Mali's Migratory Elephants ---- African Elephants In The Sahara Desert

Just, south of Tombouctou, where the sand dunes of the Sahara merge with a scattering of trees and shrubs, live the world’s most peripatetic elephants. Mali’s desert elephants migrate almost 300 miles in a year, as far as 35 miles in a day, all in pursuit of water. These elephants are “living on the edge, in the most extreme conditions,” says biologist Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants. “Their survival depends on making good decisions.”

Their survival depends on human decisions too. The Tuareg nomads who share the elephants’ territory “have a remarkable culture of toleration,” Douglas-Hamilton says, and don’t hunt the animals. As recently as 1970, several elephant populations lived in other parts of the Sahel, as the southern border of the Sahara is known. Poachers got most of them, and now only Mali’s remain.

Douglas-Hamilton and other scientists and conservationists are tracking this small herd of nomadic elephants to see where and when they migrate. In 2000, researchers attached GPS collars to nine elephants; they later recovered three working units. The high-tech data (from animals dubbed Ahni, Elmehdi and Doppit Gromoppit) confirmed what some elephant-watchers had suspected for decades: the pachyderms follow a vast, counterclockwise route dotted with temporary and permanent watering holes. They linger at a lake on the northern edge of their range until the rains begin in June, then head south, eventually crossing briefly into Northern Burkina Faso.

Nomadic animals are hard to protect—you can’t build a fence around them and charge admission. But Vance Martin, president of The WILD Foundation, a nonprofit conservation organization, says there is “great political will in Mali to protect these animals and perhaps see them as a mobile national park.” Malians have already demonstrated their affection: when a massive drought dried up the elephants’ last remaining water source in 1983, the government (a constitutional democracy) trucked in water for the beasts.

The goal of ongoing tracking projects, Martin says, is to identify “choke points”—corridors the elephants must traverse to complete their migration. The WILD Foundation, Save the Elephants and other organizations are providing recommendations to the World Bank for a $9 million project to protect Mali’s natural resources. By documenting where the elephants roam, not just from water hole to water hole but in search of fodder and cover, people can avoid blocking their routes with permanent settlements.

It’s not easy to study Mali’s elephants. They’re skittish. Unlike their kin in East Africa, which all but pose for photo-snapping tourists in Land Rovers, these elephants run from the sound of an engine. They hide in thorny acacia forests during the day, when the temperature routinely reaches 120 degrees Fahrenheit, emerging to drink from water holes in the cooler privacy of the night.

With patience and lots of memory cards for their digital cameras, however, elephant researchers have amassed enough photographs of the camera-shy animals to identify about 250 individuals. Freelance photographer Carlton Ward Jr. provided 3,000 pictures to the photo identification project; team members there have captured another 2,000 useful images. Researchers think there are at least 400 elephants in the group, based on photographs, aerial surveys and studies of dung deposits (the more dung, the logic goes, the more elephants; much of a wildlife biologist’s work is somewhat less than glamorous).

Elephants may look alike to you and me, but the shapes of their ear flaps and their tusks set them apart. The heat-releasing ear flaps have distinctive folds and, over an elephant’s 60-year life span, they often accumulate tears.

No one is sure why these desert elephants have such stubby tusks. The animals may suffer from a dietary deficiency, although they seem healthy and are reproducing successfully. More likely, in a not-so-natural version of natural selection, poachers killed more of the animals with large, showy tusks.

Elephant identification projects in other parts of Africa have allowed researchers to observe some fairly sophisticated social interactions. Female and young elephants cluster together in groups dominated by one matriarch; males tend to be loners. The older the matriarch, according to one study, the better a leader she is. She and her followers raise more young and are more likely to bunch up to protect the young when they hear an unfamiliar call.

Researchers are beginning to decipher elephant calls. Their bellows include frequencies well below the range of human hearing and can travel through air up to six miles. Elephants appear to hear even with their feet. Their rumbles create seismic waves in the ground, and elephants have been shown to freeze and look toward the source of a seismic wave 100 feet away.

