Coexistence In A Land Use Mosaic? Land Use, Risk And Elephant Ecology In Laikipia District, Kenya. (2006)

This thesis is about the patterns, determinants and consequences of human-elephant interaction in Laikipia District in northern Kenya. Laikipia is located outside of formally protected areas, supports a range of land use types and harbours Kenya’s second largest elephant population comprised of over 3,000 animals. I use interdisciplinary methods and multiple scales of spatial analysis to examine elephant distribution, persistence and interactions with people in this human landscape. At a course scale, results from several data sources show that elephants occur across almost 50% of Laikipia District and, intriguingly, are relatively evenly distributed across locations under cultivation, settlement and livestock production.