Elephant task: Over 50 jumbos to be moved from Mwea reserve to the Aberdares

At least 50 elephants will on Monday be translocated from Mwea National Reserve to the Aberdare National Park in a bid to lessen pressure on pasture and water at the reserve.

With a holding capacity of 50 elephants, Mwea National Reserve is currently home to 156 jumbos, whose numbers have risen from a mere 49 some two decades ago.

Families bordering the reserve and communities living along Tana River have been recording losses as the giant mammals occasionally venture out of their crowded homes and destroy crops in nearby farms.

The animals have also been invading KenGen's electricity transmission facilities, destroying property.

It is this reality that has necessitated the intervention that will see the Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Miano visit the reserve today to oversee the translocation of the animals.

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The government-funded exercise is set to end later this month and will cost Sh12.3 million, according to the ministry.

Kenya Wildlife Service Spokesperson Paul Udoto on Sunday told the Nation that all precautionary measures had been put in place to ensure the safety of the elephants.

“The translocation of elephants is a very complex matter and all expertise must be brought on board to ensure the entire process is successful. The Cabinet Secretary (Tourism and Wildlife) will be assessing the progress on the 17-day exercise tomorrow (Monday) and give more updates on site,” he said.

The translocation of wildlife, including rhinos, giraffes and elephants, has always proved a tough call and has at times resulted in the deaths of jumbos transferred to new habitats.

In 2018, for instance, an attempt by the Ministry of Tourism to translocate 14 endangered rhinos ended in a disaster after 11 of the rhinos died shortly after being translocated from Nairobi and Nakuru National Parks to Tsavo East National Park.

The rhinos’ relocation from Nairobi and Nakuru was meant to offer a more secure location for the endangered species.

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In a bid to avoid a repeat of the disaster, the ministry said it had put in place elaborate plans to monitor the translocated jumbos immediately after their release and for a sufficient period until they are fully settled in Aberdare National Park.

The elephants will be moved in family groups and a selected individual from each group will be fitted with a tracking device that will be monitored for the next two years.

The animals’ movements, behaviour and interactions will also be recorded and reported throughout to assist in picking out any undesirable outcomes.

The ministry has also vowed to adhere to the set International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) translocation guidelines as well as the Kenyan Translocation and Immobilisation protocol for African Elephants.

The IUCN guidelines emphasise the need to consider the alternatives to translocation, appreciate uncertainty of ecological knowledge, and to understand the risks behind any translocation.

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As such, every case of translocation requires thorough research on the challenges for establishing populations in order to increase the success rate of these interventions.

The guidelines state that the planning phase of the translocation must list the goals, objectives and actions of the translocation, the monitoring programme design as well as the exit strategy after successful translocation.

This is then to be followed by a feasibility test and design of the translocation. In this specific area, the biological feasibility that consists of the basic biological knowledge of the translocation candidate species should include its biotic and abiotic habitat needs, its interspecific relationships and critical dependencies, and its basic biology.

Information from the candidate or closely related species can be used to construct models of alternative translocation scenarios and outcomes; even simple models can help effective decision-making.

Issues regarding the animal’s welfare and a conducive new habitat must also be carefully studied.

The climate at the destination site (place where the animals are being translocated to) should be suitable for the foreseeable future and not hostile for the new entrants.

These plans are aimed at ensuring the survival of a species whose population, at a record of 170,000 in the 1970s and early 1980s, declined rapidly to 16,000 by 1989.

A worldwide demand for ivory starting 1979 to 1989 resulted in the slaughter of thousands of elephants for their tusks— a reality that necessitated the establishment of the Kenya Wildlife Service through an Act of parliament to stop further decline.

Thus far, the intervention has managed to reverse the declining trend with the elephant’s population in the country registering a five per cent annual increase.

As of 2021, when the last national wildlife census was undertaken, the elephants’ population was 36,280.

Following the Tsavo disaster, preliminary investigations showed that salt poisoning may have been the cause of death, as a result of the rhinos drinking water that contained a high level of salt – more than what they were accustomed to – in their new environment.

The high salt levels lead to dehydration that triggers the thirst mechanism, resulting in excess water intake of the saline water that further worsened the problem.

One of the rhinos however died as a result of being attacked by lions in the new habitat.

Then Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary, Najib Balala ordered the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to immediately suspend the translocations of the remaining rhinos.

It was also decided that the surviving rhinos who were due to be moved from Nakuru to remain in the park.