With dramatic rescues, brothers draw attention to the front line of conservation in Kenya

LONDON -- Roan Carr-Hartley held out his arms, stretching them like wings.

"The search area was almost the size of Georgia that you're looking in," he said, as he recounted the difficulty of rescuing a 4-year-old boy, Ayub, who had gone missing in November in the wilderness during a storm.

"We got a call from the community chief about a boy who has gone missing," Roan said on a video call. "A ground team from his village was already trying to track his footprints, so I flew to the area as soon I could to support their search from the air."

Carr-Hartley and his brother, Taru, are members of the third generation running Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a Kenyan conservation organization founded by their grandmother, Daphne Sheldrick. The organization runs an elephant rehabilitation center and works with communities on the eastern side of Tsavo East National Park, including the Asa community. The pair also happen to have a helicopter ready to help with such searches.

After days of searching, land and air, there was still no trace of little Ayub.

"When I was flying around, I saw lots of hyenas, jackals, and it was pouring with rain," Roan said. "It's such a harsh and unforgiving environment for a tiny boy, there's nothing or no one there. And so you start worrying and fearing the worst, you feel so hopeless."

But, on the sixth day, a miracle happened, he said.

"I got a call from the chief who said ground teams had discovered fresh footprints of the boy, who was now roughly 15 km northeast of his village," Roan said. "I was just flying, about to begin my search … as I turned left, I saw him under the left wing of my plane - a tiny, tiny little guy in the middle of nowhere. I was in disbelief. As soon as he saw the plane he started cowering and trying to hide under the bushes, he looked very weak and stumbling."

Eventually they reached him, and his uncle was reunited with him.

"I was tearing up watching it from the air," Roan said.

As in traditional custom, the search team walked back to the village with Ayub, chanting songs of gratitude and praise.

"When his mother saw him, she just burst into tears. She couldn't believe it. She was totally in hysterics," Roan said. "He also reunited with his dad and the rest of his family. It was an amazing moment. Doctors arrived, we administered first aid, replenished his electrolytes, and tested him for malaria."

Five months on, Roan, who was conducting general patrols, doing a daily surveillance near the Asa community, when he landed up the road to see Ayub. "He's all recovered and doing great," he said with a smile.

In 2022, Taru, Roan and their team flew a total of 2,534 hours and 347,024 kms -- the equivalent of circumnavigating the planet over eight times -- working alongside the Kenya Wildlife Service and other conservation organizations to protect Kenya's wildlife.

"You're looking for poachers and poaching activity, injured animals, illegal cattle grazing, illegal logging," Roan said.

"We often support anti-poaching teams with the aircrafts on routine patrols, community outreach, and quite often these days is a lot of human-wildlife conflict response, using helicopters to drive wildlife out of farms," Taru added.

In the same time, Sheldrick's anti-poaching teams, in partnership with the Kenya Wildlife Services patrolled a total of 65,174 kms on foot -- making 989 arrests, recovering 12,583 elephant snares and seizing 3,172 weapons, according to the trust.

In another dramatic rescue on May 3, the two brothers took their helicopter, this time piloted by Taru, and rescued James, a truck driver who was trapped inside his tanker, surrounded by swirling waters following a flash flood on the Galana-Kulalu causeway.

"When we got the call, we raced down as quick as possible, calling our Galana manager for an update on the situation. James was now on top of the truck, clearly in big distress," Taru told ABC in a video call. "There was quite a strong crosswind from the left, so it was twitchy and gusty. I was concentrating on the only stationary thing there, which was the truck, holding the chopper at the exact same height so by brother could go down and rescue him. Once he was in, he gave a thumbs up and we flew out, it was such a big relief."

That rescue went viral. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, posted a video response to the brothers, saying, "I have had the great fortune and privilege to play a helicopter pilot in situations like that, but you guys are the real deal."

What inspired the brothers to get into conservation?

"We had a unique childhood and upbringing, growing up in the Nairobi National Park," Roan said. "We'd come home from school and play with the elephants from a young age. When you grow up around all these animals you build a huge amount of respect and love for them."

He said his conservation efforts were motivated by critical damage to the environment and by the threats he'd seen to animals.

"When you treat an elephant with a snare wound, then it stands up and you know it's going to be fine is an amazing feeling," he said. "Or when you find a baby orphan elephant alone in the wild and rescue it, knowing it will have a second chance -- it is a wonderful thing to be a part of."

Thanks to increased conservation efforts, KWS announced in 2021 that the East-African nation had recorded an over 96% decline in elephant poaching with just 11 elephants poached in 2020 compared to 386 in 2013, during a period where Kenya experienced its worst poaching surge in two decades. As of 2021, Kenya's elephant population had increased by 5%, standing at an estimated 36,280 elephants, according to the African Wildlife Foundation.

"Whilst Kenya acknowledges that poaching was the major cause of decline in the past, increasing human population and the subsequent change in land tenure and land use systems have led to the constriction of elephant range … resulting in heightened interaction between elephants and people, mostly resulting to conflict," KWS said in a statement.

As East Africa endures one of its worst droughts in decades, the KWS announced in a November report that it has counted the deaths of at least 205 elephants, 52 wildebeests, 281 zebras, 51 buffaloes, 49 zebras and 12 giraffes.

"Climate change is unfolding on our very front door, with longer and more frequent droughts and extreme weather patterns becoming the norm," the trust said.

But, despite hardships, the Carr-Hartley brothers said they remain more committed than ever.

"We just want to make impactful and tangible difference every day, no matter how small and hopefully encourage people to do the same," Taru said.

And an elephant never forgets, Roan said, describing elephants that have visited them after their rehabilitations.

"They know who's friend and who's foe, and they'll always see you if you show them love and compassion."