Conservationists collar 9 elephants in Kenya
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Xinhua, March 22, 2012
Wildlife conservation groups on Wednesday completed a three-day operation, successfully collaring nine elephants in the world-famous national parks in Kenya.
The nine collared elephants, six male and three female, in Tsavo East and West National Parks, will be tracked to assist in mapping out of the migratory corridors in the Parks and the buffer zones within the 43,000-square kilometer ecosystem.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Eastern Africa Regional Director James Isiche on Wednesday lauded the team effort of the project, a partnership between the IFAW and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).
"Collaring four elephants per day in Tsavo is by no means a feat! We covered close to 1,000 km on dirt roads with the team working tirelessly from the wee hours of the morning until late evening," Isiche said in a statement issued in Nairobi.
Isiche said the aim of the three-day operation is for the KWS to design intervention measures to solve human-elephant conflicts as well as to mount security operations for the pachyderms.
He said the operation has been considered fully successful after having no injuries or mortality to both human-beings and animals.
Isiche said out of the five elephants which were collared last year by the same team, two have died while the movement of the remaining three continues being monitored.
This brings to a total of 12 elephants currently being monitored by satellite signals.
Before last year, the last collaring in Tsavo was done in 1972 using conventional collars that required manual tracking with radio transmitters.
Isiche said IFAW hopes that the interventions by KWS will be effective in terms of reducing conflicts with communities around Tsavo, and boosting anti-poaching efforts.
Cases of human-elephant conflicts as well as elephant poaching to fuel the illegal ivory trade have increased in recent years, he said.
The collared elephants' movements could be monitored for close to 20 months, as long as they retain the collars.
In addition to provide an on-site technical team, IFAW supplied the collars, satellite image receivers and software, and fuel for the helicopter, spotter plane and vehicles.
Wildlife officials say the Tsavo ecosystem is critical for elephant conservation as it is home to the largest population of elephants and covers approximately four percent of Kenya's landmass. An aerial census conducted last year established 12,573 elephants, a 2 percent increase from 11,696 in 2008.
Besides poaching for ivory and human-elephant conflict, climate change such as severe droughts were also among the challenges facing Tsavo park.
IFAW has partnered with KWS in Tsavo since 2005 to enhance operations in terms of anti-poaching and law enforcement efforts, human-wildlife conflict mitigation and resolution, research, park infrastructural support, community conservation initiatives and education.
