Our student ambassador, Muskan, gave two informative and insightful presentations to the children attending the Art Therapy Program at Kids Play Foundation in Surrey last Saturday. The kids learned about the many faceted roles the elephant plays in keeping ecosystems in which they live healthy and their role as a keystone species. Lots of giveaways and fun was had by all.
Thank you, Muskan, for your great work. The elephants trumpet!!
Elephants and Biodiversity – How are they connected? NEW LESSON PLAN!
The decline of elephant populations due to the illegal wildlife trade and poaching is now almost the stuff of legendary horror. While elephants roamed the forests and savannas of Africa in the millions in the past, the 20th century has seen an accelerated assault on their lives with populations declining from 10 million in the early 1900s to approximately 450,000 today.
While poaching threats continue unabated, climate change, biodiversity loss, and human wildlife conflict are equally as threatening to the long-term survival of Africa’s elephant populations.
Elephants are at the crossroads of multiple human system failures. In Kenya, 200 elephants died recently due to the drought bringing elephants in closer conflict with humans competing for limited resources. As a keystone species the loss or potential extinction of elephants will have devastating consequences for ecosystems dependent on them for their survival, driving a circle of degradation for all species, including humans.
How do we emerge from this human created mess? Elephanatics is committed to providing resources and education for people of all ages, with the intention of helping people understand that elephants, like the rest of the natural world, are an integral part of a broader ecology that help form the fabric of ecosystems essential to our collective survival. In Elephanatics’ latest lesson plan “Biodiversity and the Important Role of the African Elephant,” students from grades four to twelve will learn how to:
Link to lesson plan here.
View all our lesson plans here. All plans can be modified to suit grade appropriateness.
With a commitment to supporting education for future generations on the importance of protecting wildlife and biodiversity, we hope to ensure the long-term survival of Africa’s remaining population of extraordinary wild elephants.
This chapter examines the relationships between conflict, wildlife trade, and rewilding. Trade in wildlife, both legal and illegal, has increased exponentially in the last few decades, which has led, at least in part, to the decimation of numerous wildlife species, including keystone species that have an important role in the functioning of ecosystems. This affects trophic cascades, leading to the degradation of ecosystems and decreased ecosystem services. Conflict and civil strife have also been increasing globally. In most cases conflict results in a decline of species mainly through increased trade in wildlife for food and revenue, habitat degradation, and a breakdown in law and order. If rewilding is to be effective in restoring trophic cascades and ecosystem functioning, addressing the social and ecological impacts of conflict and wildlife trade should be seen as an integral part of rewilding. Interventions may include controlling trade and hunting, involving local communities, promoting sustainable wildlife use and curbing illegal wildlife trade.
To purchase book please go to: https://bit.ly/3WsxB64
We are so pleased to share our student volunteer’s blog, “Help Save the Enchanted Elephant.” Dhanvin is a grade 10 student attending Kwantlen Park Secondary School in Surrey. From his experience growing up in Asia, he has a keen sense of the need to protect this valuable species. We thank him for his time and efforts at promoting the work we do as an organization at his school.
(My teacher giving an info session on Effects of Elephant Poaching)
May 9th, 2022
Hi, my name is Dhanvin. I am a grade 10 student attending Kwantlen Park Secondary School in Surrey, BC, Canada. I have offered to volunteer with Elephanatics – an elephant advocacy organization based in Vancouver – to help spread awareness about the crises facing both the African and Asian elephant and the necessity to help save these majestic animals.
Growing up in Asia I have a deep connection with Elephants. I have admired these fascinating creatures since my childhood. Elephants play a significant role in my culture. I had the privilege to touch and ride on one. I vividly remember riding on a 20-year-old Asian elephant. It felt magical riding on this magnificent creature. Riding over 7 feet high through a thick green luscious forest gave me the opportunity to reflect and reconnect with nature. This is one of my favourite memories that I will cherish all my life. Little did I know at the time that riding elephants is not good for them and can cause unnecessary pain to their backs. After reading about unethical tourism, I realized I needed to make others aware that in order to ride elephants they have to go through a horrible procedure to become tame called, ‘Phajaan’ or ‘the crush’. It means to break their spirit and they are beaten to become domesticated. Unethical tourism is a big problem and needs to end.
African and Asian elephants are powerful, compassionate and magnificent animals. They are also ecosystem engineers, playing a critical role in shaping the natural environments where they live. Ecosystems are a complicated web where animals and plants depend on each other for survival. Ecosystems have been developing and evolving for eons. It is depressing to see humans wreck these fascinating systems in just a few decades. Disrupting the balance of ecosystems can threaten human life existence on earth. In spite of the efforts from some governments, the number of African forest elephants fell by more than 86% over a period of 31 years. The African Forest Elephant is Critically Endangered and the African Savannah Elephant is Endangered and on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
The Asian Elephant is listed as Endangered because of a population reduction to be at least 50% over the last three generations. The biggest threat to Asian and African elephants now is habitat loss and fragmentation.
