About Danny Woodley
About Daniel Woodley
Danny was born in 1969 in Nyeri/Kenya and brought up in Kenya’s National Parks. His father, Bill Woodley, second generation Kenyan, was one of the pioneers of the National Parks in Kenya and one of the first Game Wardens, living in Tsavo and then later at Mount Kenya.
Danny was schooled in Kenya and England, but started helping his father with Parks’ issues and works at the age of 15. He first got involved in the Rhino Rescue Programme, which included rhino capture, translocation and the development and building of the Ngulia Tsavo West Rhino Sanctuary.
In 1987, two years later, Danny went to Somalia and Djibouti on a contract with “Resource Management & Research” and the “East African and Arabian Air Surveys & Services” for six months as a logistics manager, providing and running ground-support teams to aerial surveys, pest control spraying and the Amoco Oil survey.
Afterwards, he went to Botswana for three months, assisting with bird and game capture.
The following year, Danny was responsible for O.D.A. (British Aid) transports in Tsavo West Nat. Park for anti-poaching operations and development projects carried out by the British Army, including bridge building and road construction.
Still in Tsavo West, he rehabilitated the Mzima Springs Nature Walk and underwater tank for viewing in 1988. Later that year, Danny joined the Kenya Wildlife Service and underwent “General Service Unit” (GSU) paramilitary training for three months.
In 1990, he was sent on special operations in the Northern Frontier District for two months and then returned to the GSU to complete the training of new KWS rangers, shortly followed by the appointment as “Company Commander” in charge of security within Tsavo East Nat. Park. This concerned all aspects pertaining to training, administration and deploying of 130 armed combat rangers responsible for an area of 30.000 square kilometres. This also involved a close liaison with other Government forces to eliminate banditry in and around the park.
In 1991, Danny formed the “anti-poaching camel unit”, including the purchase, training and walking of 30 camels from Isiolo to Tsavo, approx. 800 km.
The next year, he was reassigned to “Warden Works” in Tsavo East, in charge of all development and maintenance of the park’s infrastructure and heavy plant machinery.
1993, Danny attended courses for Middle and Senior Management for one month at Kakamega and went on an expedition to Lake Turkana recovering and transporting road building equipment back to Tsavo.
From 1994 –1996, he was selected to train and run the “Problem Animal Control Unit”, which operated throughout the country. This became necessary due to an increase in the human/wildlife conflict and involved close cooperation with bordering communities, training 3 units of rangers on every aspect of game control, as well as culling, identifying and implementing preventative measures, counting game, game-proof barriers and developing a policy / management document for the Kenya Government.
In 1994, Danny attained his Private Pilot’s Licence, which enabled him to cover the problem areas through out Kenya and to transport rangers by plane as a fast reaction method.
During 1995, he went on an overland expedition from Kenya to South Africa and upon his arrival back in Kenya was seconded to the “Hirola (Hunter’s Hartebeest) Task Force”, which involved developing a management plan, carrying out surveys and game counts in the Tana River and Garissa area, along with raising funds internationally.
The actual translocation of the Hirola took place in 1996. Danny was heading the capture, as well as the translocation of 30 Hirola from Tana River to Tsavo East, doing blood sampling from Bovines for the “O.A.U. (Organisation of African Unity) pan African Rinderpest Campaign” at the same time.
During his leave in 1996, Danny went on a walking expedition of 500 km from Mt. Kilimanjaro down to Malindi, in connection with an adventure travel book and film documentary.
In 1997, he was appointed as Pilot for Tsavo East National Park and Tana River area, which concerned game counts (total and sample), aerial surveys, monitoring of endangered species, vegetation mapping, anti-poaching and aerial reconnaissance (security), famine relief, fire fighting, game captures and trans-locations, tourist security, medical evacuations, search and rescue.
Later the same year, Danny was sent on an “Anti Terrorism Assistance” course in the United States of America in Albuquerque/New Mexico at the Non-Proliferation and National Security Institute, together with combined Kenyan Forces – CID, Special Branch and the Bomb Squad. The course covered vital facility security, diplomatic security, disaster management and hostage crisis. The programme was carried out by the F.B.I., US Department of State and the Department of Energy.
1999, he was appointed Senior Warden/Pilot for the Northern Area of Tsavo East National Park.
All in all, Danny has a very good knowledge of African countries, their politics and different wildlife management policies. He knows the different peoples of Kenya with their individual problems and needs, and as one of his fellow officers from the Samburu tribe said during his speech at our wedding: “Don’t be fooled by Danny’s skin colour – he might look white from the outside, but underneath that, he is actually black to the bone. He thinks and feels like us, he is very much one of us.”
Danny is also one of the very few people left, and the only one of his generation, who really knows Tsavo and especially every little hidden corner of the vast Northern Area with its beauty and potential, but also its large problems and life-threatening dangers. « Back