English bloodhounds help track Kenyan poachers

English bloodhounds have been flown out to Nairobi to help local trackers in the fight against poachers

yKgPTdgRnqAbogMssxooTY.jpg
bloodhounds in kenya

The lonely Kenya-based bloodhound Bosco, deep in mourning for the loss his mate Judy, is to receive backup from two English hounds being flown out to help in the battle against poachers after a chance encounter with riders on a horse safari.

Giles Sim was riding with Ride World Wide on a safari in June this year, when they stopped at Richard Bonham’s Ol Donyo Wuas Lodge in the Chyulu Hills. On a tour of the stables and grounds Giles was introduced to recently bereaved Bosco, a vital member of the Maasailand Preservation Trust (MPT) counter-poaching team.

With handlers Mutinda, a Wakamba tribesman and poacher-turned-game-scout, and Kilitia, a local Maasai tribesman and MPT game scout with an affinity for animals, the hound unit is used in response to any situation where the dogs’ outstanding tracking skills can be put into action. This varies from tracking game-meat poachers to thieves and even, on two occasions, lost children.

The hounds train six days a week and guests of the Ol Donyo Wuas Lodge and Ride Kenya frequently volunteer to act as fleeing poachers for training purposes.

Gwili Gibbon of the Maasailand Preservation Trust, which funds the hounds, says: ‘They are extremely successful trackers - provided they can get to the site quick enough.’

Nicola Young of Chyulu Hill’s-based Ride Kenya says, ‘I met Giles when he was riding here, and showed him round the stables and took him to see the bloodhound also. I mentioned that one of ours had died, so the other one was very lonely. Giles said that he could call in a favour with someone who bred bloodhounds and would be keen to help us, so long as he got regular updates. So that's when he decided to try and get us a pair dogs donated, for which we are incredibly grateful.’

Arabella Youens
Arabella began her career at Country Life on the website as an intern. She read Modern History at Edinburgh University and spent a year working (photocopying) for PricewaterhouseCoopers in Barcelona before moving to London where she still lives with her husband and two young daughters.
Latest in Sporting & Country Pursuits
Golf ball being teed up
Curious Questions: Why do golf balls have dimples? And why are tennis balls furry?
Captain and a worried looking Mrs Hopkins skating on a lake in the Welsh Harp area in north London, 1910. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
'Dozens died, and during the 1683 Thames Frost Fair a party of skaters was caught by the wind and blown out to sea': The risky business of skating on thin ice
A London institution: Skate at Somerset House. Photo by Owen Harvey.
Skate at Somerset House is the friendliest thing you'll ever do in London
Cross-country queen Lucinda Prior-Palmer pilots Beagle Bay to her sixth title. Credit: Kit Houghton
The seven greatest winners in the history of the Badminton Horse Trials
Dr Alister Mackenzie's prize-winning design for a golf hole - Country Life, August 1st 1914
How Country Life launched the career of Alistair Mackenzie, the architect who created Augusta National's iconic golf course
Wickets are pitched directly in front of the Ship Inn.
The Ship Inn Cricket Club: The tale of the world's only cricket club to play its matches on the beach
Latest in Features
Property for Sale
An idyllic countryside home that's light, spacious and comes with a Grade II-listed folly
Woman boarding a train
Scotland's majestic landscapes meet holistic wellness aboard Belmond and Dior's inaugural train retreat
Grayson Perry for The Wallace Collection
'This is the funnest exhibition London has seen in recent memory': Grayson Perry’s new show at the Wallace Collection explores the delusions of a fictitious woman
Diamond brooch
How Cartier became ‘the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers’
A villa in Rome on the Via Nomentana
A historic villa for sale on the Via Nomentana worthy of Rome's rich history
dogs on Country Life 26 March 2025
Country Life 26 March 2025