The newcomer to Manyara Ranch was not hard to flush out. Two rangers crept around a bend toward its hiding spot — a thicket at the edge of a large pond. With a sudden rush from the foliage, the hippo flew out and into the water with a decisive splash. It is not advisable to approach hippos, but Manyara’s caretakers must monitor their resident wildlife’s numbers and be aware of potentially dangerous animals’ presence and movements. The two men were elated to see the new arrival, who appeared to b

Much of what we know of elephants today — behaviors that suggest a rich emotional life, lifelong ties among family members, sophisticated communications, high intelligence, and so much more — is due to the groundbreaking field research of Cynthia Moss and the Amboseli Elephant Research Project she founded.

AWF supported Moss’s Amboseli project from its beginning in the 1970s. The New York-raised Moss had about a year’s worth of experience studying elephants — she’d been an assistant to zoologis

To protect that most iconic African wildlife species, the lion, conservationists rely on an array of solutions, mitigating threats including habitat loss, the illegal wildlife trade, and, most significantly, human-lion conflict — the leading cause of lion decline in numerous places. Confronting these challenges is the work of Dr. Bernard Kissui, a leading lion researcher whom African Wildlife Foundation has supported throughout his academic and conservation career.

Kissui has been working on li

Nature photographer Billy Dodson, who has been donating images to African Wildlife Foundation for years, has compiled his stunning wildlife and landscape images into a new book. From Desert to Desert: A Journey Through the Heart of Southern Africa is a personal memoir and photographic study of six distinct countries and regions in sub-Saharan Africa: Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Zambezi River Valley, and Namibia. AWF sincerely appreciates that Billy is donat

Physicist Daniel Goldman and his fellow researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology shed light on a relatively unexplored subject--how organisms such as sea turtles and lizards move on (or within) sand.

If you've ever struggled to walk with even a modicum of grace on a soft, sandy beach, you may appreciate the question. The answers that Goldman's CRAB lab (Complex Rheology and Biomechanics Laboratory) uncovers--with the help of living animals and biologically inspired robots--deepen our understanding not only of animal survival, evolution and ecology, but also, potentially, the evolution of complex life forms on Earth. The lab's research also assists the design and engineering of robots that must traverse unstable, uneven terrain--those used in search and rescue operations at disaster sites, for example.