A Former Military Operative Sets Sights on Poachers

Faye Cuevas worked in U.S. military intelligence for 17 years and has hunted terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now, as part of a conservation program, she’s turning her skills to fighting poachers in Kenya and saving protected species in the region.

By Philip Bethge

How do you kill an elephant without a gun, if all you’ve got is a spear, and your 20 centimeters (8 inches) of sharpened metal is going up against five tons of thick-skinned beast?

As soon as the bull elephant approaches, the Maasai warrior leaps from his hiding place in the bush and onto a rock, ramming the spear diagonally downward into the animal’s huge body. It manages to stagger on for just a few meters before collapsing. The poacher takes a knife, carves the tusks from its jaw and walks away with the ivory.

Later, it will earn him $150 (134 euros).

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