River Ewaso Ng’iro has returned and so have some elephants from sporadic families that leave the park during the dry season. Some more virtues, Mitis (trees), Planets and the First Ladies are back in the reserve. It was so exciting to meet Michelle Obama, Lucy Kibaki, Salma Kikwete, Rosalynne and finally being able to put a name to each elephant’s face. There was no fuss about the whole thing. They arrived silently to meet and greet other families by Old Larsen’s touching each other using their trunks, eventually moving under the shade of acacia to get a quick snooze. Ironically this is the time several resident groups of elephants move out of Samburu National Reserve.
Sometimes during Long Term Monitoring we may identify an elephant by facial features as well as its tail hair and during a collaring a tail hair may be taken. I began to wonder what people can do with them and whether they grow back. This led me to interesting findings concerning elephant tail hair. Often paired with gold, it is used to make jewellery such as bangles and necklaces. Though trade in elephant tail hair jewellery was rampant during the 80’s it was not as popular as ivory and declined after the 1989 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species since most of the tail hair was coming from poached elephants.
Apart from using collars to monitor movements of elephants, their tail hair holds great history of the foraging and an account of ecological changes in a region. According to the publication by Cerling et al. (2001) History of animals using isotope records (HAIR) A 6 year dietary history of one family of African Elephants the study shows that by using tail hair one can develop a history of what an elephant has been foraging and hence a trail of where it has been. Depending on the diet the ratio of the Carbon, Nitrogen and Hydrogen isotopes in elephant tail hair varies which can be used as a good indicator of what vegetation the elephant has been foraging on and thus identify the ecological history of a region. It is possible to have a record of diet and water resources weekly! Studies like these are important in monitoring the abundance of certain plants before they become extinct which will also eventually affect the health of the wildlife here, in particular elephants.
This is so essential considering how much competition there is for resources between elephants and livestock in the Samburu National Reserve. Desertification is hastening due to the large livestock numbers. It said that over 50% of the land is infertile due to overgrazing as the carrying capacity of the land has been largely surpassed.
A mixed group of over twenty elephants from the Hardwoods, Rivers and Shakespearian Ladies made their way to feed and rest under the shade of an acacia tree, but as soon as they were resting, about 100 cows and shoats were also arriving to graze, forcing the elephants into the river bed. Incidences like these not only result in stress but could also be affecting how elephants are foraging and how well they are benefitting from the ecosystem that they live in, in terms of nutrients and thus their longevity. Despite the disturbance hopes are high that there will be more peace for the elephants as it has been raining outside the reserve which may encourage the herders to move out to feed on fresh pastures.