WildCRU ~ updates
CECIL'S CUBS
August 19, 2015
Cecil’s family all well – David Macdonald writes: even with our satellite tracking gear and an intimate knowledge of the area, finding lions in the bush can be a bit like finding the proverbial needle in haystack. We have been careful to provide up-dates on the well-being of Cecil’s pride only when we had visual contact with them. Today, the field team found the lions and Brent Staplekamp secured some video through his camera viewfinder of all three lionesses and the seven cubs. All is well.
MORE AMAZING NEWS ABOUT THE CECIL APPEAL
Hwange Lion Project thanks Cara Delevingne and the matching generosity of Tag Heuer watches
August 20, 2015
David Macdonald and Andrew Loveridge mentioned our gratitude to Cara Delevingne for auctioning her personal Tag Heuer wristwatch (with lion face) to raise funds for our project. Through the enthusiastic generosity of the successful buyer, Rebhi Barqawi, the sale raised over £9000 – we are grateful to Mr Barqawi for pushing the boat out, and supporting us through his purchase. All this was exciting enough, but then came the news that Tag Heuer themselves will match the sum. Everybody should realise how much a sum like this means to us – it could, for example, more than support the training of a Zimbabwean or Botswanan student from our study area attending our full time Post Graduate Diploma in International Wildlife Conservation Practice at the WildCRU’s Recanati-Kaplan Centre (see the Diploma pages on our website). One of WildCRUs fund-raising priority is the funding of not only these wonderful young Diploma students, but also to create scholarships to enable them to develop projects with us once they return to their home countries.
THE CECIL APPEAL
August 15, 2015
Aided by the $100,000 matching pledge from Tom and Daphne Kaplan, intended to push the Cecil Appeal to half a million pounds, we have just crossed that line, and hope to keep the momentum. We are hugely grateful to all the donors, large and small, who have achieved this incredible memorial to the illegal death of Cecil. Jimmy Kimmel begged his audience that some good should come of this, and his voice became a roar. David Macdonald and Andrew Loveridge, thank you all, on behalf of the whole team. We will devote ourselves, supported by the incredible generosity of these donations, to working for the conservation of lions in Hwange and, with this marvellous support, the surrounding landscapes in adjoining countries. David Macdonald says “I believe that the worldwide engagement with Cecil’s story transcends the tragic fate of one lion, and sends a signal that people care about conservation and want it to be reflected in how humanity lives alongside Nature in the 21st Century. We feel inspired by this support and will work tirelessly to deliver the science and understanding that will enable wildlife and people to co-exist for the wellbeing of both”.
Tom Kaplan ~ “Since Cecil's illegal death, David Macdonald, Andy Loveridge and the WildCRU team have worked tirelessly to turn this tragedy into an historic moment for the conservation of the lion...the big cat that is "disappearing in plain sight". To the unprecedented number of fine people from all walks of life who are turning this pivotal moment into a movement... from Jimmy Kimmel to donors big and small... in Cecil’s memory, we applaud you all.”
~~~
I am so happy, grateful, and relieved to learn that the cubs are still OK.
Just had to share with everyone who has shared sadness, interest, and concern.
Surely there will be ups and downs, but the positives that have ALREADY come from this senseless killing will make a difference in the future.
THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING THOSE OF US WHO ARE INTERESTED TO CELEBRATE THIS GOOD NEWS IN A POSITIVE MANNER.
ROAR CECIL !
"Animals are not my whole world, but they have made my world whole" ~ Roger Caras
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