Karl Ammann

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Karl Ammann
Born1948
St. Gallen, Switzerland
NationalitySwiss
Occupation Conservationist, Author, Wildlife Photographer, Documentary Producer
AwardsBBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year, World In Our Hands Award (1996-2000)
Genesis Awards Brigitte Bardot International Award for The Mong Lah Connection
Academic background
Alma mater Cornell University

Karl Ammann is a Swiss conservationist, wildlife photographer, author and documentary film producer. He initiated a campaign focusing on the African bush meat trade, which gained worldwide attention. [1] As a conservation activist, he has specialized in investigative journalism involving undercover exposes dealing with the illegal wildlife trade. [2] In the process, he has exposed NGOs and international conventions for their lack of effectiveness and the promotion of feel-good tales. [3]

Contents

For his work, he has received numerous awards, including TIME Magazine Heroes of the Environment, [4] The Dolly Green Award, [5] Media Asia Advertising Awards, Chimfunshi Pal Award for Environmental Issue Photography, and three Genesis Awards by the Humane Society of America. He also won World in our Hands category in competition for the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year for four years in a row. In 2008, he received Best Conservation Film award by the International Wildlife Film Festival. [6]

Early Life and Education

Ammann was born in St. Gallen, Switzerland in 1948. He attended The St. Gall School of Economics until 1972, and then graduated in hotel management from Cornell University in 1974. He moved to Kenya to work with Intercontinental Hotels and his first six months were spent in Zaire seconded to the government to assist with the planning and execution of the Rumble in the Jungle. In 1978, three years later he moved to Cairo to manage a Moevenpick Hotel. [7]

Career

Ammann started his career as a photographer in the early 1980s in Africa. Initially, he focused on photographing cheetahs, but later turned to work on great apes and conservation issues affecting great apes. Between 1983 and 1986, he set up a luxury eco-tourism camp in the Maasai Mara, and another on the Zaire side of the Virunga Mountains. In 1988, he sold his shares in these camps to focus on photography. During a journey up the Congo River he witnessed the bushmeat trade, [8] and the following two decades were spent campaigning to highlight the trade and its impact on a wide range of species. Researching the issue of bushmeat of ape orphans he traveled to many of the African ape range states and visited a number of sanctuaries created for ape orphans of the trade. As part of this research, he began the development of the Sweetwaters Chimpanzee sanctuary in Kenya. [9] In 1995 he initiated a campaign with the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), which resulted in a petition of 2 million signatures being presented to the European Parliament. He then created a great ape research project in the Bili Uere area of Northern DRC which resulted in the initial data on a unique chimpanzee population now known as the Bili ape. [10] This then turned into a conservation project dealing with the ongoing poaching of elephants in the largest of protected areas in Central Africa. [11]

Works

Ammann is the co-author and photographer of two books, entitled Consuming Nature, and Eating Apes, and has also authored/co-authored several photo-essay books, including Orangutan Odyssey, Great Ape Odyssey, Little Bull: Growing Up in Africa’s Elephant Kingdom, Maasai Mara, Gorilla and The Hunters and the Hunted. [12] His works in the field have been featured on various media platforms including, The New York Times Magazine, [13] The Sunday Times Magazine, STERN, [14] National Geographic’s Earth Almanac, Asian Geographic, SINRA, SWARA, [15] International Wildlife, Natural History, [16] Focus (Germany), and Air one (Italy), among others. His works regarding the trade of wildlife products have also been featured in several National Geographic photo galleries.

Ammann has provided a range of exposes to National Geographic Online News, [17] YAHOO News, and Trade Secrets, and has produced TV programs on the bush meat issue for UK Channel Four, CNN, National Geographic, M-Net Carte Blanche and BBC Newsround [18] [19] . In his series Wildlife Wars for Spiegel and Stern TV, he illustrated and discussed several aspects of the bushmeat and pet trade, and highlighted the issue of smuggling of chimpanzees and gorillas into private collections in the Middle East, [20] as well as to zoos and safari parks in China [21]

His most recent project has centred around exposing the tiger farming industry in Asia with a feature length documentary on Amazon Prime Europe. [22] [23]

Bibliography

Books

Selected Articles

Related Research Articles

Maasai Mara

Maasai Mara, also sometimes spelled Masai Mara and locally known simply as The Mara, is a large national game reserve in Narok, Kenya, contiguous with the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania. It is named in honor of the Maasai people, the ancestral inhabitants of the area, who migrated to the area from the Nile Basin. Their description of the area when looked at from afar: "Mara" means "spotted" in the local Maasai language, due to the many short bushy trees which dot the landscape.