Somehow elephants communicate with one another quite clearly. Last June, the first rains of the season finally freed Mali’s elephants from the overgrazed lake where they had been trapped during the hottest, driest part of the year. Carlton Ward raced to the top of a nearby dune and saw more than 100 muddy elephants trudging south, to the next stop on their route, in a single file.

Elephant Conservation Success Stories From The Republic of the Congo

FYI-- The Republic of the Congo is a Former French Colony in Central Africa.

Not a Day passes without one hearing of the terribly tragic Mass Slaughter of Forest Elephant Herds specially in the Democratic Republic of the Congo as well as in Gabon.

In Gabon's Minkebe National Park 25,000 Forest Elephants were slaughtered by Poachers in a 10 year period.However, not all the news coming out of Central Africa is so bleak.There is some good news too on the ground.

One bright spot has been the successful protection of Elephants in three national parks in the Republic of Congo. In each park — Nouabale - Ndoki, Odzala, and Conkouati — Elephant numbers have remained steady for almost a decade as poaching has been prevented and Elephants from surrounding logging concessions have sought refuge in these places of safety.

This is a testament to public-private collaboration and hard work. Each park is managed as a partnership between the Congo Government; local communities; donors such as the U.S. government, European Commission and private individuals; and an international NGO — the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Ndoki and Conkouati, and the African Parks Network in Odzala.

Elephant numbers in the Nouabale-Ndoki National Park have held steady at around 2,400 animals since 2006. Odzala-Kokoua has maintained a population of about 8,000 since 2005. 

In Conkouati-Douli, elephant numbers have expanded by as much as 50 percent since 2010. There, protection by vigilant ecoguards has enabled elephants to access forest resources in areas of the park they were too afraid to venture into a decade ago.

The future of Elephants in Africa depends first of all on bringing the immediate poaching crisis to an end through successful partnerships such as those described above. Elephants’ long-term future depends as well on continuing to partner with local communities across Africa to minimize conflict between elephants and farmers, ensuring that wildlife benefits local people through ecotourism, and protecting elephant habitat — including corridors and dispersal areas.

Credits : Elephant Conservation Success Stories to Celebrate and Replicate

               By Dr Cristian Samper 

               Huffington Post  July 29, 2014

Ndawe's Journey Ends At The Hands of Humans

Ndawe was the missing link, the proof that we were looking for. We were sure that elephants made the long journey between Tsavo and Amboseli, and he was the confirmation.

Ndawe was what was known as a ‘hundred pounder’, an elephant whose tusks weigh 100 pounds or more each, and of which there are thought to be less than 100 on the entire continent. He was first spotted from the air in late 2016 and, on a whim, Big Life sent the photograph to THE TSAVO TRUST who monitor the Tuskers of Tsavo. The response was exciting - this was indeed a bull that they knew, last seen in 2014. We have no idea how frequently he made the journey and still don’t know how many others do the same.

Sadly Ndawe’s journey has ended at the hands of humans, death delivered by four spears. He was speared for the first time in late April this year and treated by the joint Kenya Wildlife Service/The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust mobile veterinary unit. We don’t know why he was speared this first time, it was potentially the result of crop-raiding and conflict with humans.

The next spearings are more sinister. The area where Ndawe lived is now separated from cropland by the newly constructed electric crop-protection fence, and so it is highly unlikely that these are the result of conflict. The fact that three spears hit is even more unlikely in a spontaneous conflict incident. Big Life is confident that this was a poaching attempt, perhaps opportunistic.

Ndawe’s condition had been declining since the first spear wound treatment, and his recovery was not helped by the dry conditions and poor quality forage at this time of the year. It is likely that this did not go unnoticed, and he was targeted by poachers due to his weakness.

But none of the spears killed him immediately, rangers reported the wounds and he was darted for treatment once again. Sadly, this time he did not get up. Infection from the wounds, his poor health, and age all contributed, but it was spears that killed him. Estimated at 55-60 years he was a grand old bull and with his teeth worn down he was right at the end of his life, but this was a sad way to finish it.

