Greetings Everyone and wishing you all the Happiest and Healthiest of New Years. Thank you so much for the wonderful support you continue to give to us and our work. It makes such a difference, particularly in these challenging times. The Covid-19 pandemic certainly changed everybody’s lives, forcing us to make hard decisions and to pay more attention to our impact on the Planet. Many of you generously supported the Sacred Nature Initiative that we launched in 2021 on the coat tails of a hugely successful KickStarter for the second of our Sacred Nature books. In the process it helped us to take our message to a global audience.

A 90 minute documentary by BBC/PBS on the worlds most famous lions with key commentary from Big Cat Diary (1996-2008) Presenters Simon King, Jonathan Scott and Jackson ole Looseyia, conservationists Dr Paula Kahumbu and Simon Thomsett, Kenya Wildlife Services Veterinarians, members of the Maasai community, personnel from the Mara Predator Conservation Program, Driver/Guides Sammy Munene and Moses Manduku.

The three main threats to lions in general are loss of habitat (lions have lost up to 95% of their historical range), loss of prey (the bushmeat trade involved in killing wild animals for food is an enormous problem, along with the decline in prey species due to a reduction in forage caused by illegal cattle incursions), and conflict with humans.

We founded the Sacred Nature Initiative in 2021 as a non-profit based on three pillars: Inspire - Educate - Conserve, to try to help reconnect people to nature in the face of the Climate Crisis and catastrophic decline in biodiversity.

In 2016 we published Sacred Nature: Life’s Eternal Dance (HPH) celebrating the wonders of the Mara-Serengeti in East Africa. We have been working in this area since 1977 documenting the lives of the big cats and spectacular wildebeest and zebra migration, and the way the Maasai community have traditionally lived alongside wild creatures, moving with their livestock according to the rains.

Times have changed for photographers since Angela and I first picked up a camera. This was brought starkly into view in conversation with a fellow wildlife and travel photographer who lives in the US. Our friend sounded stunned when we mentioned that we were reprinting our popular safari guide books to East African Animals and Birds.