Some of the main reasons threatening the existence of elephants include:
Poaching
Elephants are most vulnerable to poaching for ivory and bush meat. Unfortunately, many people take pride in hunting elephants. Over the past 200-years ivory has become increasingly valuable. At the beginning ivory was collected from dead elephants but it pains me to say that many innocent elephants are now killed to make jewellery. It is tragic that human greed kills these creatures. I feel great sorrow looking at the unfortunate poaching events involving elephants. Recent studies show elephants have begun evolving without their beautiful tusks. Approximately thirty thousand elephants are killed every year due to poaching.
Climate change
Humans have become the most disruptive species on earth. With continuous expansion in human settlements there is a significant impact on our climate. Degrading climatic conditions are ruining the habitats of many animals and elephants are one of the most prominent species impacted. Their forests and grasslands have been cut down to expand cities and agricultural demands. Elephants are a keystone species and play a huge part in the worlds biodiversity.
Human Elephant Conflict
Expanding settlement boundaries have caused elephants to wander into human settlements. This has led humans to take drastic measure to protect their families and crops. According to WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) over 100 people and 50-80 elephants are killed in this conflict every year. It is upsetting to see humans disrupt the delicate balance and co-existence between all species.
It is not too late to stop this destruction. In my opinion education is the best way of spreading awareness. With education we can pass on a better world to our successive generations. Although I am unable to go and help the elephants in person myself, I want to sensitize others. I have been volunteering with Elephanatics for over three months. They have given me access to a wide variety of insightful learning resources. These resources have been invaluable in helping me spread awareness in my school community by distributing the lesson plans to my teachers. My social studies teacher loved the idea of including the lesson plan and he was able to share these insightful resources with his colleagues and present a lesson plan to his students.
I have tried to start a club and organize fundraiser, I was turned down by my school admin, but I did not give up and I tried by best to spread the awareness and encourage my peers in supporting this cause. I believe I can make a difference and give our future generation an opportunity to see these stunning creatures.
If you love elephants and want to help save them, please join me in spreading the word about the crises facing elephants by sharing Elephanatics petition to end the domestic trade of elephant ivory in Canada – over 687,000 people have signed this petition making it one of the largest petitions in Canada.
#IvoryFreeCanada
Thank you and I hope you will join me in trying to help these magnificent creatures.
You can contact me at:
or, feel free to contact Elephanatics at: elephanaticsinfo@gmail.com
Dhanvin
Way To Go Team Elephants! 
Human-elephant conflict is on the rise across Africa and is a major threat to wildlife conservation. Crops provide a highly nutritious food source, but elephants pursuing that source results in the destruction of farmer livelihoods, erodes human tolerance toward wildlife and manifests in retaliatory violence on crop-raiding elephants.
Crop conflict was assumed to be mostly carried out by a select few elephants, but managers have lacked the means to assess this at a detailed level. New research, however, offers a first look at long-term trends in crop-raiding behavior. Researchers found that habitual crop-raiding elephants are only a part of the problem.
The study was led by an international team of researchers from Colorado State University, Mara Elephant Project, Grumeti Fund, Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, Kenya Wildlife Service and Save the Elephants. It was published Nov. 2 in the Journal of Animal Ecology.
Researchers said that the findings could help conservationists better understand elephant behavior and develop new mitigation methods to reduce human-elephant conflict.
The team used the time spent in crops each year to classify the raiding elephants’ behavior as:
Sporadic and seasonal elephants made up two-thirds of the population and accounted for 67% of agricultural use, while habitual individuals made up just 9% of the population and accounted for 32% of crop-raiding. The choice of tactics was not constant over time and elephants frequently changed tactics between years, which showed how the animals must balance the mortality risks and nutritional benefits of crop use at both daily and yearly scales. Only five of nine elephants remained habitual raiders for consecutive years.
Patterns of elephants accessing agriculture as a food source ‘remarkably consistent’
“Elephants are incredibly unique animals and populations and individuals within those populations vary markedly in the extent to which agriculture is utilized,” said Kristen Snyder, a conservation scientist at CSU and the Grumeti Fund, and a co-author of the new study. “But the patterns of how agriculture is accessed — nocturnally, and while moving quickly — is remarkably consistent across individuals and populations.”
Traditionally, researchers and managers believed only a small contingent of elephants was responsible for the majority of crop raiding, and as a result, management strategies have been designed to thwart them, explained Nathan Hahn, a doctoral student in ecology at CSU and lead author of the study.
Hahn said that the team wanted to assess how that expectation aligns with actual elephant behavior.
“It turns out crop-raiding is a lot more prevalent in the study populations than we knew previously,” he said. “In addition, patterns of conflict are complex because we saw that individuals frequently changed their agricultural use between years.”
