How important is it to have bronze or silver guides? Are "silver" guides significantly better than "bronze" guides?

I am not sure however I think Jan or Piipa will be able to answer this when she is back from the bush.

Hi Jane:

Yes, the KPSGA guide ratings are indeed important. The bronze is for someone who has been studying and taken the first exam regarding widlife and passed. The silver is currently the top rating. If you have a guide with a silver rating you can be pretty darn sure they know about most of birds, mammals and reptiles you might see. They were talking about instituting a gold rating, but it hasn't been done yetb.

Many of the smalle companies hire people who aren't quaified, so having a silver qualified guide ensures the person guiding you is at the top as far as his knowledge of wildlife is concerned and will know a lot about most of the birds, mammals and reptiles you might see. Many of them speak a foreign language in addition to their tribal dialect, Kiswahili and English. In fact a friend of mine who is bronze rated has been trying to get a guiding job all over Kenya and was told because he doesn't speak German or French he would not be hired.

I am in for making Jan no 1 Gold rating....

Jokes aside - thank you for shedding light on the ratings.

Cody: I stand corrected. I just looked up the link to KPSGA ( http://www.safariguides.org ) and found out they do indeed now have GOLD rating with only 4 people listed at the present time. Hopefully more and more guides will study for the new higher level and pass the exam. Sorry for the incorrect information.

Thanks Jan for the answer. We have made sure we would have a silver level guide. Ended up with Southern Cross.