In a news landscape that is often gloomy, there are sometimes beautiful stories that warm the heart, like the story of the K9 unit. The K9 unit (pronounced "kay-nine," analogous to "canine unit") is an elite anti-poaching dog squad. Introduced in 2011 by the NGO Honeyguide, it has changed the game in the fight against poaching.
In all the areas where it has been deployed, elephant poaching has drastically decreased and has even completely stopped in the Serengeti Park. This extraordinary canine unit is led by professional dog handlers who are passionate about their dogs and wildlife. In Ikoma, on the edge of the Serengeti, the members of the K9 unit are pampered and trained like high-level athletes. Their driving force is play and the bond with their handlers.
I met them twice, first at Manyara Ranch and then at the Ikoma center in the Serengeti. It’s important to note that while parks play a significant role in wildlife protection, a large portion of animals live outside the parks. The future of conservation is being shaped through collaboration with local communities and by developing WMAs (Wildlife Management Areas).
Amidst training sessions, outings, playtime, baths, and other care routines, I followed them for a full immersion into their daily lives.
Equipment used: Canon Eos R5 (and R5 M2).
For this report, I mainly worked with two lenses: the 16-35mm f/2.8 and the 24-70mm f/2.8. In my camera bag, I also had the Canon RF 200-800mm F6.3-9 IS USM, which I discovered and absolutely loved for its compactness and image quality. For a lens that doesn’t belong to the L series, I found the output excellent, with very fast autofocus and outstanding stabilizer performance.
Photo challenges:
The biggest challenge was capturing the image of the dogs patrolling with giraffes in the background. This was a key shot to show that the dogs are trained not to scare off wildlife. But giraffes are very shy... First, you have to find a group of giraffes, approach them with the 4x4 but not too close, get the dogs out... and hope they don’t decide to run farther away. It was quite a puzzle that took us long hours, but in the end, it worked!
