A former poacher now protects the forest he hunted

Sunday Abiodun can tell an animal is nearby before he sees it, from a snapped twig or the way birds stop singing. He spent 15 years using those instincts to hunt in Omo Forest Reserve, one of Nigeria's last rainforests. He now uses them to find wire snares under the leaf litter and track poachers who still slip in. "I met hunting at home," says Abiodun, who is in his early 40s and comes from Ogun State. "My father was a hunter, and so was my grandfather." He joined the Nigerian Conservation Foundation as a volunteer ranger in 2017 after noticing that buffalo and leopards had grown scarce. He is one of about 10 former poachers now patrolling the 130,500-hectare reserve. The approach is showing results. Camera traps have caught forest elephants returning to areas where they had not been seen for years. It is the tradition he now plans to pass to his children.