It is a mystery how elephants in the Chyulu Hills are connected to the great populations of Amboseli and Tsavo. Yet at a time when human populations increase, putting wildlife under pressure, it becomes ever more important to know the connection of one vital elephant refuge to another. In response to a call by KWS and with generous funds from the Branham family, STE is launching a new tracking project in the Chyulu Hills. Richard Bonham, who runs Bonham Safaris, has lived in the Chyulus for many years, and it is a refuge for some of the great tuskers of Kenya.
STE has now collared three elephants in the area on the 15th of March. The collars are now transmitting the elephants’ movements which can be tracked live on Google Earth to expand our knowledge of this fascinating elephant sanctuary.
David Daballen, STE’s Senior Field Officer, took part in the collaring operation and describes this tremendous experience below.
Oldonyo Waus community conservancy lies within Mbirikani Group-Ranch. The Conservancy is situated between Amboseli to the west and Chyulu National Park to the East and lies in a prime wildlife area. STE decided to collar elephants in the area to understand this little-studied population and see where these animals go, especially during the wet season when they leave and go elsewhere.
On March 15, the STE ground team and I went through all our equipment to make sure that they were completely ready for the first evening operation. Mike Branham, our generous donor, was the next to arrive by helicopter together with Willie Roberts followed by Iain Douglas-Hamilton and Ian Craig. By three o’clock we were ready to go with our operation. We were accompanied by two KWS vets, Dr. Ndambiri and Dr. Limo.
We met briefly to go over logistics and jumped into our cars to an elephant located below the lodge. The time was against us and we had to move fast.
As we positioned ourselves to dart ‘Torn Ear’, the elephant moved slowly away trying to avoid us. Richard, our host, knew the area very well and we followed the animal despite the medium size bush that became a challenge to navigate. At 17:10, the dart was fired and we radioed to our second car led by Iain Douglas-Hamilton. The bull initially took off but calmed down after three minutes. We followed him from a distance in order not to lose him, and, at the same time, not to push him too hard. After ten minutes, the bull went down in an open area and everyone rushed to fit the collar, to measure tusks, and collect ancillary data. The bull had fairly big tusks compared to most of the other bulls from the area. Thirteen minutes later, the anti-dote was administered and, within three minutes, the bull was fully up and looked good with his collar and walked-off hopefully to collect hourly GPS data for the next two years.
The following morning, we had an early start to dart a female elephant. According to Richard and the scouts familiar with the area, family sightings are rare at Oldonyo Waus, especially in the dry season where families travel far to the south on the Kuku Group Ranch. An early recce to identify a suitable target was necessary before darting, and found a small herd of about ten animals for the afternoon operation.
At around two o’clock we re-grouped, checked our equipment and then jumped into the chopper for the darting. The darting team took off and the rest of us waited nearby anticipating the immobilization of the elephant. They darted a medium sized female and stayed with the animal for some time until she showed signs of going down. Unfortunately, the terrain was bad and we couldn’t drive close to her. The area was littered with either bad lava rocks or deep galleys (Korongo). The helicopter came to get us to fit the collar. Although it sounded hectic, all went well and the female was up in no time and went and joined her family.
The clouds were building up and rains had started south of us towards Mt Kilimanjaro. Our worry was that the elephants would start moving away towards the rains. The plan was to get one more big bull. We made a plan to look for bulls that normally come to drink below the lodge.
‘One Ton’, one of the old and resident males, was in the right spot for darting, but he was not a candidate given his age and the risks involved with immobilizing such an old and large tusker – one of the remaining few in Kenya. Accompanying him were two young males who seemed to have a close bond with him; they almost acted like his askaris (guards), but unfortunately they were too young for collaring.
Earlier on we had spotted a medium sized bull at a water hole, which looked like it was in musth because it was pushing around all the animals at the water hole. Unfortunately, he had already vanished into the bushes. We started looking around for him and other possible candidates with three cars and the helicopter. Within a short time a medium sized bull was spotted and the helicopter started to guide the animal toward us. As the elephant headed to an opening, we got ready for the immobilization. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, Ian Craig fired the dart and the bull ran for a couple of minutes before calming down. In the mean time the helicopter guided us to where the elephant was heading. Finally we came out to an open area below the lodge and the bull slowed down before going down. We rushed in to fit the collar, and revived him as soon as we were done. All in all, it was a very successful week.