Aug 21, 2026 · 32 min · 12 segments
In this episode, Brian Kaelo shares his journey from growing up in the Mara to becoming a conservation scientist. He discusses the changes in the landscape, the importance of community involvement…
Brian KaeloGuestD Blackx LesalonHostAnd this conversation cannot be complete without us chatting about innovation.
I mean, we've seen Earth Ranger, we've seen smart tracker, we've seen drones now, there's the emergence of AI, artificial intelligence, and you're also a drone pilot.
What do you think has these innovations that we've seen coming into play into the forefront in some of these ecosystems that we are working in? play a huge part in driving the agenda forward? Do you think it's a good thing for conservation? Do you think is there a downside to it? And should people embrace tech and all the AI that is coming with full force? What are your thoughts around that?
Yeah, I think tech and AI and everything is actually what is there because the world is moving and that's actually the direction where the world is going.
So if we ought to be at the same level or where people are actually going, we ought to also use these devices, use this technology that the world is using.
For example, I'm actually using a drone to sort of like see what I'm not able to see from the ground observation.
flying a drone above livestock, above a forest, and sort of see the actual things that I'm able to see in a drone which I'm not able to detect from my ground observation.
both the traditional ways of actually data collection or actually looking at the landscape and implementing and sort of like bringing ways of data collection and visualizing like Earth Ranger is actually very good.
You'll be able to see a collared lion or any species moving or actually yourself moving around the landscape collecting data.
So actually, I think it's a very, very important tool and I'm very happy because even in the Mara, we're actually implementing this.
Like the Mara Elephant Project is actually very resourceful in the the earth ranger and a lot of rangers now are very informed and they actually know a lot and most of them are actually pilot i'm already surprised most of the conservancies that i visited a lot of uh a lot of rangers are actually pilot satisfied and i was able to fly with some of them and which was very interesting and good so i think implementing and taking this will be a very good and it's actually good that we are actually already getting used to this
And this conversation cannot be complete without us chatting about innovation.
I mean, we've seen Earth Ranger, we've seen smart tracker, we've seen drones now, there's the emergence of AI, artificial intelligence, and you're also a drone pilot.
What do you think has these innovations that we've seen coming into play into the forefront in some of these ecosystems that we are working in? play a huge part in driving the agenda forward? Do you think it's a good thing for conservation? Do you think is there a downside to it? And should people embrace tech and all the AI that is coming with full force? What are your thoughts around that?
Yeah, I think tech and AI and everything is actually what is there because the world is moving and that's actually the direction where the world is going.
So if we ought to be at the same level or where people are actually going, we ought to also use these devices, use this technology that the world is using.
For example, I'm actually using a drone to sort of like see what I'm not able to see from the ground observation.
flying a drone above livestock, above a forest, and sort of see the actual things that I'm able to see in a drone which I'm not able to detect from my ground observation.
both the traditional ways of actually data collection or actually looking at the landscape and implementing and sort of like bringing ways of data collection and visualizing like Earth Ranger is actually very good.
You'll be able to see a collared lion or any species moving or actually yourself moving around the landscape collecting data.
So actually, I think it's a very, very important tool and I'm very happy because even in the Mara, we're actually implementing this.
Like the Mara Elephant Project is actually very resourceful in the the earth ranger and a lot of rangers now are very informed and they actually know a lot and most of them are actually pilot i'm already surprised most of the conservancies that i visited a lot of uh a lot of rangers are actually pilot satisfied and i was able to fly with some of them and which was very interesting and good so i think implementing and taking this will be a very good and it's actually good that we are actually already getting used to this
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