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The Murulle Foundation
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Updated: December 11, 2007

"Learning to Live With Wildlife"
TMF talks with students in Addis Ababa
(May 2004)

On May 25, 2004, TMF member and board of director Jason Roussos gave a presentation entitled "Learning to Live with Wildlife, the Key to Conservation in Africa" to a class of 6th graders at the International Community School in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Jason's talk focused on the key factor affecting wildlife in Africa today: human population growth. As human populations continue to increase throughout Africa, human/wildlife conflicts are becoming more prevalent. As a result, local communities are faced with two decisions: eliminate the wildlife, thus putting an end to conflicts and competition with wildlife for land and resources, or learn to benefit from the wildlife and become more tolerant of their presence.

To help the students relate to some of the problems facing rural communities in Africa, theoretical examples using a modern urban setting were presented. They included elephants stepping on your father's new car, leopards terrorizing your pet dog, crocodiles in your swimming pool, and warthogs (better known as "Pumba" from the Lion King) eating your mom's vegetables out of her garden. The students thought this was very amusing but realized that things like this happening on a daily basis would make life difficult and could easily result in negative feelings toward wildlife. They all agreed that a clear solution to prevent this from happening would be to make people more tolerant of wildlife.

This goal could be more easily accomplished if the people living with wildlife somehow derived benefits from them. The presentation focused on the economic benefits that wildlife can generate for local communities, though other examples include aesthetic, biological, and cultural benefits. Ecotourism and other various wildlife related activities can generate income for local communities and help develop rural areas by improving standards of living.

A question and answer session then led into the finale, and definitely the most popular portion of the talk for the students, the hands-on presentation. Three animals that cause a lot of human/wildlife conflict throughout Africa were discussed with the aid of a stuffed venomous snake (a puff adder), a hippopotamus tusk and a lion skull. Students took turns handling the props and asking questions. Most of the students were amazed to learn that the very large, vegetarian and mostly water-dwelling hippo causes more human deaths in Africa than the other animals.

The questions seemed endless and the students were definitely having lots of fun while learning more about wildlife conservation in Africa. The presentation was a large success and it is hoped that more talks like this will be conducted in the future.