The research team analyzed nine years of GPS tracking data from 66 collared elephants —32 male and 34 female — in collaboration with Kenya Wildlife Service and the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute in the Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem. This ecosystem is a vast network of wildlife reserves, parks and community conservancies that straddles the Kenya-Tanzania border.
The GPS data was used to determine the extent to which each individual elephant used agriculture and assessed the animals’ perception of risk based on the raiding tactics they employed in comparison to their daily movement patterns.
A ‘silver bullet’ approach is elusive for a complex species
Jake Wall, director of research and conservation for Mara Elephant Project and affiliate faculty at CSU, said that by using GPS tracking coupled with remote-sensing agricultural spatial information, scientists now have a method for characterizing crop-raiding behaviour within a given elephant population.
“This in turn should help improve elephant crop-raiding mitigation strategies by wildlife managers,” he said.
Snyder said that the study’s findings can identify crop-raiding mitigation strategies that could have an impact and, just as importantly, eliminate those that do not suit the local context.
“In the western Serengeti, the high prevalence of agricultural use among the study population indicates that strategies targeting individual problem animals are unlikely to significantly reduce crop damage,” she explained.
Individual or small-scale approaches will make little difference if 80% of the local elephant population regularly utilize agriculture as a food source.
“Instead, solutions that prevent elephant access to farms across broad scales are required,” said Snyder.
CSU Professor George Wittemyer said that elephants employ complex, adaptive movement that balances their desire to access resources while avoiding threats. He is a senior author of this study and also serves as chairman of the scientific board for Save the Elephants.
“This research shows how that perceived balance differs between individuals, but also shifts over time for a given individual,” Wittemyer said. “This variation underpins the difficulty in solution oriented human-elephant coexistence measures. As we often find, a silver bullet is elusive for a species as complex and clever as elephants. We must be as adaptive as they are when trying to solve these problems.”
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This work was supported by the National Science Foundation. Permissions for the Tanzania elephant collaring, and research were granted by Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology, Tanzania Wildlife Management Authority and Tanzania National Parks, and in Kenya by the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Journal of Animal Ecology, (author note): “Risk perception and tolerance shape variation in agricultural use for a transboundary elephant population” https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.13605 DOI: 10.1111/1365-2656.13605
Journal of Animal Ecology published by the British Ecological Society features the best animal ecology research that develops, tests and advances broad ecological principles. Visit https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652656 to learn more.
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Images:
Olchoda: Meaning “disturber” in Maa, Olchoda was collared in November 2016 by Kenya Wildlife Service and Mara Elephant Project in response to conflict in Pardamant Conservancy, a high conflict area. Photo Credit: Mara Elephant Project
Caroline Collaring: The collaring operation for Kenya Wildlife Service and Mara Elephant Project elephant Caroline in May 2018. Photo Credit: Mara Elephant Project
Fitz Collaring: The collaring operation for Kenya Wildlife Service and Mara Elephant Project elephant Fitz sponsored by the Angama Foundation in the Nyakweri Forest in August 2019. Photo Credit: Mara Elephant Project
Fred: Kenya Wildlife Service and Mara Elephant Project collared elephant Fred; a large male that has been continuously tracked since 2012. Photo Credit: Mara Elephant Project
Ivy: Kenya Wildlife Service and Mara Elephant Project collared elephant Ivy; a habitual crop raider that has been continuously tracked since 2011. Photo Credit: Mara Elephant Project
Lucy: Kenya Wildlife Service and Mara Elephant Project collared elephant Lucy who was collared in April 2015 and monitored until September 2017. Photo Credit: Mara Elephant Project
Author Contact:
Nathan Hahn
Colorado State University
George Wittemyer
Colorado State University
Jake Wall
Mara Elephant Project
Kristen Denninger Snyder
Grumeti Fund
Media Contacts:
Claire Bolles
Communications Director
Mara Elephant Project
claire@maraelephantproject.org
317-440-0083
Jane Wynyard
Head of Communications
Save the Elephants
+254 (0) 708669635
Mary Guiden
Science Writer and Senior Public Relations Specialist
Colorado State University
Join Elephanatics in congratulating our partner, the Mara Elephant Project (MEP) on a decade of operation today, September 12, 2021. In the last decade, MEP focused on teaching, training, and employing Maasai men and women to be first responders to save wildlife and wild spaces. Their commitment has disrupted poaching in the Greater Mara Ecosystem, protected critical forest habitat and ecologically key areas, and kept community’s farms and families safe. Elephanatics’ support has helped increase MEP’s impact and allowed them to strengthen, build and grow their decade of success. By working together, we can save wildlife and wild spaces.
Please consider a #donation to @MaraElephantProject to celebrate their 10 years of success.
#MEPKumiAnniversary
