AMBOSELI ELEPHANT RESEARCH PROJECT

Report from Amboseli – November 30, 2000

I flew up from Amboseli this morning after a week at my camp in the park. It was a good stay. Things have improved dramatically since my last report. We finally started to get some rain in the third week of November. The rains were definitely late and so far they haven’t been wonderfully generous (we’ve recorded three to four inches in the camp rain gauge), but it’s been enough to turn the plains green and to start the grass growing. All the wildebeests and zebras have left the park to find new grass on the better soils outside. Most of the elephants have left too. I only saw a few families while I was there, but I didn’t mind their absence knowing that their migrations were beneficial for them. The park was looking beautiful and I had time to appreciate some of its other wonders. As always during the rainy season the African skies were spectacular and the bird life was splendid.

Rainstorm on Kilimanjaro – November 29, 2000

White-faced whistling ducks Egret in one of the lakes

The situation with the Maasai has also changed for the better and this happened even before the rains came. Soila Sayialel, AERP’s marvelous Project Manager, along with our Outreach Officer, Jonathan Lekenayia, and the Kenya Wildlife Service wardens, held a series of meetings with Maasai elders and warriors in different areas of the surrounding group ranches. Disturbed about the spearings, the Maasai themselves investigated and discovered that it was mostly young boys who were wounding the elephants by practicing their spearing technique when the elephants were relatively immobile in the deep swamps. The boys were severely reprimanded by their fathers and we haven’t found a wounded elephant since.

On one of my forays out into the Park with Beth Archie, the Duke University student who is studying elephant DNA, we didn’t have much luck finding elephants but we did come upon two magnificent male lions in the area called Olodo Are. I’m still surprised and delighted whenever I find lions, because Amboseli went through a period of about three years with no lions at all (after they were all poisoned by a disgruntled herdsman who lost a donkey), and then another few years with just a few shy ones. Now there is a very healthy population of possibly as many as 40 lions. These two males are the kings of their domain. Both were in fantastic shape--fat with hardly any scars and no fly bites.

Pride males in OlodoAre looking very fat and healthy

The one thing that hasn’t improved is the situation with our vehicles. The researchers are still only operating with one car, an old Isuzu Trooper loaned to us by AWF. My poor, old blue Land-Rover is off the road once more. Luckily, I was able to borrow colleague Joyce Poole’s Toyota Landcruiser during the time I was there. Otherwise I would have been stuck in camp. A number of well-wishers are working hard to try to help us get one or two new vehicles, but it seems to be a long process and we’re still short of the necessary funds. In the meantime, we will try to get the old Land-Rover working again.

Beth Archie and Norah Njiraini carrying out their research in the Isuzu Trooper

In general things are definitely looking up and the elephants I did see seemed relaxed. The family below was resting out on the plain after feeding in the swamp most of the day. The grass is still short but it is green and if the rains continue it will be up to their knees in a few weeks. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

Cynthia Moss
Director
Amboseli Elephant Research Project

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