Yesterday, I stopped in my tracks and looked down. A large male lion’s pugmarks, in the soft sand high up in the Kenyan hills at Shompole, had caught my attention.
I was laying out the site for our latest camp there, and while it has one of the highest densities of lions in Kenya, it surprised me anyway. The day before, we followed a leopard mother and a nearly full-sized cub at Mara Plains, and four days before that, three male cheetahs were at ol Donyo Lodge. Quite the round trip of big cats in just a few days.
This morning in Duba Plains, the Tsaro Pride woke us as they ‘worked out’ their issues with a male lion not far from camp while the inky dawn started its day.
Big cats are vital to almost every ecosystem in which we, as Great Plains, operate in. They play such an important role that we plan our expansion based on their need for protection.
A few years ago, we transferred the Big Cats Initiative from National Geographic to the Great Plains Foundation. Since then, we have broadened its scope to encompass all African big cats, as well as tigers in Nepal and jaguars in Brazil.
On this anniversary of that move across, Beverly has designed a collection of big cat images to offer as limited editions for a limited time, ending in May, with all profits going to the Big Cats Initiative to support these programs. Some are in alluring black and white, while others are bright golden to depict a range as wide as the cats we saw just this week.
Our ambition is to help stop the decline of big cats and even reverse this trend by 2030. I am pleased to report that this is exactly what is happening around ol Donyo Lodge and Duba Plains, thanks to our funding.
We still have much work to do, but a virtual photographic exhibit showcasing Beverly’s fine art is one way for us to build on that success curve. Beverly has selected six prints, a sample of which is displayed above, from her Beverly Joubert Fine Art collection. When purchased, 100% of her profits will be donated to the Big Cat Initiative.
The six images available for purchase for a limited time, until the end of May 2025, can be found here.
Have a great day, roar at the dawn and enjoy the fact that we share the planet with these most extraordinary animals.