Poaching Illegal hunting of wildlife

Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and a supplement for meager diets. It was set against the hunting privileges of nobility and territorial rulers.

Bushmeat Meat hunted in tropical forests

Bushmeat is meat from wildlife species that are hunted for human consumption. Bushmeat represents a primary source of animal protein and a cash-earning commodity for inhabitants of humid tropical forest regions in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Bushmeat is an important food resource for poor people, particularly in rural areas.

Twycross Zoo

Twycross Zoo is a medium to large zoo near Norton Juxta Twycross, Leicestershire. The zoo has the largest collection of monkeys and apes in the Western World, and in 2006 re-launched itself as "Twycross Zoo – The World Primate Centre".

The Bili apes or Bondo mystery apes were names given in 2003 in sensational reports in the popular media to a purportedly new species of highly aggressive, giant ape supposedly inhabiting the wetlands and savannah around of the village of Bili in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. "The apes nest on the ground like gorillas, but they have a diet and features characteristic of chimpanzees", according to a 2003 National Geographic article.

Western lowland gorilla Subspecies of ape

The western lowland gorilla is one of two Critically Endangered subspecies of the western gorilla that lives in montane, primary and secondary forest and lowland swampland in central Africa in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. It is the nominate subspecies of the western gorilla, and the smallest of the four gorilla subspecies.

The Born Free Foundation is an international wildlife charity that campaigns to "Keep Wildlife in the Wild". It protects wild animals in their natural habitat, campaigns against the keeping of wild animals in captivity and rescues wild animals in need. It also promotes compassionate conservation, which takes into account the welfare of individual animals in conservation initiatives.

The Great Apes Survival Partnership (GRASP), established in 2001, aims to conserve the non-human great apes and their habitats — primarily forested tropical ecosystems that provide important services to humanity, through pro-poor conservation and sustainable development strategies.

Jonathan Scott (zoologist)

Jonathan Scott is an English zoologist, wildlife photographer and television presenter specializing in African wildlife.

Animal Defenders International (ADI), founded 1990, offices in US, UK, Colombia, Peru and South Africa; education and public awareness campaigns to protect animals in captivity and wild animals and their environments, including climate change. Investigations, scientific research, reports, campaigns for legislation to protect animals. Campaign focus: animals used in entertainment, sport, for clothing; illegal wildlife trade; replacement of animals used in research and testing. Collaborates with governments on large-scale international rescues of wild animals following legislation to end animal circuses, illegal animal trafficking. Owns and operates the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary, South Africa, home to nearly 40 ex-circus lions and tigers from Peru, Colombia and Guatemala.

Wildlife of Cameroon

The wildlife of Cameroon is composed of its flora and fauna. Bordering Nigeria, it is considered one of the wettest parts of Africa and records Africa's second highest concentration of biodiversity. To preserve its wildlife, Cameroon has more than 20 protected reserves comprising national parks, zoos, forest reserves and sanctuaries. The protected areas were first created in the northern region under the colonial administration in 1932; the first two reserves established were Mozogo Gokoro Reserve and the Bénoué Reserve, which was followed by the Waza Reserve on 24 March 1934. The coverage of reserves was initially about 4 percent of the country's area, rising to 12 percent; the administration proposes to cover 30 percent of the land area.

Wildlife of the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The wildlife of the Democratic Republic of the Congo includes its flora and fauna, comprising a large biodiversity in rainforests, seasonally flooded forests and grasslands. Wildlife is threatened by overhunting for bushmeat.

