to hire a pet shipper, and the dogs were not
allowed to fly passenger cargo into Kenya —
rather, they had to be shipped air freight
cargo. As the dogs grew, so did the crate size
and shipping costs. This was the most
complicated and costly part of the project.
The Mara Conservancy was good to work
with and helped us handle the difficulties
that arose.
When the day arrived, we took the dogs
to Denver to be shipped. Air travel to
Nairobi normally takes 24 hours. However,
dogs require two days with a stopover in
Frankfurt, Germany, to be watered, fed, and
removed from their crates for an overnight
stay. Upon arrival in Nairobi, amazingly, the
hounds were in good condition. Because the
dogs arrived on a Saturday, however, we had
difficulties with the inspection. After three
grueling hours of immigration and vet
inspections, the dogs were released into the
custody of the Mara Conservancy, and we
were able to head toward our final
destination.
It was an
excellent
opportunity
for us to gain
experience
with training
in another
culture and in
a totally
different
environment.
PHOTOGRAPHER: LINDA PORTER
Extreme Tracking
With dogs and luggage piled into a small private aircraft, we
flew from Nairobi to the Mara Triangle. From there, we
traveled by Land Rover across the reserve to a remote ranger outpost called Ngiro-are, located one kilometer from the
Tanzanian border in the farthest corner of the reserve. That
is where the dogs would be stationed. Most of the poaching
activity the rangers encountered took place along the border between Tanzania and Kenya. We were to work with
the rangers for four weeks.
As we drove along the rocky dirt road to
the outpost, we began to understand the
environmental conditions and training
challenges that awaited us in the coming
weeks. The climate was slightly humid but
very tolerable, with temperatures fluctuat-
ing between 60°F at night to 85°F during
the day. As we drove, we could see large
thickets full of twisted brush, trees, and
varieties of thorny vines. Beautiful acacia
trees full of colorful birds dotted the
landscape. We passed herds of elephants,
cape buffalo, giraffes, topi, zebras, lions,
cheetahs, hyenas, ostriches, and many more
varieties of wildlife. We spotted crocodiles
and hippos lounging along the river’s edge,
while an occasional cobra or black mamba
slithered across the road and disappeared
into the chest-high grass. The reality of our
situation slowly began creep into our minds.
How could we possibly train in this en-
vironment, on foot, and running behind a
dog on a 30-foot lead? By the time we
reached the outpost at the edge of the park, we were
literally stunned by what we were facing. If there was ever
a time to label a situation “extreme tracking,” this was it.
The outpost sat at the bottom of a steep escarpment and
was surrounded on the other three sides by swamp and low,
rolling grasslands. The 15-foot-tall iron gates of the outpost
had bullets embedded in them, and the entire outpost was
surrounded by three-foot-thick stone walls. Two corners of
the enclosure had lookout towers for a topside view of the
surrounding landscape. It was a virtual fortress, complete
with ranger housing, a crude cookhouse, and a small cinder-block hut that was used for daily meetings. The rangers
