News & Updates

Born Free is saddened by the news that a lioness was shot dead after escaping from an enclosure at Planckendael Zoo in Belgium.

Emily Neil, Born Free's Field Conservation Assistant, encourages everyone to celebrate the tallest animal in the world and to raise awareness of its plight in the wild.

The Zambian government’s decision to permit the cull of more than 1,000 hippos over the next five years is starting to have a negative effect on the country’s reputation as a premier wildlife tourism destination, Born Free can reveal.

The Born Free-supported Zambia Primate Project has completed its most successful rescue mission since its formation in 2002 – tracking down and rescuing nine monkeys from illegal captivity in nine days.

Last week, UK MPs held a Committee meeting at Portcullis House on the Ivory Bill. The Committee is the third stage in the process to bring the Government’s ivory trade ban – announced in April to ban the commercial trade in elephant ivory within, to and from the UK – into UK law.

What a fun three months it has been at the Julie Ward and Jean Byrd centres here at Shamwari!

Born Free calls on the Zambian government to abandon its plans to cull hippos on the Luangwa River because published scientific research, conducted by the Zambia Wildlife Authority clearly shows that previous culls of hippo did not significantly affect population size and density.

With just a few I’s left to dot and T’s left to cross, we hope to move King to his new home at Shamwari in July.

Born Free Kenya’s field team in Meru National Park has been tracking six prides of lions for two years - Elsa’s, Sanctuary, Mulika, Nairobi Girls, Bisanadi and G-Coy. G-Coy is a pride of one adult female and four-sub-adults and has been tracked since October 2016. Spotting lions in the wild is not easy and very unpredictable. Here, the team recounts a recent tracking expedition…