On Thursday we took a game drive in the afternoon around the Samburu Reserve with David our Camp Manager as part of the routine Long Term Monitoring Programme. Every elephant that we come across had to be identified as an individual, member of a family and into a particular category (residents, migrants, sporadics or bulls). First we found lion tracks and David managed to follow them until we saw a lioness who appeared to be hunting to feed her cubs.
We saw several groups of elephants and for each family David collected and logged the necessary information. The current drought is putting pressure on large elephant family groups which have to split up in search of food.
We have begun work on a second project which involves data entry of the Immobilization records which log elephants that are collared or treated for an injury. That is bound to keep us busy for some time!