The list did not include Putin himself.

Since last year, the privately-owned Save Valley Conservancy and the country’s parks agency have been running a program for school-age children on how to recognize danger signs and how to coexist with wildlife. Dozens of students such as Esther are now able to identify different wildlife footprints, animal sounds and can read wind direction by the blowing sand and know how and when to take cover.“The person who is affected mostly is the kid. It’s the kid who goes to school, it’s the kid who goes to fetch water, it’s the kid who goes to fetch firewood,” said Dingani Masuku, community liaison manager for Save Valley Conservancy. “That’s why we are targeting schools so that they can know how animals behave, what to do with the animals.”

A giraffe is visible near a school on the periphery of the Save Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe on Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)A giraffe is visible near a school on the periphery of the Save Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe on Thursday, July 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)Dingani Masuku a community liaison manager educates children on wildlife at Chiyambiro Primary School on the periphery of Save Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe on Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Dingani Masuku a community liaison manager educates children on wildlife at Chiyambiro Primary School on the periphery of Save Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe on Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)He said they are trying to teach “a sense of ownership in the kids” so that they “don’t see the animal as an adversary, but they see it as something beneficial to the community, something which should be respected.”

On a recent sunny day, over two dozen children sat outside on dusty ground in searing heat for one of the sessions at Chiyambiro Secondary School. An 18-year-old who recently left school and is now part of a new corps of young women rangers from the community was teaching them animal behavior and how to protect themselves.

“Don’t approach an animal. If it’s a lion, it’s looking for food. That’s why it’s in the community. It is looking for cheap, easy prey, and you could be the easy prey,” she said, wearing military-type green fatigues. Some of the children said they travel up to 15 kilometers (9 miles) to school, and are forced to walk before daybreak when animals such as hyenas would still be on the prowl.Miners work at the D4 Gakombe coltan quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

Miners work at the D4 Gakombe coltan quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)People walk through the town near the coltan mining quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

People walk through the town near the coltan mining quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)Two women stand together in the town near the coltan mining quarry in Rubaya, Democratic Republic of Congo, May 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)