Ape Action Africa

Ape Action Africa is a non-profit NGO founded in 1996 dedicated to the conservation of endangered gorillas and chimpanzees, threatened by the bushmeat trade in Central and West Africa. Ape Action Africa manages the rescue and rehabilitation of Great apes across much of Cameroon, with a large sanctuary in the Mefou forest. With more than 300 primates in its care, Ape Action Africa is now one of the largest conservation projects of its kind in Africa. Many of the animals arrive at the sanctuary as orphans, mainly due to the illegal bushmeat trade, which has grown in recent years as a result of deforestation of the Cameroonian jungle.

Dale Peterson American author (born 1944)

Dale Peterson is an American author who writes about scientific and natural history subjects.

Rachel Hogan, is a British primate conservationist, living and working in Cameroon in West Africa, and director of the charity Ape Action Africa.

Naresh Bedi

Naresh Bedi is an Indian filmmaker, the eldest of the Bedi Brothers and a member of the second generation of three generations of Wildlife photographers and filmmakers. He is the first Asian to receive a Wildscreen Panda Award and the first Indian to receive a nomination for the British Academy Film Awards. He was honoured by the Government of India in 2015 with Padma Shri, the fourth highest Indian civilian award.

The Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA) is an association of wildlife centers in Africa, founded in 2000 in Uganda. The activities of PASA includes rescuing and caring for orphaned apes and monkeys, promoting the conservation of wild primates, educating the public, empowering communities, and working to stop the illegal trade in wildlife.

Pete Oxford British photographer

Pete Oxford is a British-born conservation photographer based in Quito, Ecuador. Originally trained as a marine biologist, he and his wife, South African-born Reneé Bish, now work as a professional photographic team focusing primarily on wildlife and indigenous cultures.

Mefou National Park Primate sanctuary in Cameroon

Mefou Park, also known as Mefou Wildlife Sanctuary and Mfou Reserve, is a primate sanctuary in the forested area of Mfou in Cameroon. Within it, Mefou Primate Park is used as a shelter for primates that are native to Africa: the monkey, chimpanzees and gorillas.

Latika Nath is an Indian author, photographer and wildlife conservationist. Featuring her work, in 2001, she was awarded the title of 'The Tiger Princess' by National Geographic which featured her in a one-hour documentary film. She has worked since 1990 for the conservation of tigers in India. In May 2020, she was bestowed with the honorary title of "Her Daringness" by Mr Nitin Gupta in a cover story based on Latika's life and work, and featuring her work on wildlife conservation.

References

  1. ↑ "The harrowing truth about tiger farming in southeast Asia".
  2. ↑ "Interview: Illegal Wildlife Trafficking With Karl Ammann".
  3. ↑ "'Where Have All the Animals Gone?' – a journey through Africa and Asia".
  4. ↑ "Karl Ammann - Heroes of the Environment".
  5. ↑ "Karl Ammann to Receive Dolly Green Award".
  6. ↑ "CONSERVATION CHARACTERS" (PDF).
  7. ↑ "Opinion: The tragedy of tiger abuse and sales".
  8. ↑ "Killing for bushmeat threatens species".
  9. ↑ "The story of the traffick in Africa's great apes".
  10. ↑ "African forest plunder condemns chimpanzees to miserable lives in zoos".
  11. ↑ "More tigers live now live in cages than in the wild".
  12. ↑ "Books".
  13. ↑ ""karl ammann"".
  14. ↑ "ARCHIV-ÜBERSICHT".
  15. ↑ "SWARA" (PDF).
  16. ↑ "Bad Medicine".
  17. ↑ "Luxury fashion brands had thousands of exotic leather goods seized by U.S. law enforcement".
  18. ↑ "The secret trade in baby chimps".
  19. ↑ "The cost of bushmeat".
  20. ↑ "Cairo Connection".
  21. ↑ "China 'main destination' for illegally traded chimpanzees".
  22. ↑ "THE TIGER MAFIA".
  23. ↑ "The planet's favorite wild creature speed bred and factory farmed for body parts".
  24. ↑ "More tigers now live in cages than in the wild".
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