AMBOSELI ELEPHANT RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT

July 16, 2001

Organizational News

My last report was posted in January this year.  Much has happened since then.  I will start in Nairobi.  The Amboseli Project became fully independent of the African Wildlife Foundation on March 31, 2001 and the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, the local organization created to run the Project, is up and running well. The transition to independence has gone smoothly and cordially.

Purity Waweru at the Amboseli Trust offices in Langata

I have hired an office manager, Purity Waweru, who has an excellent background for the job. She was a warden in the Kenya Wildlife Service and at one point was posted to Amboseli and so she knows our situation well.  A competent young woman, Purity is a graduate of the College of African Wildlife Management in Tanzania, has an instructors certificate from the National Outdoor Leadership School and has completed an Outward Bound course. I feel that the Trust office is in very capable hands.  Setting up a new organization has meant much more administrative work for me, but Purity has been a great help and she is already taking over most of the office tasks.

In the US the fund-raising and administrative side is being very ably handled by Neill Heath, the Amboseli Trust for Elephants’s (AERP) Development Director, Betsy Swart, AERP’s Program Director, our webmaster Stephen Woo, accountant Eileen DeCastro, and Chairman Susannah Rouse and Treasurer, David Breskin. Almost all of these wonderful people have been contributing their time as volunteers. The dedication and hard work of each one is greatly appreciated.  Neill and Betsy have been working pro bono or on a partial salary and we are still trying to raise money to pay for their essential services. I know most donors prefer to give money for field costs, but the Project can’t exist without the backup of the staff in the US.

Fund-raising has gone well although we still have a very long way to go to reach our goal of $7 million for the endowment.  In the meantime, donors have been generous in supporting the operating costs for the Research Project over this past fiscal year.  We now have 2001-2002 to cover. 

Vehicles

I am very, very happy to report that there are two new vehicles out in Amboseli amongst the elephants as I write this report.  After endless problems with attempted importation, I finally bought a Land Rover from the local dealer here in Nairobi.  This is a 110 Discovery Tdi, which is a diesel-driven classic Land Rover with a square body.  We took possession of it on March 26^th.  Will Travers of the Born Free Foundation drove it down to Amboseli with British actor/comedian Martin Clunes and a writer and photographer from Hello magazine.  They were there to find and photograph EmilyKate, Echo’s latest calf, who was named for Martin’s daughter. Martin had won the right to name Echo’s calf in an auction held by Born Free to raise money for the purchase of the Land Rover.  Sadly I couldn’t be in Amboseli for their visit because I was in the US. All went well, and in the May 1 issue of Hello there was fabulous six-page photo-spread of Martin, EmilyKate, Echo, the camp, the new Land Rover and Amboseli and text that said marvelous things about the Research Project.    

The new Land Rover is introduced to the EB family         

In a mad dash, the day before I left for the US, we managed to get the new Suzuki from the dealer, get it insured and registered, fitted with CarTrack (a security system that tracks stolen cars), have a radio installed, and get it measured for seat covers.  Norah drove it down to Amboseli the next day.

It’s TINY, but surprisingly comfortable.  I don’t know what the elephants think of it.  Bought by Susan Alberts of Duke University, the Research Assistants are using it for the DNA work, carrying out behavioural sampling and dung collection.  Beth Archie, Susan’s Ph.D. student from Duke, arrived a few days ago for another four-month stint of genetics research and will be using the Suzuki during her stay.  

Soila collecting dung with the new Suzuki

In the meantime, my ancient short wheelbase Land Rover is nearly ready.  It has been completely overhauled and re-sprayed and panel beaten.  I went to see it a few days ago and it looks like a new car.  I’ll probably be able to take it down to Amboseli next week.  With the two new vehicles and the revitalized old Land Rover in the field, and the Pajero in Nairobi, the Project is finally in good shape in terms of mobility. It will be the first time that we’ve had adequate transportation since our Landcruiser was stolen in 1996. Trying to carry out fieldwork with old, unreliable vehicles is a nightmare.  I want to thank everyone who contributed towards the purchase or restoration of the vehicles.  It has meant more to us than you can possibly imagine. 

Amboseli News

The Park had very good rain in the first half of the year.  Once again there was extensive flooding and the swamps increased tremendously.  Some of the roads were unusable including the road to our research camp.  My staff had to put sticks in the water to show where the road was so that we could drive through.  Still we don’t complain.  Rain is so important to the ecosystem and the elephants.  During and after the rains everything looks so beautiful and the elephants have enough to eat and time to play.  

A group of youngsters takes advantage of the good times for a game in the elephant  “swimming pool”

With the generous rain and the resulting abundance of vegetation, the competition between the Maasai and the elephants disappeared and peace returned to Amboseli.  In the last six months there have been only a few spearing incidents and no livestock killed by elephants.

