Here are some of my favourite images of our newest arrivals in Amboseli. The calves are doing well and we're nowhere near the end of the births yet.

Geeta's new daughter gave us cause for celebration with her arrival at position 100.

I was thrilled today to find Risa with a new female calf, just outside our camp as I returned from the field. She is a particularly pretty little female, and when I came to my notes, I discovered she's baby number 70 in this baby boom.

I had to share just how sweet she is!

Hi everyone,

Well the ATE team has been kept incredibly busy during the first three weeks of 2012. The elephants have been in large groups, which keep us on our toes as we try to identify all the families and males present, as well of course as keeping track of all the new calves.

Here are some of my favourite shots of life in Amboseli over the past few weeks of the New Year.

With very best wishes for 2012, on behalf the of ATE team. We thank you for your support as we go into the 40th year of the project.

Vicki

hi everyone,

Thanks for your patience; we're delighted to be able to share some images of our new arrivals, via our YouTube channel Amboseli Trust, and on our Facebook page.

The entire team is starting to feel sorry for some of our females; the most heavily pregnant ladies are starting to look quite tired. Not surprising when you consider that in a 22-month gestation, calves do a final growth spurt in the last month or so of pregnancy.

I decided to write this month's blog entry about the EAs quite a few weeks ago. Imagine my disappointment then when I couldn't find them, even to take any photos to put up here on the website. As you'll see from the blog post, not getting data on the EA family is something I'm learning to live with, but they just spent about a week right in the centre of Longinye swamp, where any photos I took would just be dark grey blobs on a sea of green.

What a month it's been! ATE has been exceptionally busy with attending the ivory burning at Manyani and our collaring operation. Our core monitoring and research activities also continue of course, and I confess it's good to spend more time with the elephants now these big events are over.

Amboseli is drying out fast after a very poor rainy season in March: although we posted about our excitement at the onset of the first rains, it didn't last. The elephants are still doing fine, although this is a difficult period as they come into increasing conflict with livestock for access to food and water. Nonetheless I've been enjoying spending time with the IFAW study families who are all well. My next blog post is now live, and is an introduction to the families I study.

Hi everyone,

Here is the new image gallery for the latest post on my IFAW blog, about why matriarchs are so important in elephant society.

I'd like to encourage people to check out the excellent work IFAW is doing for elephant conservation across Africa and Asia, and especially Azzedine Downes' recent post on the Elephant E8 meeting. As Cynthia posted on our Facebook page, ATE are very pleased to be working with our IFAW colleagues, and thankful for their generous support of our work.