TSAVO / MKOMANZI ELEPHANT CENSUS CONFIRMS A LOSS OF 1.500 ELEPHANT SINCE 2011
(Posted 11th February 2014)
Information has come to light, following the conclusion of the recent transboundary elephant population survey covering the Tsavo and Mkomanzi national parks in Kenya and Tanzania, that compared with the last census in 2011, the returns showed some 1.500 elephant less in the space of just 3 years.
Comments attributed to the Kenya Wildlife Service Deputy Director Ben Kavu, who reportedly announced the results at the Sarova Taita Hills Lodge yesterday, in fact talk of some 800 elephant being poached during that period of time on the Kenyan side of the border with the balance obviously attributed to the Tanzanian side of the border in and around Mkomanzi National Park.
Numbers according to Mr. Kavu dropped from 12.573 recorded during the 2011 census to just 11.000 this year, confirming the downward trends already known caused by increased poaching, displacement of elephant through an increase in human population and new settlements in previous wilderness areas and the destruction of the elephant habitat through deforestation, leaving entire areas bare of elephant during the just concluded aerial and ground surveys.
The data will be welcome ‘fodder’ for the London Conservation Conference which is now underway, where elephant range countries are both taken to task over their failures to protect elephant and other game as well as will be receiving support from the 50 heads of state and ministers present in the form of pledges to boost anti poaching operations and wildlife conservation measures.