The only consolation is that his tusks have been retrieved, and his death will not line a poacher’s pockets. We are doing what we can to track his killers, but for now the scent is cold. However, his life will have an enduring impact because he is the proof of the importance of the Kimana conservancies and corridor, a highly threatened but critical link that elephants use to travel around the ecosystem. His name will certainly be a powerful force in the future as Big Life continues work to protect this important corridor.

Namibia's Remarkable Desert Elephants

The Desert Elephants of Namibia are not in fact a different species as many people believe; they are still loxodonta africana and most live in the northern reaches of Namibia but it is the way that they adapt to living in the harshest of conditions and environment that makes them so magnificent and special. 

Namibian Elephants live in the far northern sector of the country in the Kunene, Kavango, Zambezi and Oshikoto regions. These areas are mostly covered in sandy desert soils and rocky mountains, the western areas having very little rain and vegetation. Along the Zambezi Area (formerly Caprivi) there is much denser vegetation and water. This is a strip of land sandwiched between Angola and Botswana.

During your stay in one of the remote safari camps in this stunningly beautiful wilderness, you will search along riverbeds and known valleys where the elephants roam. Learn from our expert guides and researchers how these desert elephants adapt and manage to live on little vegetation and dig for water in a seemingly dry river bed.  The lives of the desert elephants has been featured on the BBC’s ‘Planet Earth’ series alongside the Giraffe that also seems to survive well here.

Though the species is the same, desert elephants have evolved to have a smaller body mass and longer legs, coupled with larger feet – this is specially useful for walking across the vast sand dunes of the west.  They walk between desert oasis and live in much smaller groups than those living in the eastern areas of the country that are generally made up of 10-20 individuals.

Desert conditions mean that these elephants lessen the pressure on small but vital resources of water and limited plants and trees. They can go without water for several days but have to walk vast distances following traditional routes in order to find it.  Google will explain how the Matriarch of larger herds is the one who leads the family along time worn paths in search of water and food resources.

These memories are passed down through the ages. Elephants walk incredibly far and herds can cross geographical borders – those in the Zambezi Area often cross into Botswana’s Linyanti and Chobe parks then back over to Angola in the north.  Elephant herds in Chobe cross to Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, then to Zambia and return back through Zambezi to Chobe.

Like many animal species around the world, elephants face modern day pressure within the environment in which they live, as the human population increases and the northern tribes’ herds of domesticated goats and sheep increase, this brings ever more demands and strain on the elephant population.

Hwange's Super Elephant Herds

FYI -- Hwange National Park is situated in Zimbabwe.

Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe is home to one of the largest elephant populations in Africa. There are an estimated 44,000 pachyderms inhabiting the 14,651 km² park, which is practically half of Zimbabwe’s elephant population.

The elephants are the most important animals in the park, making up 90 % of the biomass. The park is lacking in natural surface water so during the dry season the animals, including the elephants, rely on man-made pans of calcium rich water pumped from boreholes. In Hwange National Park, one of southern Africa’s greatest elephant sanctuaries, herds of up to 350 can be found. These massive, abnormally large herds are known as ‘super herds’ and are unique to the area.

Observing a super herd at the watering hole is a truly mesmerising experience, guests at Elephants Eye at Hwange, an eco-lodge on a borderless concession neighbouring the park, find themselves lost for hours in wonderment at the interaction and activity of the majestic creatures. Where else can you see literally hundreds of elephants splashing and spouting, using their dexterous trunks to take grateful gulps from the fresh water?

The younger elephants specially are a delight to witness. The calves are playful and exploratory, mucking about and rolling around in the mud under the watchful eyes of the mature cows. The respected matriarch is alert and in control, she has led the herd to the waterhole and their safety is her main priority.In larger herds, specially a super herd, the matriarch needs assistance from the other mature cows. It is here where the elephants’ renowned complex social structure comes into play.

The herd is in constant communication and can even transmit messages over great distances through low-frequency sounds and rumblings, creating vibrations in the ground that are felt by their feet.
In all herds, regardless of their size, the elephants intimately know one another and have incredibly strong bonds, this is essential for their safety and provides a great deal of trust and a sanctuary within the herd. It is then all the more impressive that these super herds of Hwange ranging from 150 to 350 strong are able to successfully maintain these close-knit relationships.

