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Kenya: Amboseli - Dim Future for the Elephants
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The East African (Nairobi)
17 March 2008
Posted to the web 17 March 2008
Rupi Mangat
Nairobi
AMBOSELI NATIONAL PARK'S ELE-phants are probably the world's most famous. They are not only the longest studied elephants in the wild but also the longest studied wild mammals. Talk about being doubly famous.
"Elephants are extremely intelligent animals," says Dr Cynthia Moss, taking a morning break from shooting a 13-part Amboseli elephants "soap opera" for Animal Planet which will be screened on Discovery channel starting in 2009.
"You can never be bored watching them," says the scientist, who started the elephant research project way back in 1972. It goes without saying she knows most of them by sight.
Dr Moss is director of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants where her role is fundraising. She also started the Amboseli Elephant Research Project in the 1970s.
Today, the elephant research team in Amboseli has expanded to include the Maasai sisters Soila and Katito Sayialel and Nora Jirina
"We compensate the Maasai for livestock lost," continues the scientist. "Soila sits on various community committees to discuss ways forward regarding issues like development, farming and tourism. As a Maasai woman, the men initially shunned her but they now respect her."
All the elephants found in the Amboseli ecosystem have a file. There are records of 58 elephant families and each family is assigned a letter. All the members of that family are then named after that letter.
For example, the family beginning with "E" will have names like Echo - who is the matriarch and one of the most beautiful, with a set of perfectly symmetrical curved tusks and one of Dr Moss's favourites - then Emily, and so on.
The files contain details like when the female gave birth, or had twins or died. Similarly, the males have details like when one of them went into "musth" - a state of heightened sexual desire.
Dr Moss was the first to record this in African elephants. One of the telltale signs is a fluid discharged from a gland near the temples. Musth derives from an Indian word meaning boisterous or "high." At any one time, there are 300-400 elephants in the park and 1,500 in the larger ecosystem. The park is unfenced allowing for free movement in and out. The elephants use the park as a drinking ground because of the permanent swamps fed by the snows of Kilimanjaro.
DURING THE RAINS, MANY will stay out of the park because there's water elsewhere. This way, the pressure on the park lessens, allowing the vegetation to rejuvenate.
"Amboseli National Park is only a small part of the Amboseli ecosystem. The ecosystem is 4,000 to 5,000 square kilometres and stretches into Tanzania. The park itself is only 390 square kilometres," says Dr Moss.
However, things are changing now because the land around the park is being subdivided and fenced. It is a matter of concern not only for the elephants but also the whole Amboseli ecosystem.
"There is no land-use plan," says Dr Moss. "In certain areas, it used to be open where the Maasai grazed their cattle and the elephants browsed. But not any more. That land east of the park is now used for farming."
"The land was under group ranches, but now it is being subdivided among private owners. The owners then lease the land to people who are either constructing lodges or carrying out farming activities," she says.
Driving from Taveta to Amboseli National Park, a stretch of almost 150 km parallel to Kilimanjaro, it's not difficult to read the signs of soil erosion. The area is basically arid.
The tortilis acacia forests and the savanna grasses that grow in the area are hardy plants evolved to survive tough conditions and hold the soils together.
But when they are cleared to make way for food crops, the topsoil is relentlessly blown away. With nothing to stop the winds, they gain momentum, stirring up clouds of dust. Farming is not the best option.
The other concern is that of investors coming in now that there's no room in the Maasai Mara to put up more lodges and camps. Along the Kimana Gate, there are about 17 new sites for lodges and camps.
"It's a very serious situation," says Dr Moss. "We need to keep the migration corridors open."
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It's no secret that an elephant's life is one long meal. The world's largest land mammal has to eat constantly to keep its massive body supplied with nutrients. If you fence in the elephant, the area will inevitably become a desert.
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