TSAVO/ MKOMAZI AERIAL 2008 ELEPHANTS CENSUS RESULTS RELEASED
The population of elephants in the expansive Tsavo/Mkomazi conservation area now stands at 11,696 from 10,397 from the last census three years ago.
The new figure from this year’s census represents a 4.1 per cent growth rate, announced the Kenya Wildlife Service Director on Friday afternoon.
The larger Tsavo is the largest protected area (4 per cent of Kenya’s landmass) and hosts the highest number (a third) of Kenya’s estimated 30,000 elephants.
“The elephant is Kenya’s flagship species and so its distribution and condition is a good indicator of the status of our wildlife,” Mr Kipng’etich said.
The census officials traced 68 elephant carcasses, 64 of which had earlier been seen by the Kenya Wildlife Service officials on routine security operations.
The four carcasses that were seen for the first time had their tusks intact, out of which three had died from natural causes while one had died of old age.
Some of the wildlife protection and management challenges the census found was makeshift houses on the railway/park boundaries, snares in South Kitui and Galana, and livestock encroachment into protected areas.
To address some of these challenges, desnaring teams were immediately sent to Kitui South and Galana while manyattas in parks were demolished. An 80-kilometre fence is being erected between Jipe and Rombo, out of which 20 have been completed.
Mkomazi in Tanzania, Tsavo West, Tsavo East, Chyullu Hills national parks, South Kitui National Reserve as well as the outlaying areas of Taita and Kwale ranches have been covered in the Sh10 million census that started on Monday and ended on Thursday, a day earlier than scheduled.
The census by 90 people also covered Galana, Kulalu, Dokota, Taita ranches and some sections of Kwale District were covered.
The census results tallied at the Kilaguni Serena Safari Lodge in Tsavo West National Park, 280 km from Nairobi
.
The census is part of a global elephant monitoring system. It is a regulation from the 173-member Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The results form the basis of wildlife trade related decisions on ivory trade. They also help conservationists in planning park management and security operations.
The June 2007 CITES conference in The Hague imposed a nine-year freeze on ivory trade after a one-off sale of 60 tonnes of government owned stocks by four Southern African states---Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa—to Japan.
Kenya Wildlife Service Director Julius Kipng’etich id expected to announce the final official census results on Friday morning.
The census is conducted every three years since elephants give birth every four years.
The Meru and Maasai Mara censuses were conducted last year.
The census is focusing on dead and live elephants to determine how many and where they are as well as their movements. KWS pilots from all over the country, including Meru, Aberdare, Lamu, Mt Kenya, Tsavo East and Tsavo West and private volunteers took part in the census.
Other species counted included rhinos and buffalos. Other details captured included illegal activities like cattle incursions into protected areas, fires, charcoal burning and poacher activities. The numbers of other species like antelopes, giraffes, lions; cheetahs, Grevy zebras were also recorded.
The figures obtained from the census are used by Kenya in making a case on ivory trade and elephant management.
The ecosystem covers both Tsavo East and Tsavo West and the surrounding ranches and stretches to Mkomazi Game Reserve in North-eastern Tanzania. It is bordered by Mt. Kilimanjaro, Pare Mountains and parts of Usambara ranges to the Southwest.
The covering 40,000 square kilometres will include participants from various organisations, including Save the Elephants, the Department of Remote Survey and Remote Sensing, Lewa Downs Conservancy, African Wildlife Foundation and CITES Monitoring of the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) Secretariat.
Ten light aircraft were used in the spectacular exercise.
The Tsavo/Mkomazi ecosystem is one of the 45 MIKE sites in Africa and four in Kenya. Other MIKE sites in Kenya are Meru, Samburu-Laikipia and Mt Elgon which crosses into Uganda.
MIKE is an elephant range states global elephant monitoring programme authorized by a resolution of the 10th Conference of Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in 1997. It is a site-based system to monitor elephant population trends and the illegal killing of elephants and operates in 29 African and 13 Asian elephant range states.
Aerial counts of the Tsavo ecosystem have been carried out since the 1960’s. An aerial count in September 1962, gave an estimate of 10,799 elephants within the park and 4,804 outside. In 1967, there was an estimated population of 35,000 elephants ranging within the ecosystem. Between 1970 and 1971, there was a severe drought and 5,900 elephants were recorded dead. By 1980, the Tsavo elephant population had been drastically reduced by poaching for ivory to about 12,000 and to only 5,363 elephants in 1988.
There has been a marked increase in the number of elephants since 1991 up to the present with 6,763 elephants counted in the ecosystem in 1991, 7,371 in 1994, 8,068 in 1999 and 9,284 in 2002. The 2005 total aerial count of Tsavo elephants involved nine aircraft and took 227.2 flying hours covering an area of 46,437 km2. Each of the aircraft had a GPS for use in navigation recording survey path and waypoints. A total of 10, 397 elephants were counted (34.6 per cent of the country’s population).
Most of these elephants (37.5 per cent) were found in the south of Tsavo East National Park. 1,376 elephants (or 13.2 per cent) were found outside the Protected Areas with the majority of these (1,292 or 93.8 per cent) in Taita Ranches. Overall, the elephant population had increased by 11.99 per cent, or approximately 4 per cent per annum, since 2002 when the last total aerial count was conducted. A total of 138 carcasses were counted out of which 4.3 per cent were recorded as recent and all were found inside the Protected Areas. The number of carcasses counted had declined since 2002 as a result of visibility decay of old carcasses.
From the 2005 count, it was concluded that Tsavo elephant population was recovering from intensive poaching for commercial ivory trade that reduced the numbers from over 35,000 in 1974 to just over 5,000 in 1988.
Objectives 2008 count
· Establish the current elephant population size and distribution and compare these results with the results of the 2005 count
· Determine the number and distribution of elephant carcasses.
· To map elephant distribution in relation to water sources.
· To map the incidences of human activities that may be threatening elephants through protected area encroachment e.g. logging and charcoal burning.
· To document the distribution and numbers of other species in the ecosystem including buffaloes, rhinos and livestock.
Fact File
· Kenya has a national population of about 30,000 elephants, with an estimated 10,000 found in the Tsavo/Mkomazi ecosystem
· The joint mass of Tsavo East and Tsavo West National Parks forms one of the largest national parks in the world and covers a massive 4 per cent of Kenya’s total land area.
· Tsavo West, the famous of the two, lies to the west of Nairobi-Mombasa Road, same distance between Nairobi and Mombasa, and is painted on a sprawling canvas of endless skies, emerald hills, liquid lava flows, palm fringed rivers, teeming wildlife and sparkling oases set against the unforgettable backdrop of mile upon mile of cloud-shadowed African savannah. It has three airstrips, three public campsites and six gates.
· The attractive sites of Tsavo West include the magic of Mzima Springs with the lush, hippo-heaving pools, ancient land of ‘man-eaters of Tsavo’, Shetani lava flow, the Chaimu Crater, panoramic poacher’s lookout point, Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary, glorious game drives with herds of dust-red elephant, fat pods of hippo, giant crocodile, teeming herds of plain game, a rich bird life and some magical flora.
· At 40,000 km², the Tsavo ecosystem hosts the largest elephant population in Kenya. The parks (Tsavo East and West National Parks) alone occupy an area of about 21,000 km² with the remaining area being occupied by private ranches, wildlife sanctuaries, sisal plantations, farming settlements and eco-tourism enterprises.
