heats.

The finalists were Biwi Community Day School, Chimutu Community Day Secondary School, St John’s Catholic Secondary School and Padre Pio Secondary School, and each team brought along more than adequate support. The children had prepared signs, mottos and dances especially for the event. Biwi even brought their trumpeter along as a lucky mascot! The crowd erupted every time a team got the right answer, and it was terribly heartbreaking to see the earnest teams from Chimutu and Padre Pio get knocked out after all their hard work. Still, that didn’t stop them cheering on the final two teams, Biwi and St John’s. It was absolutely neck and neck right until the end – Biwi pulled ahead by a couple of points but right at the end one wrong answer wrong pulled them down to 18 points each. On to ‘sudden death’ and there was nothing between them for the first three questions. Then Biwi missed one point, and it was as if the audience, including the troop of vervets in the surrounding trees, were holding their breath as St John’s stepped forward…with the right answer! There were cheers and tears and victory dances as St John’s walked away with the top prize - a safari trip for 20 children to Liwonde Park to see wildlife in the wild for themselves. The other teams were all winners too of course, and took home bundles of goodies kindly donated by our sponsors.

The event was well advertised around town and brought in quite a crowd. The whole competition was recorded for broadcast by both the local TV and radio stations, so those who could not come to the quiz also had the chance to test their knowledge. The passion of our champions came through very strongly in their interviews, and we have no doubt that a couple of them are destined for great things in the wildlife world. We’re sure the quiz has helped to raise awareness about the importance of conservation and inspire others to get involved. We’re already looking forward to next year!

This feed was drawn from the Tusk Trust website

Take a look at the latest edition of Tusk Talk which is available for download from the website here. The magazine highlights the upsurge in poaching being experienced across the continent, an issue that was raised by the Duke of Cambridge when he attended the premier of the Disney film African Cats. There are also interesting articles on Tusk funded Community Conservation initiatives Africa-wide and details of recent and future events.

This feed was drawn from the Tusk Trust website

TRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were guests of honor at the U.K. premiere of Disneynature’s “African Cats" on Wednesday 25th April 2012.

Filmed in Kenya’s Masai Mara region from August 2008 to October 2010, “African Cats” follows a pride of lions and a family of cheetahs in the savanna. British actor Sir Patrick Stewart narrates the documentary, which is directed by Keith Scholey (”Big Cat Diary”) and Alastair Fothergill (”Earth,” ‘’Deep Blue”).

The event was held at the British Film Institute on London’s Southbank, and served as a charity fundraiser for Tusk.

“It’s what we call an ‘integrated approach’ to conservation,” said Charlie Mayhew, the charity’s chief executive. “It’s really that integration that has drawn Prince William as our patron. It’s something that he believes passionately in, and tonight’s premiere of ‘African Cats’ just gives us an opportunity to communicate that onto the global stage.”

Scholey and Fothergill said keeping track of the stars in “African Cats” was a substantial task.
“The most challenging (part) was actually to stay with our cats for a whole two year period,” Scholey said. “These are wild animals, they can go wherever they want, and we had to stay with the same characters, so that was quite hard.”

To read more about the event please visit our 'In the Press' page.

To learn about our fundraising African Cats Safari in Kenya please click here.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge
being greeted by Charlie Mayhew and
Adele Emmett of Tusk.

                 Prince William gives a speech at the
                 event which highlighted the poaching
                 crisis in Africa

The Duchess of Cambridge meets
Tusk Patron Deborah Meaden

Prince William talks to Simon King a Tusk Patron (left) and Their Royal Highnesses enjoy the film (right).  

Prince William meets Hope, Lara, Tessa and Tom Mayhew. 

                     The Duchess of Cambridge talks to Sam Harry                                   

Prince William talks to Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits

The Direct Guy Ritchie and TV presenter Kate Silverton, both attend the Royal Premiere of Disneynature's African Cats film.

