It’s Live Aid for animals in a coffee table book series. A ravishing requiem to species that may not be around for our grandkids to see, that’s raising serious money to turn back the clock. Essential dips inside to see why celebrities, presidents and the world’s top wildlife photographers are avid supporters of Margot Raggett’s wildly successful idea.
Words: ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE Photography: BY REMEMBERING WILDLIFE
It’s Live Aid for animals in a coffee table book series. A ravishing requiem to species that may not be around for our grandkids to see, that’s raising serious money to turn back the clock. Essential dips inside to see why celebrities, presidents and the world’s top wildlife photographers are avid supporters of Margot Raggett’s wildly successful idea.
Words: ESSENTIAL MAGAZINE Photography: BY REMEMBERING WILDLIFE
A cheeky cub noses up to a lion king; a baby orangutan learns jungle gymnastics from Mum. African wild dogs hug on hind legs. They are not only iconic images taken by the kind of wildlife photographers whose bylines regularly appear in National Geographic. They are portraits of species that may not be around for much longer, bound together in a crowdfunded charity book series that has raised over one million dollars to protect them.
Requiem for Rhinos
Money and ignorance are the main cause of the demise of rhinos, whose horns, made of useless keratin, are worth their weight in gold on the black market. They are being poached towards extinction, often with brutal consequences.
Remembering Rhinos has raised £165,000 to date which has been shared with rhino conservation projects in South Africa, Kenya, India, Java and Sumatra.
“The book is dedicated to all those heroes on the front line of the war that is rhino poaching. Each risks their lives in their efforts to protect rhinos and we salute you.”
Inspired by a David Attenborough quote: “Are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?”, Remembering Wildlife is Margot Raggett’s proactive answer to that poignant question. In five years her picture books have channelled funds to 53 wildlife projects in 24 countries – and counting. And it all started with Remembering Elephants.
“Elephants are being wiped out quicker than they are being born and I just thought how shocking if they disappeared on our watch… that our generation could be the last to see elephants in the wild,” says the British wildlife photographer, who was moved to act after a harrowing encounter in Kenya with an elephant killed slowly by a poacher’s arrow. “But suppose it did happen, then a picture book could be the most amazing tribute to what this species was like in the wild.
Elephants We’ll Never Forget
Now in its third edition, ‘the most beautiful book on elephants ever made’ is the gift that keeps on giving, with over £135,000 distributed for the protection of pachyderms through the Born Free Foundation.
One of the more unusual beneficiaries was a project trialling bee fences in Kenya’s South Rift Valley, to stop elephants trampling crops and farmers from retaliating with their spears.
“These depend on the fact that elephants hate bees with a passion,” explains Margot.
“By hanging bee hives on fences surrounding crops, the elephants will knock into them, causing a swarm, which makes them run in the opposite direction. Farmers are further incentivised by the income from all that honey!”
“My vision was simple. Ask the world’s best wildlife photographers to donate an image each and produce the most beautiful book on elephants ever made. Then use that picture book for good, to raise awareness and funds to fight the plight that elephants are facing. It’s now that we need to remember elephants before it’s too late.”
Remembering Elephants was launched on Kickstarter in 2015, the crowdfunding platform where Margot raised the finance to publish it. It has been followed by five more titles: remembering rhinos, great apes, lions, cheetahs and African wild dogs, the latest book which smashed its £20,000 Kickstarter target within 20 minutes of going live and raised over £145,000 in a month.
Pride in Lions
“Lions were once more widespread than any other terrestrial animals apart from humans – their fossil remains have even been found in my home city, in Trafalgar Square! But in just the last quarter of a century, their numbers have declined by half to around 20,000 – substantially less than the estimated 30,000 rhinos and 400,000 elephants – which shocks many.
“Amongst the many threats they face, the biggest threat is direct conflict with the ever-expanding human population which normally only end one way for the lions.”
“We have been overwhelmed by the support for our simple idea,” says Margot whose books have funded projects in Africa and Asia for everything from camera traps and drone patrols to anti-poaching dogs and wildlife crime investigation. “It really seems to have struck a chord with animal lovers, photographers and conservationists everywhere and even caught the imagination of presidents and celebrities!”
In Praise of Great Apes
“Bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans are our closest cousins. And yet we humans, the fifth great ape, seem callously able to turn a blind eye to their destruction for the sake of our own rapacious greed. Remembering Great Apes is a moment in time for us to say no, no more. We cannot, we will not, let this continue.”
The book has funded a wildlife crime unit in Cameroon, purchased an aerial surveillance drone for a river island chimp colony in the Congo and donated to Gorilla Doctors, the only organisation in the world that provides medical care for gorillas in the wild.
A Dog’s Life
With only 6,600 left in the wild, African Wild Dogs are in such trouble, it’s our duty to tell their story. Sadly, they have to be one of the most misunderstood of all mammals. They are very effective hunters which has led people to consider them cruel killers, resulting in their persecution and local extinction in many parts of Africa.
“In fact they are extremely social and loving to each other. Each litter of two-to-20 pups is cared for by the entire pack and they have been known to share food and assist weak or ill members. We humans could learn a thing or two from them.”
Remembering African Wild Dogs, to be published this November, can be preordered at buyrememberingwildlife.com
Over 180 award-winning wildlife photographers from across the globe answered Margot’s call to donate images for the books. Virginia McKenna of Born Free fame, Dr Jane Goodall, the world’s top authority on chimpanzees and Jonathan Scott of BBC’s Big Cat Diary shows stepped up to write forewords, while two African presidents and almost as many stars as you can count on Hollywood Boulevard freely posed for a picture with their favourite book. Michelle Pfeiffer posed with three! Check out all the famous faces on rememberingwildlife.com
Championing Cheetahs
“There are only 7,100 cheetahs left in the wild, and in some places, like Iran, the most endangered of all big cats is close to extinction. Once again, humans are their biggest threat – from farmers killing them to protect livestock to the pet and pelt trade and even overtourism which affects cub mortality.”
In Namibia, where cheetahs are especially vulnerable, the books have funded a livestock guard dog programme training giant breeds like Kangals and Anatolian Shepherds from pups to bond with the herd and deter predators with their immense size and loud bark. Farmers with guard dogs are less likely to trap or shoot cheetahs.
Margot’s biggest challenge has been “the volume of work. I’m pretty much the head of sales, marketing, PR, finance, and just about everything. It’s taken over my life in a way I hadn’t anticipated. These days I’m more desk-bound in London than I am out in the field taking pictures of wildlife, which I sometimes resent!
“But when I see the good that we are able to achieve I feel better about it. For every £1 ‘invested’ in our Kickstarter by a supporter over the past five books, we’ve eventually turned that into a donation to a conservation organisation of more than £1.30,” she says proudly.
“With the global pandemic still devastating tourism to Africa’s wildlife areas, it’s doubly important to fund the gap in conservation now, or there might be no wildlife left for us to eventually return to.”
INFO
Remembering Wildlife Now
www.buyrememberingwildlife.com