The elephant who stopped moving
Dear Friends,
Last weekend, Tumaini, one of the elephant bulls we originally collared in Laikipia in 2020, stopped moving.
I was using EarthRanger to track Tumaini on my smartphone. When I realised something might be wrong, I immediately alerted my Space for Giants colleagues via our dedicated WhatsApp group.
Tumaini had spent the night crop-raiding and was found lying in a field of maize, unable to get up. Our team, supporting the Kenya Wildlife Service rangers, helped keep Tumaini alive (by keeping him hydrated) until finally, twelve hours later, we lifted him using ropes fixed to our Land Cruisers. Once up, he slowly walked away and disappeared into the night. We are delighted to report that Tumaini is back to his usual ways and appears healthy.
Photo: Tumaini, who has since recovered, lying in the field of maize
Technology plays a crucial role in conservation. Space for Giants, in partnership with the KWS, has deployed satellite tracking collars on bull elephants known as crop raiders. This technology has enabled us to understand patterns in elephant movements and helped us:
Identify weaknesses in strategies designed to mitigate human-elephant conflict (e.g. electric fences)
Understand the individuality of elephants (no two elephants are the same!)
Respond to emergencies to save elephant lives.
We have collared (and re-collared) eleven crop-raiding elephants in Laikipia, Kenya. Each elephant we collar is given a Swahili name to match its personality or experience. Together with Jikaze, Popote, Tembea, these elephants provide critical data that enables us to reduce human-elephant conflict in the Laikipia region in Kenya.
Data from the satellite collars are becoming ever more critical as climate change, human population growth, and the unsustainable use of natural resources increase pressure across Kenya’s ecosystems.
This World Elephant Day, you can help us turn technology into hope for elephants across key areas in Africa.
Every time you donate, we can keep our collars transmitting data to the cloud and our elephants safe on the ground.
With gratitude,
Charles Kinyua
Human-Elephant Conflict Scout
