Aden Elmi is the field research assistant based in Ijara Subcounty. Having schooled at Kotile primary school and later Kotile secondary school adjacent to Ishaqbini conservancy, Aden is very familiar with the wildlife occurring in the area. He loves nature, the outdoors and especially the wildlife in the area. “My favorite animal is the Hirola” he says. His love for nature and the conservation of the endangered hirola antelope prompted Aden to do something about it and he has continually displayed his passion for conservation since he joined HCP in 2017. He is helping the team in conducting patrols of both wildlife and Hirola monitoring on a daily basis, deploying and checking on the camera traps and helping with collection of transect data collection in the conservancy. In addition, Aden is also a great link with the community as he works with the herders and the adjacent community members especially in handling human-wildlife conflict in the area. Aden is also a role model to many of the kids back in his school who would want to take up conservation as a career in life.