For everyone that has been worried over Kenya’s elephant population declining they can now breathe a sense of relief. While 2020 has proven to most to be the worst year ever, here’s one story that will have people jumping for joy. During World Elephant Day, Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) announced to the public that over the last three decades, Kenya has managed to double their elephant population! A feat proven by numbers, having grown from 16,000 in 1989 to 34,800 by the of 2019.
The Kenya Wildlife Service explained that it was through a Conservation and Management Strategy that they had launched back in 2012 where they began seeing the growth in numbers, as explained by the Kenya Wildlife Service Director General Brigadier (Rtd) John Waweru during his visit to the Amboseli National Park on World Elephant Day.
Kenya’s Tourism Minister, Najib Balala shared during the event, “In the past couple of years, we have managed to tame poaching in this country.” But unfortunately, this isn’t the truth in other African regions.
A report was released on Fox News that explained, “the Kenyan government has imposed longer jail terms and larger fines for poachers and smugglers as part of its crackdown on the ivory trade.” Thankfully the initiative seems to be working since only seven elephants were poached in 2020, as compared to the 34 elephants that were poached back in 2019, and even worse, 80 elephants back in 2018.
Tourism Minister Balala also said during the event, “Today we are also launching the Magical Kenya elephant naming campaign, an annual festival whose objective will be to collect funds from the naming, to support the Rangers welfare.” And the rangers he is referring to are the men tasked to keep poachers at bay.
“This year alone, about 170 elephant calves have been born,” Babala added.
KWS Director Waweru also said, “The elephants are one of the natural resources that have been caught up in human greed on one hand and human need on the other. So there we have a dichotomy.”
Tourism Minister Balala also shared how they managed to track the animals in order to further understand them and their movements.
Timeless Africa Safaris also shared, by “fitting radio collars to elephants is one of the best ways to understand their social behavior, track their migration patterns and see how they interact with their natural habitat. The elephant is darted from the air and guests have the opportunity to observe the vets at work while learning about these iconic African animals and their biological importance. Once the collar is secured, the vet administers the antidote and within a couple of minutes the elephant will be back up on its feet.”
People everywhere were also ecstatic about the news, sharing their thoughts on social media platform Twitter, as they replied to the tweet of Tourism Minister Balala.
Hopefully, this is one initiative that will continue to see a rise in elephant numbers, not only in Kenya, but in all the other African countries that have elephant populations as well.
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