Tag Archives: sierra leone

Pan Verus Project

It’s the beginning of a great, big, new, adventure and where better to write about it than here, the place I started my journey. Well, I didn’t quite literally begin life on this website, but Endangered Living has been there for me as an outlet, a place to share, and a community of support over the last several years. So it’s fitting that I get to share with you my latest endeavor: The Pan Verus Project

pvp2.png Continue reading Pan Verus Project

National Parks and Civil Wars

Outamba Kilimi National Park is Sierra Leone’s first national park, and in located in the far north of the country along the Guinean border. The national park is comprised of two non-contiguous areas, Outamba (183,100 acres) and Kilimi (90,900 acres). These protected areas lie at an important transition zone in Sierra Leone’s landscape, where the Upper Guinean Rainforest Ecosystem begins to transition into savanna and open woodland. Continue reading National Parks and Civil Wars

Jane Goodall speaks from atop a chair at Woburn Safari Park

Forward: This is a long post, but it is my hope that you will make it to the end. Getting the chance to meet someone as inspiring as Jane Goodall is an experience I could not limit to a few hundred words. And although this is a post that may not introduce to you a new species or a conservation crisis, I think that it can introduce you to hope if you will let it.


I arrived exactly one hour early. I stood and watched the meerkats outside of the Woburn Safari Park’s Safari Lodge, biding my time until the doors opened and I could find my seat. Even before seeing Jane Goodall standing a mere 10 feet from me the day was perfect. I had seen my first ever wild pheasant, which could seem silly to many people, but for me it was incredibly exciting. Even the mundane turns magical on the day you get to meet your life-long hero.

Me and Jane
Me and Jane

Continue reading Jane Goodall speaks from atop a chair at Woburn Safari Park

OAP: Great Blue Turaco

One of the few animals I saw on a regular basis while in Sierra Leone was the Great Blue Turaco. The first time I was told by Papanie that the giant blue bird that flew overhead was a turaco I was shocked. The turaco I had worked with in Dallas had barely been half that size! But the more I saw them the more resemblance I saw to Marty, my Dallas-dwelling turaco. So in honor of the Great Blue Turaco and the amazing wildlife of Sierra Leone, lets have them be the next focus for an Odd Animal Profile.

Photo by Nathan Rupert
Photo by Nathan Rupert

Corythaeola cristata. I don’t normally include the scientific names in my O.A.P.s but Corythaeola crostata rolls off of the tongue with such grace. It is a name that couldn’t belong to any other animal than this giant, blue bird.  Continue reading OAP: Great Blue Turaco