All photographs courtesy of Jon Furniss

This feed was drawn from the Tusk Trust website

The 17th annual lecture at the Royal Geographic Society was a huge success, boasting a joint collaboration on their “use of technology in conservation” by Dr Iain Douglas- Hamilton, the Elephant specialist and Dr John “Tico” McNutt from the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust. Both spoke evocatively about how their scientific work with elephants and African wild dog benefitted from technological advances. Dr McNutt currently pioneers work to create a synthetic bio boundary to prevent human-predator conflict in Botswana.

The drinks reception which followed was a great opportunity to meet the speakers and this year, Christmas presents could be bought from various stalls, including Northern Rangeland Trust Trading, an enterprise for women in northern Kenya.

To listen to the lecture online please click here

This feed was drawn from the Tusk Trust website

When thinking of endangered species, the dog is the last animal to come to mind – but one type of dog, the African Painted Dog, is indeed are rare find these days. In the last 100 years, it’s estimated that populations have dropped a whopping 99 percent - down to just 3000 remaining dogs. Luckily the Painted Dog Conservation Program (PDCP) is doing its part to help the species come back from the brink of extinction.

Marci Wise
Inside Conservation Blog

Full article link.

This feed was drawn from the Tusk Trust website

A marked increase in rhino horn poaching has been blamed on the growing Chinese population in Africa. On safari in Kenya, Jessica Hatcher seeks the perspective of some of China's richest and most infuential figures.

Full article link

This feed was drawn from the Tusk Trust website

"The series of ten short videos give a very positive insight into the people of different parts of Africa confronting issues and coming up with a sustainable solutions...I would recommend this DVD to any geography teacher as it creates a very positive outlook that combines many aspects of development such as population and resources, urban issues, sustainability and local action."

Garry Atterton
Teaching Geography Autumn 2011

Full article link.

This feed was drawn from the Tusk Trust website

The fundraising efforts of Equitix has contributed a generous £100,000 to the Ol Pejeta education programme. These funds have enabled the construction of the Endana secondary school, a mixed day and boarding school. The Endana school is an important centre for learning, as it is the only secondary school that caters to students within a 30km radius of the northern side of Ol Pejeta Conservancy. In partnership with Ol Pejeta, Equitix’s contribution has been used to construct the school’s six classrooms, two water tanks, two latrines and a perimeter fence as well as provide solar power. The latest funds raised by Equitix will be used to build a science laboratory as well as an administrative block and a staff room.

This feed was drawn from the Tusk Trust website

Come join Tusk Trust and Swarovski for an evening of ice skating in aid of Tusk Trust and the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. 

When:               Thursday 8th December, 2011
                         6.30pm Arrive * 7pm- 8pm Ice skating * 8pm Drinks and eats
Where:              The Natural History Museum Ice Rink,
                         Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD
Tickets:              £40 per person

Ice skating to Christmas tunes and African beats followed by drinks and eats in the pavilion. Including skate hire, Gluwein or ‘Hot chocolate Grog’, children’s practice rink, charity raffle and tree of promises.

To book your tickets go to http://africaonice.eventbrite.co.uk
or call the Tusk office on: 01747 831005.

This feed was drawn from the Tusk Trust website

Come and join a host of celebrities including Deborah Meaden and Mark Owen of Take That at the Tusk Modern event.

Tusk Trust in association with the Westbrook Gallery would like to invite you to attend their art auction and drinks reception at BAFTA, kindly sponsored by Deutsche Bank, to raise money to protect wildlife, support communities and promote education in Africa.
 

There’s a fantastic line up of the World’s best known forces in modern art including pieces by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Tracey Emin, Elizabeth Frink, Salvador Dali, Marc Chagall, Gered Mankowitz, Peter Blake, alongside cutting edge artists including Sam Jackson, Michael Petry and Maria Chevska.
 

Monday 5th December 2011
Modern Art Auction and Reception

The British Academy of Film & Television Arts
195 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LN

6.30pm – 9.30pm
Bubbly and canapés

 For pdf version of invitation pease click here.

This feed was drawn from the Tusk Trust website