A herd of elephants walks majestically through the lush grass. Our tour guide, David Mwai, stops the car and we sit, motionless. The matriarch leads the herd, the babies covered by the elders as they pass us by. David tells me that here in Amboseli National Park, the elephants are calm. However, after years of poaching in neighbouring Tsavo, their behaviour is wilder.
“This is the best place in Africa to encounter elephants. Though their numbers are not as big as in other parks, the openness of the savannah and conservation efforts have seen their numbers grow significantly,” he explains.
Amboseli encompasses sparse, arid vegetation and ready supplies of water in its swamps and lake, where you will find lesser and greater flamingos and a further 400 species of bird standing proud against the dark waters. It’s less than 2 per cent of the size of neighbouring Tsavo, Kenya’s largest national park, but within it are also giraffes, hippos, buffaloes and cheetahs.
The star attraction though, is the jumbos, which are found in high densities and with some of the largest body and tusk sizes on the continent, thanks to the protection from poachers and largely undisturbed habitats.
Elephants are organised into complex social structures, with the matriarch leading the females and their calves, and males usually living in isolation or in small bachelor groups. The matriarch is the eldest and knows every member of her family. When she stops, the others stop too.
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“Calves are cared for by the entire herd of related females. While female calves may stay with their maternal herd for the rest of their lives, the males have no choice but to leave the herd as soon as they reach puberty,” says David, as he directs his binoculars towards a group of teenage elephants, who are busy throwing cooling dust on themselves under the scorching sun.
Elephants require extensive landscapes to survive and meet their ecological needs, resulting in human conflict when their habitat diminishes and they’re forced to compete for resources.
Victims of conflict turn to conservation
I meet Miriam Nashipai, a Maasai and victim of this conflict, who sells beaded jewellery to tourists visiting the park. She lives at Mutuleu village, on the outskirts of Amboseli, among Maasai who coexist with the wildlife that roams freely both within and outside the park.
“Since my husband’s death, a lot has changed here. Men now listen to us women when we talk to them. Park visitors and the money that we receive from selling our products are proof that conserving elephants is beneficial and it stops poaching.”
She is still trying to get compensation after her husband was killed by an elephant. “I wish I could have assistance to send my children to school,” she explains.
In spite of this, Miriam says she has a good relationship with the elephants and gives them water to drink. She is happy their population has increased.
“Nowadays, the Maasai understand the importance of elephants and have no issues staying with them. When an animal kills our livestock, we don’t retaliate – the Kenya Wildlife Service compensates us. Even if we divide the land, animals still are able to roam since there are no fences,” she continues.
Numbers rebound
Kenya’s recent and first wildlife census in 2021 indicated that the number of elephants has increased from 16,000 in 1989 to 36,288, the highest proportion of which are in Tsavo. There are 1,900 in Amboseli alone, close to Maasai Mara’s 2,500.
The conservation efforts have been successful thanks to community support, working with non-governmental organisations to deal with poaching through monitoring and enforcement.
This is both good and bad news. Conservation is clearly working, but the 392km2 park is increasingly under pressure to host the growing number of elephants. Cynthia Moss, director for Amboseli Trust for Elephants, has been living and studying in the park for 50 years.
She tells me: “The land use patterns in Amboseli are changing. Right now, we are more concerned about where the corridors are, where the dispersal areas are and where elephants are able to feed because they cannot exist in this tiny national park.
“They need to continue using almost all the ecosystem if possible. We are working very closely with the community who live here with their cattle – we will do our best to work out a fair way to live together.”
Corridors closing
Elephants use corridors as critical lifelines to find food, water and mates, but they are under threat from urbanisation, the subdivision of land – when a large parcel of what is usually ancestral land is split up – and unplanned development. Unaware of new boundaries, elephants remember the land as a pathway and will continue to use it, even if it has been cultivated.
“The community who owned a bigger chunk of land here has decided to go for subdivision. We want to ensure there are areas reserved for conservation, as well as corridors from one reserve to another,” notes Daniel Olesambu, a Maasai elder born and raised in Amboseli and head of the Predator Protection Program, against retaliatory killings. He believes community benefits are crucial to ensure the protection of corridors.
“It’s about ensuring the community feels that they are of the process. For example, communities surrounding the park created three significant wildlife corridors so they can move to Chyulu Hills and then Tsavo West and west to Kili,” he says.
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Infrastructure development is also affecting elephant corridors. “If we have a new road, then urban centres will follow; that is a threat to wildlife. The greatest challenge is if land is subdivided and sold to private investors.
“We are telling the government to recognise these corridors, and assist the communities to conserve them. The government should also compensate the victims,” adds Daniel.
Setting up camp
It is for this reason that a camp, Satao Elerai, was established south-east of Amboseli, on a vast tract of land by the community in collaboration with the African Wildlife Foundation.
“This is a critical corridor for elephants heading to Tanzania, Chyulu Hills and Tsavo. The landowners agreed to set up the camp,” says the manager, Julius Onuko.
Eighty-five percent of the workers are from the local community and the money they receive is used to take care of the rangers in the conservancy. They also have a borehole that supplies water for both residents and wildlife and supports schools.
A more serious issue is climate change. In 2017, more than 400 elephants died as a result of drought. East Africa is currently suffering one of the worst droughts in decades.
“Conservation is not cheap and we not only need to find coexistence between community and the wildlife but also with the climate,” adds Cynthia.
For more on Amboseli, see kws.go.ke/amboseli-national-park
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