M&R Wild
Launched early in 2018, M&R Wild is the conservation arm of Matson & Ridley Safaris. True to our conservation roots, it has long been Tammie and Andy’s aim to create a sustainable business that goes above and beyond in terms of generating conservation impacts in Africa. M&R Wild was established with the development of the Akagera Elephant Project in Rwanda in 2018. This enabled our safari guests to not only contribute to conservation by booking safaris that make a difference with us, but also to participate in our on-ground conservation work over several years of elephant-research expeditions in Akagera National Park. This work led to the first elephant identification photographic database for Akagera National Park. The Covid pandemic threw a spanner in the works for a few years, but the on-ground and analysis work continued with the involvement of the Akagera Community Guides Co-operative and a whatsapp group chat which enabled local guides to share their sightings and photos for updates by Tammie to the database remotely.
Training in elephant identification for local guides and park staff was provided during workshops and field-based work in Akagera National Park, thanks to two generous donors. In 2024, continuing to work closely with the Akagera Managment Company, the project secured funds from a generous donor to employ our first elephant project co-ordinator, Emerance Tuyipfukamire, a science graduate from the University of Rwanda. Click here for the latest update on the Akagera Elephant Project.
The Triumph Conservation Trust
In 2024, Tammie and Andy established the Triumph Conservation Trust in memory of Andy's Uncle, Professor Nigel Ridley-Thomas, a reknowned geophysicist who had a great passion for nature. The Trust supports marine and terrestrial projects that are important to the future of the natural world, with a focus on those that can support the scale up of conservation efforts in critical ecosystems around the world. In 2024, TCT supported the Great Reef Census with funding for Citizens of the Reef to secure critical data for the restoration of coral reefs on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. As the founding CEO of Citizens of the Reef since 2017, Andy has a deep passion for this cause and his team's work is on the cutting edge of scalable reef conservation.
In 2025, the Trust will support work in Africa to restore wildlife in vital ecosystems for conservation. Stay tuned for more news on this soon!
The Akagera Elephant Project, Rwanda
Started by Tammie in 2018 as a citizen science project, and guided by the management and research team of African Parks in Akagera National Park, Rwanda, this novel project aimed to provide the first baseline assessment of elephant herd compositions in the park, including categories reflecting ages, sexes, family groups and compositions as well as identification features of individuals and behaviour. It is the first study of its kind on the Akagera elephant population, with additional scientific input provided by several elephant experts, including Prof. Phyllis Lee of the University of Stirling and the Amboseli Elephant Project. Tammie is an Honourary Research Fellow at the University of Rwanda. The project works collaboratively with the Akagera Guides' Co-operative to develop skills locally in elephant identification.
The elephants in Akagera had an unusual beginning. They were introduced to the park in 1975 as orphans of a cull in southern Rwanda and at that time none of the introduced elephants were above the age of ten years. There were 26 elephants introduced to the park initially, a number that has since built up to approximately 130. Times were tough in Rwanda during the early to mid 1990s for people and wildlife alike. In Akagera poaching was rife and many of the elephants bear the wounds of poacher's snares set during this time. Since African Parks teamed up with the Rwandan Development Board to create the Akagera Management Company for the management of the park times have changed. An electric fence was established along the western border of the park to stop human-elephant conflict and thousands of snares were collected to prevent further damage to wildlife populations. Lions and rhinos were exterminated from the park previously, but have now been reintroduced and are faring well under effective management.
Photo credit: African Parks