In the Nyekweri Forest on the edge of the Masai Mara Reserve, the GPS signal suddenly cut out. The researchers found a female giant pangolin named Naserian beneath an electric wire—one of many that now cross lands that were once open.
Fewer than thirty giant pangolins remain in Kenya, and almost all of them live right here. Since 2022, fifteen individuals have died in the area, and fourteen of them from electrocution. Poaching, long considered the main threat, has receded into second place: pangolins cannot jump over a fence, and when they curl into a ball, they become an easy target for electricity.
The ancestral lands of the Maasai were divided into private plots, and the forests were cut down for crops and pasture. More than eighty percent of the Nyekweri Forest has disappeared in twenty years. Hundreds of kilometres of electric fences have appeared, protecting livestock from predators but cutting off the pangolins' routes. According to The Pangolin Project, the animals cross dozens of private properties every night.
The local residents have found a compromise. Instead of removing the fences, they voluntarily switch off the electricity on the bottom two or three wires. This has already been done along one hundred and thirty-four kilometres of fencing—almost half of all that has been recorded. The pangolins pass beneath them, while large livestock and predators stay on the other side. Landowners such as Peter Ole Tompoy and Ben Sulel have seen the benefits for themselves: pangolins eat millions of termites and ants a year without touching the crops.
The project combines simple changes to the fences with long-term agreements: families receive payments for preserving the forest and restoring corridors. More than six thousand hectares have already been placed under protection. The EarthRanger system tracks tagged animals and warns when they approach dangerous sections.
The changes are happening gradually, and not everyone yet agrees to switch off the wires, but the number of participants is growing. The main thing is to understand that a safe passage for the pangolin does not require abandoning a familiar way of life.