The specific conditions that cause these impressively large herds are not known, but they certainly are favourable. It may be the boreholes that provide fresh water year round, it may be the vast area of mopani woods and grasslands or something else entirely about Zimbabwe’s biggest national park in the northwest corner of the country. Whatever it is, it is amazing to see elephants thrive and proliferate in numbers that echo an era when elephant populations were exponentially larger than what they are now.

 Sadly, Elephants remain threatened throughout Africa due to habitat loss and poaching, even the elephants in Hwange National Park, though seemingly abundant, are under threat. Their best protection is to provide safe spaces in which they can flourish, these are the parks and reserves of Africa that are supported by tourism. A visit to Hwange National Park will not only provide you with a truly unique elephant experience, but the revenue generated will indirectly ensure that these magnificent creatures have a home and a protected space to roam for future generations.

Credits : Africa Geographic September 12, 2017  

African Forest Elephants Are Facing Extinction

Africa’s Elephants are widely loved — and widely endangered. Poachers killed off nearly 30 percent of the continent’s savanna elephants from 2007 to 2014, according to a survey published in 2016.

Their populations are now declining at a rate of nearly 8 percent a year.

But there are actually two species of African elephants. Savanna elephants roam grasslands in east and southern Africa. The more diminutive forest elephants, only recently recognized as a distinct species, live in Dense Central and Western Tropical Rain Forests.

The new survey, called the Great Elephant Census, did not attempt to track forest elephants, mostly because they cannot been seen from the air. But other research shows their plight to be as desperate as that of their savanna cousins. Illegal killings of forest elephants for their tusks drove a 62 percent decline in their numbers from 2002 to 2013, according to one estimate.

Unfortunately, the species will not be rebounding any time soon. As reported in The Journal of Applied Ecology, forest elephants turn out to be one of the slowest reproducing mammals on Earth.

Even if all poaching ceased immediately, researchers calculate that it would take 90 years for forest elephant populations to return to pre-2002 levels.

“We already knew about the scale and severity of poaching, but what was not known before was the long-term ramifications of that poaching,” said George Wittemyer, an ecologist at Colorado State University and an author of the study. “This paper shows that things are substantially worse than we expected for forest elephants in terms of how fast they can rebound.”

The findings are the result of nearly 25 years of monitoring. In 1990, Andrea Turkalo, a scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society, began observing forest elephants at Dzanga Ndoki National Park in the Central African Republic.

Dense vegetation typically makes the elephants nearly impossible to study, but Dr. Turkalo found that they regularly congregated at an open river bank near a mineral lick. She relied on distinctive markings to identify and track 1,200 elephants over time, noting things like growth rates, births and missing individuals.

She and her colleagues at first assumed that forest elephant reproduction would mirror that of savanna elephants, which begin giving birth around age 12 and at intervals of four years.

Instead, the scientists were surprised to find that forest elephants start reproducing on average at 23 years old and only at five-year intervals. Their average lifespan is an estimated 60 years.

Ecology, rather than biology, may be to blame. In dense jungles, productivity depends on the canopy: Animals on the ground must largely subsist on what drops from the treetops. This ultimately limits the amount of nutrients available to fuel growth and reproduction.

Dr. Wittemyer and his colleagues also do not know if their findings apply to all forest elephant populations, though they suspect so.

“We’re hoping to start piecing the puzzle together and glean more information about these animals,” he said. “Not the least because it’s hard to get motivation and political will to protect things we don’t see or know much about.”

Credits : The New York Times, 2016 

Introduction

This is a Blog Exclusively Dedicated to the Conservation, Safety, and Welfare of African Elephants.

African Elephants face a Precarious Life as things stand now in various countries in Africa.

In Gabon, 25,000 Forest Elephants were slaughtered for their tusks from 2004-2014.

Minkebe National Park in the Central African Country of Gabon suffered the worst losses.

For the past few years, in Zimbabwe Elephants are being poisoned with Cyanide on a regular basis.

It is my Hope that this Blog will create some awareness about the plight of these Magnificent Giants in the Dark Continent.