The Harambe Wildlife Reserve was established in 1971 to preserve and protect native wildlife threatened by rapid population growth and the encroachment of agriculture and industry. A close look at the map reveals that the reserve is surrounded by ranches, coffee and banana plantations, and a phosphate mine. The marked area to the west of the Safi River is known as Gazetted Territory, land that is documented by the government as wild, but does not fall under the protection of the reserve due to limited resources.
The reserve covers 800 square miles and is open to tourism and licensed photo safaris, but hunting and poaching is strictly forbidden. Enforcing these rules is a staff of wardens. The wardens regularly patrol the reserve by jeep, truck and plane. Their job is similar in many ways to that of park rangers in the U.S., except for the fact that they occasionally face heavily armed poachers.
The wardens operate out of a series of Warden Posts scattered around the perimeter of the reserve. Warden Post #4 (above) is located in the southeast region, not far from the Pangani Forest Conservation School.
The head warden on the Harambe Wildlife Reserve is Wilson Mutua. Wilson was born in Harambe and has lived around and cared for the native wildlife here his whole life. Warden Mutua coordinates all the anti-poaching efforts of the reserve's warden team, but he also works closely with the safari tourism companies and visiting researches like his old friend Dr. Catherine Jobson.
An interesting side note: The actor who portrays Warden Wilson Mutua at Disney's Animal Kingdom is Abdoulaya N'Gom, who has appeared in a variety of movie and film roles over the years. For Disney, he played Kip, one of the porters in the 1997 comedy George of the Jungle. N'Gom was born in Senegal in French-influenced West Africa. For the part of Wilson Mutua, he had to learn to pronounce Swahili words correctly and to speak with the correct East African accent.
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