Now in the dry season there is a lot of vegetation left and the swamps remain extensive.  In fact, the water is still across the road to the camp.  I’m trying to raise enough money to build a causeway in the place that floods.  The Kenya Wildlife Service has so little money and if I can help them with this section of the road it will be a significant benefit to the Park, because the tourists also use the road. It goes to a favorite lion area and a hyena den.

The camp itself is lush with vegetation. I have bought three new tents which are now in place.  However, the roofs over the tents are in disrepair, as well as the shower, storeroom and kitchen so there is some serious renovation needed.

The TA family visiting camp: (left to right) Tilly’s 2000 calf, her older sister Tefilah, Tulip’s 1999 calf, his sister Teryl, and Tulip

Research and Publications

Current research includes 1) the regular monitoring of the whole population for demography, social behaviour and ecology; 2) Susan Alberts and Beth Archie’s work on genetics and social behaviour; and 3) Joyce Poole’s study of the vocal repertoire.  Hamisi Mutinda is finishing the writing of his Ph.D. thesis on ranging and decision-making.  

In the scientific world the Project has received very positive attention recently.  In April, Karen McComb and I and co-authors published an exciting paper on elephant social knowledge in the most prestigious journal in the US, Science. To emphasize the importance of the paper it was given the cover, a photo of an elephant mother and calf.  The publication elicited great interest in the popular media as well with press and radio coverage.  My paper on elephant demography that I have been working on for more years than I want to admit will be published shortly in the Journal of Zoology.  It has been accepted for “accelerated publication”, which means that the editors felt that it was important and, therefore, should be published as quickly as possible. And finally Joyce Poole and co-authors published a paper in what is considered the most prominent scientific journal of all, Nature. This fascinating paper is on the young orphaned males in South Africa that were killing rhinos and other animals until large, older males were brought in.  

The Amboseli Book

Progress is slow but steady on the big scientific book on the Amboseli elephants.  We recently signed a contract with the University of Chicago Press and have a due date for the manuscript of January 2003. It sounds far in advance but the amount of work that has to be done is daunting. 

The book’s contributors held a third working group session at the National Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara from March 26 to April 7.  The previous meetings were in October 1999 and April 2000. This third meeting was very successful because nearly all the contributors were able to come, including, for the first time, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Soila Sayialel and Hamisi Mutinda. 

Participants in the NCEAS working group: (clockwise from the left foreground) Hamisi Mutinda, Keith Lindsay, Sandy Andelman, Andy Dobson, Joyce Poole, Petter Grenli (Joyce’s partner), Harvey Croze, Phyllis Lee, Soila Sayialel, and Cynthia Moss.

Our main focus of activity was the AERP database which is large, complex and problematic.  It is needed for almost all the chapters in the book and so we are attempting to make it as accurate and user friendly as possible.  This effort is being spearheaded by my co-editor and co-founder of the Project, Harvey Croze. 

Harvey is working with Hans-Georg Michna, a computer programming genius, who lives and works in Germany and very generously volunteers his computer expertise to AERP. Hans used to live in Kenya and is an old friend of mine.  He visits Kenya once a year, and starting last year, has donated some of each visit to the Project.  His work has been tremendously helpful and good progress has been made on sorting out the problems but there is still more to do.  I am trying to find funds to pay for Hans to come out on a second trip before the end of this year.

Public Awareness and Advocacy

In June I attended a symposium in Austria on elephant and rhino research hosted by the Vienna Zoo and the International Elephant and Rhino Foundations.  There were 70 papers presented and over 200 attendees. It was an excellent conference with fascinating papers, many of them from the captive world but a few from other field studies. I was asked to be a keynote speaker and I decided that it was a good opportunity for me to do some advocacy for elephants.  The longer I work with elephants the more I feel I should give back to them and so one of the main activities I want to direct my attention to over the next years is elephant welfare.  (Click here for full text of my talk)

As part of the effort of AERP becoming more involved in welfare issues, I wrote a position statement on elephants in circuses which my colleagues and I signed when we were at NCEAS. (Click for letter) This letter has now helped to institute the banning of elephants in circuses in two cities in America.  I was very pleased to find out that Austria has recently banned the use of elephants and almost all wildlife in circuses throughout the country. There are moves for the whole European Union to join in this ban.  

I have recently signed a contract to be an advisor to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), an organization for which I have great respect. I will be advising them on a range of elephant issues. Last year they opened a regional office in Kenya and the work they are doing is outstanding.  The regional director, Michael Wamithi, was the senior warden in Amboseli during the late ‘90s and is a good friend. 

The Kilimanjaro Climb for Elephants

The Amboseli Trust for Elephants’s fund-raising climb of Kilimanjaro is filling up with participants.  This is your last chance to sign on for the October event.  It is going to be a fantastic safari, starting in Amboseli where I will take you out personally to meet the elephants, then the climb from the Kenya side, followed by three days at a gorgeous camp in Tsavo East, and finishing up with two days at the Indian Ocean. 

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