The month of May has been busy for our team at Elephant Aware. In the area where we work people and elephants are close neighbours and encounters between the two are a daily occurrence. Quite often these encounters can result in Human-Elephant-Conflict and the rangers of Elephant Aware frequently act as the ‘thin-green-line’ trying constantly to ensure that peace prevails for all. HEC continues to be one of the biggest challenges African elephants face today and makes the work of rangers like these so extremely important. The Elephant Aware rangers keep up with various herds of elephants everyday to try and ensure that they don’t encounter any problems with people as they work around the clock to prevent HEC. There are peaks and lows of conflict and in May there were several incidents that our rangers mitigated.
The rangers helped these young herders one morning on the 6th of May to move their cows away from a napping herd of elephants no more than 200 metres away and afterwards, in between a few laughs, the rangers gave the boys an informative lecture on safety around wildlife/conflict avoidance which could not have been more timely. Everyday while the rangers are monitoring elephants or patrolling in hotspot areas they make sure to engage with their own communities as this is important for gathering information and giving assistance to prevent conflict incidents where needed.
On the 13th of May while on a patrol the rangers of Elephant Aware received an urgent call for assistance from community members who were worried as a herd of elephants were sighted within a thicket close to their homes. The rangers quickly responded and soon located the elephants. Leading the herd was Eseseri, a matriarch who we are very familiar with, and her family which includes Norkinye, Mags, Nelion/Namunyak, and Tassia, amongst others.
The rangers invited the community members to come with them to see the elephants more closely in the vehicle and this was a happy and thrilling experience for the community members. The rangers said for all the people in the area to please stay away from the elephants and the herd would likely move away quietly later in the day which the elephants did this evening, much to the relief of all concerned. We are thankful for the cooperation of the community, the great work of our team, and for the patience of the elephants! Everyday the Elephant Aware rangers are working around the clock to help maintain safety between people and elephants in this area and we are always very grateful for a positive outcome through good collaboration.
On the 17th of May the rangers received another report that a young bull elephant had got himself trapped in someone’s fenced land in the night and they asked us to help move him out. Upon arriving at the scene it was clearly impossible to do this safely so after the rangers had spent hours assessing the area, keeping all the people in the area calm, working hard to ensure the safety of all concerned and also trying not to cause the elephant to panic, it was decided that the elephant should be left alone and given enough space as he was staying quietly within a thick patch of bush within the compound and he would likely leave on his own under the cover of darkness.
The landowners were very cooperative and dismantled a section of their electric fence, during pouring rain and with the help of our team, so as to allow the elephant to pass through. In following up early this morning the rangers discovered that the elephant had indeed gone out of the fence last night to rejoin a nearby herd and the outcome was peaceful, for which we are thankful. We also greatly appreciate the positive response from the community during this incident and the good work all around!
On the 27th of May Dr. Limo and his team from the Mara Mobile Veterinary Unit treated a young elephant cow for a minor arrow injury through a joint effort together with our team, the Mara Elephant Project and the Olarro conservancy. The operation was successful and the elephant soon rejoined her herd.
Everyday the rangers of Elephant Aware are actively preventing Human-Elephant-Conflict incidents within our area of operation and in turn this helps elevate the safety of elephants and the communities they share the land with.
The month of May also saw a good amount of rainfall which transformed the area with lots of vegetation regrowth and replenished water sources. We have been kept busy by the enormous amount of elephant activity. The rangers monitor multiple herds of elephants daily and this is quite a challenging task but it is also important for securing the elephant population in Siana.
In May we have sighted many newborn elephant calves in the area which is excellent news for the overall population of Mara elephants!
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