Wild Survivors

✨Today is for the elephants! 🐘
They shape the land, carry the memory of generations, and share their home with people whose lives are deeply connected to theirs.

Which fact is your favourite? Our team has been sharing what they love most about elephants! The things that inspire us to protect them, and to keep finding ways for people and elephants to thrive together. From their role in creating forests and grasslands, to their family bonds, to the quiet moments when they surprise you with their gentleness. Swipe to watch all!

Coexistence is possible. Every day, communities on the frontlines are proving it, and with your support, we can keep it that way.

🐘💛 Watch, share, and help protect the future of elephants and the people who live alongside them. Please consider donating to help us reach conflict hotspots faster > link in bio. Asante sana!

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A journey to Tanzania’s Wild West with our long-time partners, 🐘

In June, we were delighted to host and for an immersive visit across the Rukwa-Katavi landscape - a mosaic of protected areas, forest reserves, and community land where the future of elephant connectivity is being shaped by local leadership.

Co-hosted with FZS Greater Mahale Ecosystem team, the visit began within the Katavi-Mahale corridor, before continuing with ECF to explore our community-led projects bordering Katavi National Park and Mpimbwe WMA.

Together with farmers, women’s groups, local officials, and district leaders, we explored what long-term coexistence really takes - walking the landscape, listening, learning, and strategising together.

Key takeaways from the visit:
🛡 A shared commitment to strengthen protection of PAs and buffer zones, from Mahale to Rukwa
🐝 Farmer-led rollout of HEC toolkits - beehive fences, watch towers, olfactory deterrents
🌾 Women’s Enterprise groups driving economic resilience and crop protection
🌍 Momentum for landscape-wide connectivity and collaboration
🐘 A critical opportunity to preserve the remaining intact elephant corridors in western Tanzania

We’re especially grateful to Lucy and Jane for their insight, energy, and encouragement - from walking with HEC Ambassadors and women’s beekeepers, to planning elephant monitoring strategies that will shape the future of this landscape.

Thank you, , for believing in our vision - and to .zoological.society for your ongoing partnership. We’re proud to walk this path together with the communities leading the way for elephant coexistence.

🌟 HAPBEE WORLD BEE DAY! 🐝
Although, if elephants had a calendar, they probably wouldn’t celebrate World Bee Day.

Because for all their size and strength, elephants are famously afraid of bees, particularly the stinging species that defend their hives with force. And it’s that natural avoidance behaviour that makes bees such effective peacekeepers in our coexistence work.

By placing beehives around farms in high-conflict areas, we create a gentle but powerful deterrent, one that protects both crops and elephants without confrontation. A sound as simple as a buzzing swarm is often enough to keep elephants from entering a farm.

Across Tanzania, this protection is being driven by women. They’re managing hives, restoring land, harvesting honey, and showing how coexistence can be built through partnership, with bees and each other.

While honeybees play a starring role in this story, today we also recognise the many other pollinators working quietly across Tanzania’s forests, fields, and wildlife corridors. Solitary bees, carpenter bees, leafcutters, and more, each plays a role in supporting healthy ecosystems and resilient food systems.

Yet much remains unknown. Research is still uncovering the diversity and ecological significance of native and solitary bee species across Tanzania. Protecting them means protecting the plants, wildlife, and people that depend on them.

So today, we celebrate all bees, the stingers, the shy ones, the swarming defenders and the silent pollinators. Each a vital part of the landscape we share!

🐝 Which is your favourite bee & why? Share in the comments! 👇

🐝 Meet Esther - Champion of Bees, Women & Wildlife!

Since joining Wild Survivors in June 2024, Esther Silbert has been at the heart of our work in the Rukwa-Katavi Ecosystem, supporting women and communities to build more resilient, nature-based livelihoods that promote coexistence with elephants.

Whether she’s checking beehives in the field or meeting with District officers and park rangers, Esther brings compassion, knowledge, and a deep belief in the power of local action to create lasting change.

Learn more about Esther with her Q&A! 👇

1️⃣ What’s something about your role people might not know?
➡️ It is not just about beekeeping - I work to empower women and support communities in finding sustainable solutions!

2️⃣ Funniest or most unexpected moment at work?
➡️ Seeing an elephant fail to cross a beehive fence because of a super-aggressive bee colony! 🐘❌🐝

3️⃣ Morning person or night owl?
➡️ Morning person! 🌞

4️⃣ Favourite food?
➡️ Rice and beans 🍛

5️⃣ Favourite hobby?
➡️ Watching nature documentaries on Safari Channel & Planet Channel!

7️⃣ Favourite sound in nature?
➡️ The buzzing of bees! 🐝

8️⃣ If you could be an animal, which one would you be and why?
➡️ A zebra - I love their black and white colours, and they’re so cool and connected to nature 🦓

9️⃣ Something you’ve learned at Wild Survivors that surprised you?
➡️ That bees - my friends - are powerful enough to deter elephants! It’s amazing how such a small creature can move such large animals! 🐘

🔟 Favourite thing about working with elephants and nature?
➡️ I’ve learned that small actions lead to big change. Watching elephants follow their leader has also taught me to be respectful and patient.

1️⃣1️⃣ One thing people can do to help elephants, bees and conservation?
➡️ Support sustainable practices, protect natural habitats, and raise community awareness about the relationship between people and nature!

Esther’s work is an important reminder that effective conservation is rooted in community, care, and connection to the land. Drop a 🐝 or 🐘 in the comments to show your support!

🐝🌿 Celebrating the Matriarchs of Conservation this International Women’s Day 🌿🐘

It all began with Yasinta and the NARI Women’s Group in Upper Kitete, whose dedication to beekeeping, sustainable farming, and community resilience sparked a movement. Their success inspired the neighbouring SAHHTI women in Kitete, and now this wave of empowerment is reaching women in Katavi - each group carrying deep knowledge of their landscapes and the unique challenges of living alongside elephants.

These women are not only guardians of their environment but also architects of change, leading initiatives that promote coexistence with elephants through beekeeping, permaculture, and micro-loans. Their strength echoes through generations, much like the elephant matriarchs who guide their herds with wisdom and care, and the worker bees who collectively protect and nurture their colony.

Through unity and innovation, they are restoring habitats, protecting migration corridors, and inspiring the next generation to follow in their footsteps. This International Women’s Day, we honour their courage, dedication, and the ripple effect of empowered women shaping a more just and biodiverse world.

To all the women who lead, nurture, and inspire - this day is for you! 💛