In 2016, Leonardo DiCaprio approached Wayne and invited him to appear in the documentary, “The Ivory Game“. By then, Wayne was known for his conservation efforts in protecting elephants in Tanzania. Recall how his coworkers often labelled him as the ‘silent hero’? Wayne actually rejected DiCaprio’s offer and credited others before himself. He requested DiCaprio and the directors of the documentary to film the villagers instead, because they were the ones who “did it all”. He claimed that he only went around to “crack jokes and ginger people up”. Despite having the opportunity to gain more recognition, Wayne chose to give up the spotlight for the locals and Tanzanian rangers. Nevertheless, with Wayne’s knowledgeable input and the hard work of the directors and producers, “The Ivory Game” is a documentary truly worth watching. You can view this rather exciting trailer of the documentary here:

As shown in the trailer, sometimes to understand the illegal trading scene better, conservationists actually go undercover to blend in with the mafia. This was one of the things Wayne did: to create a network of informants to infiltrate the scene, recording movement of elephants and potential poachers. Arresting these poachers will allow him to discover the names of those who paid the poachers.

Conservation can be tough and dangerous work. There are news of elephant poachers shooting down helicopter pilots who were monitoring the scene from above. The Thin Green Line Foundation has estimated that around 1,000 wildlife officers were killed over the last 10 years.

Environmental activists, wildlife conservation officers and rangers have become targets of poachers. According to Global Witness, “in the first decade of the 21st Century, about 1.3 people per week were killed while working to protect Mother Nature. Poachers have declared war not only against wildlife, but against the guardians of nature.”

With a better idea of what Wayne was risking when he continued on his fight against poachers, I will then share with you a very sad day for the Tanzanian elephants – Wayne’s death.