In the last few months Samburu has, thankfully, been very quiet. Poaching incidents and wounded elephants sightings have been rare, though we occasionally hear of incidents far to the west in Oldonyiro area and around Mukokodo forest. 3rd October 2014 was one of the rare occasions.
We received a call from one of the Elephant Watch Camp guides, reporting an injured elephant who still had a spear still lodged in his body. We quickly sprung into action, seeking to get a vet to the reserve. The STE teams arrived at the scene and were able to identify the elephant as a newly identified bull of around 26 years old, Lomunyak. We see him in the reserve during the wet season when large groups are here, not at this time of year. It is therefore interesting that he came to the reserve at a different time of year; perhaps he knew it was safe and he would get the help he needed so urgently.
Lewa’s Ian Craig was on standby, ready to fly the vet to the reserve. Soon, his plane touched down at the Samburu North airstrip. The Kenya Wildlife Service vet stationed at Lewa, Matthew Mutinda, then moved in to immobilize Lomunyak.
Lomunyak went down nine minutes after the darting. Problem. He lay immobilized in a thicket where the cars could not get through. We had to walk about 20m to reach him. The wound was quite old and had a very strong smell. The spear was immediately removed, the wound cleaned and several doses of antibiotics administered.
Treating Lomunyak presented a rare opportunity to collar him. Again, due to his awkward positioning, we had to use manpower, not cars, to position him accordingly. It took several attempts to get the collar under him. There were so many thorny bushes that got in the way but we finally did it. Collaring him opens a window of insights into his routes. It is possible that he is a crop raider and that is how he got speared. If this is the case, it will be interesting to see how he copes with all the upcoming developments, including a proposed resort city around the Attan area.
spear still lodged in the body
the spear removed from the body