As we’re all too aware, much of Africa’s wildlife is in big trouble thanks to poaching. From mountain gorillas to rhinos and elephants, the modern world is threatening these beautiful creatures for ‘medicine’ and trinkets. But what if there was a way to whizz in in silence and stop the poachers?
Fast and agile, dirt bike motorcycles have long been seen as a solution for getting about the bush at speed. Travelling at 40mph+ over rough ground, riders can storm in and sort the problem out (let’s forget the rifles on both sides for now) and hopefully reduce the amount of animals being stolen from the planet.
Two big problems. The first is the noise. Yes, a fossil fuelled motorbike’s noise wouldn’t be noticed much in a city unless we’re in COVID lockdown. In the African bush they can be heard from as far as 30 miles away. Rather takes away the element of surprise!
The next issue is the trail bikes need fuel - lots of it too. In fact the South African Wildlife College estimates a team of five riders will consume 22,800 litres of fuel a year. That’s a lot of fuel to get into the bush!
Scandinavian Kalk is a top end off-road electric motorcycle company. They build machines with good range that can have you whizzing through the countryside in near perfect silence at speeds of 50km/h plus. Can you see the advantage of the Kalk Anti Poaching (AP)?
Yes, this means a team can scope out a poachers camp and then storm in in perfect silence and at speed to sort the poachers out.
Another advantage of this programme is that the bikes are powered by solar energy. Goal Zero, another European firm, has set up a solar powered charging package for the electric trail bikes so as long as the sun shines they can operate in the bush, without a tanker or helicopter bringing in fuel to resupply.
No, we aren’t on about getting your adventurous 18 year old kid something to do on their gap year! You can help supply these bikes to anti poaching organisations. If you buy a Kalk AP for yourself for USD $25,000, they will send two of the bikes and a charging station to Africa for anti poaching operations.
You buy one, they get two free, and a bunch of African wildlife gets to live another day. Quite a cool deal as things go isn’t it?!
Find out more about this scheme on electricbushbikes.com