The Elephants of West Kilimanjaro
It’s too bad elephants aren’t smaller. If they were, perhaps they wouldn’t travel such great distances, and we humans wouldn’t have to drive for so long to map their movements. I spent the entire day bumping through West Kili’s inescapable dust, GPS mapping a snaking network of roads. It’s amazing how tiring all this sitting can be.
I am in northern Tanzania at an AWF research and conservation camp called the West Kilimanjaro Elephant Research Project, or WKERP (we conservationists never shy from a mouthy acronym!). But many call it Kikoti’s Camp, after the Tanzanian who conducts his work from here.
Alfred Kikoti has been running the AWF project in the area since 2000, studying the ecology of elephants, mapping their movements, and setting up a network of anti-poaching community game scouts.
The West Kilimanjaro area supports more than 600 elephants, and is an important ecological link for elephants traveling between Amboseli National Park in Kenya, down to Arusha and Kilimanjaro National Parks in Tanzania, and out to Lake Natron further west.
West Kilimanjaro
West Kilimanjaro supports a population of 600 elephants and is threatened by land fragmentation.
August 11th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Fighting back concern for you Paul, out there in the savannah, eating the dust of free-ranging elephants under endless African skies….!
Sitting here in my boring office I’m curious to know though whether Alfred has found any skewing of the demography in this population as a result of selective hunting?
August 12th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
There is much talk about wildlife corridors, which sounds great, but how does one keep elephants within their corridors and prevent them from wandering through villages, farms, and other places one doesn’t want them to wander?
August 25th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Hey Arjay-
I’m back with Alfred this week so let me run your great question by him and I’ll respond soon.
August 25th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
MK- Good question. Unfortunately (or fortunately?), elephants tend to go where they please. So when people set up farms, agriculture or other developments on their corridors, there’s not a whole lot people can do to guide them away. Some people in southern Africa are experimenting with using hot chilies to deter them from crops. Other people use drums to keep them away. But altering their actual corridors is not something that’s been done with success.
August 30th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Paul -
I just spent my spring semester in the Manyara region and spent a significant amount of time looking into the KEEP project and Kwakuchinja corridor which suffers greatly from human-wildlife conflict. I realize you may not be in the area, but I was wondering if you’ve heard anything about the status of KEEP? I’d love to return to TZ so what plan of action would you recommend/ I’d love to hear about any potential research opportunities. Thanks
October 20th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
hello. My name is nathen. Im from canada and im wondering about elephants because im doing a project about them so please right back to let me know some information. Thanks nathen