Last night I posted a news article on the spearing of elephants in the Amboseli/Kimana area. To read more about this and learn of some of the elephants injured/killed it can be seen on http://richardleakey.wildlifedirect.org/.

This is a tragic story with no easy answers. There has to be some way to prevent more and more people from moving into this area. The area near the Serena has become very built up in the last six years with more and more people with their cattle and shambas moving into the area, despite knowing this is "elephant territory".

I was particularly saddened to learn that Tulip was one of the elephants killed. I had seen Tulip about four years ago after she had been speared the first time right through her trunk. She and her new baby had been separated after the spearing. The older sister was trying to care for the baby, but the baby was starving. We searched and searched for the baby the next few days but it was never found.

Something HAS to be done about the Maasai in this area. They fail to remember that the elephants were there hundreds of years before they were, and the elephants deserve some rights also.

I agree with you Jan.
I was there for some work and could not agree more however all those NGO's around Ambo. (there are more there than any other place...) - cannot do much about it either... crazy.

UPDATE FROM AMBOSELI

One little bit of good news is that the female elephant Teryl, daughter of Tulip who died in the spearing, just gave birth to a healthy male calf on Easter. Thus Tulip's genes will continue to go on hopefully for a long time.