Moving Kenya’s elephants out of humans’ way

Area is a human-wildlife conflict hotspot

September 2011: About 50 elephants are being moved to the Massai Mara National Reserve from Narok North, Kenya, in an effort to ease the escalating human-wildlife conflict in the area.

ON THE MOVE: The Kenya Wildlife Service is  relocating elephants to the Massai Mara reserve

The Kenya Wildlife Service is masterminding the relocation, which is the first phase of an exercise that will cost £200,000 and see a total of 200 elephants moved. This first phase will cost £45,000.

For the last couple of weeks, KWS scientists have been conducting pre-translocation aerial and ground surveys to determine elephant numbers and their distribution. They have also surveyed the appropriate capture and release sites as well as the 150 km route now being used.

A long-term post-release monitoring plan has been put in place, which will include deploying GSM collars to the translocated elephants to guide proactive action in the event the elephants attempt to return to the capture area.

Elephants can devasate crops
The area where the elephants are being moved from can no longer hold 200 elephants in view of the increasing habitat loss due to conversion of areas used by elephant into agriculture, charcoal burning, logging and increasing human population and settlements. Over recent years this has led to increased human wildlife conflict in Narok County, which is designated as one of the human-wildlife conflict (HWC) hotspots in the country.

Reports from the Kenya Wildlife Service Narok station indicates that out of the 9,299 human wildlife conflict cases reported in the past ten years, 5,052 (54 per cent) are attributed to elephants. Common impacts of human elephant conflict include human deaths, human injuries, crop destruction, human threats/obstruction, other property destruction.