Save Elephants And Giraffes - Africa's Giants

Innovative, simple and cost-effective, Born Free’s practical work to help people and elephants coexist in Meru, Kenya is having a giant impact. 

How do you help people understand elephant behaviour and stay safe living alongside these huge herbivores? An elephant-sized puppet really helps! Coupled with a toolkit full of simple ways to discourage crop-raiding, Born Free’s mission to help local people and wildlife live together without conflict is making a mammoth difference. 

Elephants are incredibly large animals and although usually quite peaceful, these giants can be extremely dangerous to the people living alongside them. Elephants can be become defensive and aggressive when they feel threatened. Mother elephants can become especially aggressive if they sense a threat to their calf, and males when they are in “musth” – a period characterised by a surge in testosterone. When elephants leave protected areas and enter areas where people live and farm crops, the risk to human safety and crop damage is high.

“Elephants often go to the community because they plant crops the elephants love,” explains our Education Officer, Nicholas Bii. “Once community members understand these reasons, and learn to better identify elephant behaviour, this can reduce crop destruction so all of them live in peace.”

Born Free has been devoted to wildlife conservation in and around Meru National Park since 2014 and for nearly three years has been supporting communities living around the park to peacefully coexist with wildlife, especially elephants. “Through a conflict mitigation toolkit and puppet-based elephant behaviour workshops we aim to achieve coexistence between humans and wildlife,” said Born Free’s Head of Education Laura Eastwood.

“We minimise conflicts by increasing knowledge on how to identify and respond to elephant behaviour. We also increase empathy and interest towards elephants. Our training and practical tools help farmers implement low cost and simple methods to deter elephants from damaging crops, and thus help prevent economic crises.”

At the elephant behaviour workshops, community members participate in skits acted out using a huge puppet of an elephant, where they explore different possible situations and how the elephant might behave, with a view to demonstrating ways in which people can diffuse possibly dangerous encounters.

Samim Kaari, who trained as a teacher, is one of our locally-employed Conservation Ambassadors. “Elephants come in the shambas (farms) when the crops are ripe,” she said. The tool kit includes a noisy shaker, fashioned from tin cans. “The Mwakimas, my community, are very happy about that method,” said Samim. “It is not heavy, so you can carry it and produce the sound that disturbs the elephant and deters it from your farm. There was a time when a man from my community was killed by an elephant, so they used to hate the elephants. But, since I was recruited with Born Free, I’ve been showing them how beneficial these animals are to us. And nowadays they are ok with the elephants.” Sadly, however, incidents resulting in human injury and death do still happen in the area, and across the tropics where elephants and people live side by side.

Elephants are highly intelligent and sentient beings. “The way they react to human encounters can be affected by a range of factors – from food and water availability to time of day and light levels,” said Laura. “Whatever the circumstances, how humans react in return and protect their crops plays a key role in determining the end result. By focussing on increased understanding of the benefits of particular and consistent behaviour from local communities, we can reduce the chances of human and elephant injuries, creating a situation in which elephants are less likely to become aggressive.”

“This must be balanced by the need to use multiple deterrents to protect crops,” added Dr Nikki Tagg, Born Free’s Head of Conservation. “Elephants can otherwise become habituated to the methods, which become less effective.”

The issue of human-elephant conflict is an on-going challenge across Africa and Asia. The land that elephants once lived in and moved through is reducing and becoming highly fragmented as more land is used for agriculture and development and human settlements expand. Water and food availability, often linked to climate change, are further driving negative interactions between people and elephants.

“In light of the challenges faced, the elephant behaviour workshops, and conflict mitigation toolkit have been well received by the communities we support in Meru,” said Nikki. “We hope that with continued efforts, we may begin to see a more harmonious coexistence, in which crop destruction, and elephant and human fatalities are significantly reduced.”

Thanks to our partners at No Strings International for their support in developing the elephant behaviour workshops.

Links:

• Video: Supporting people to live safely alongside elephants
• Elephants