2023-02-09 - Nairobi, Kenya.
On the afternoon of 8th February, the Nursery herd gathered for their customary mud bath. As has become her new custom, Ziwadi joined in. She was splashing around and having lots of fun, when she suddenly started to have a seizure. Everything unfolded very quickly. As soon as they saw Ziwadi’s distress, the Keepers leapt into the mud bath. They managed to pull her onto firm ground, but to their horror, she was not breathing. Although the Keepers tried their very best to revive her, it was too ...
2022-11-01 - Nairobi, Kenya. Richard Kagoe, BBC News, Nairobi
A Kenyan elephant, thought to have been Africa's largest female tusker, has died of old age, wildlife officials have said. Dida, also known as Queen of Tsavo, was aged between 60 and 65 years, the upper age limit of an elephant in the wild. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) hailed her as an "iconic matriarch" of the Tsavo East National Park. Famed for her long tusks, Dida was a major tourist attraction at the park, the oldest in Kenya.
2022-03-10 - Nairobi, Kenya.
On the night of 8th March 2022, just as our Ithumba team was getting ready for bed, Mutara and her herd appeared outside the stockades. And... we were delighted to find a newborn in their midst! He was fresh out of the womb — Mutara had clearly given birth earlier that evening — but a picture of health. Mutara decided to spend her first night as a mother around Ithumba, sharing this special moment with Benjamin and the other Keepers who raised her.
2021-07-07 - Nairobi, United Kingdom. Ben Webster
Plans by Carrie Johnson’s animal conservation charity to fly 13 elephants from a zoo in Kent to live in the wild in Kenya have been questioned by the country’s wildlife ministry, which said it was not aware of the scheme. Kenya’s Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife said that relocating and rehabilitating animals from a zoo was “not easy” and expressed concern that neither it nor the Kenya Wildlife Service had been contacted or consulted about the relocation.
2021-06-22 - Nairobi, Kenya. Otiato Opali
With Ahmed the elephant in mind, Kenya last week launched the Elephant Naming Festival in which people get the chance to adopt an elephant after contributing money toward their chosen animal's conservation. Launching the program, Najib Balala, the cabinet secretary at the Ministry for Tourism and Wildlife, said the elephant-naming initiative will bring greater awareness of the need for conservation and boost tourism.
2020-09-10 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan police arrest poacher with 14 kg elephant tusksSecurity officers in the northwestern Kenya town of Kitale on Thursday arrested a poacher in possession of 14 kilograms of elephant tusks with a market value of 1.4 million shillings (about 14,000 U.S dollars).
2020-08-14 - Nairobi, Kenya. GABRIELA SALDIVIA
Amboseli National Park in Kenya is experiencing something of an elephant baby boom. The park, which sits at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro, has reported the birth of more than 170 calves this year and counting. What's more, two sets of twins were born this year, and number of poached elephants from January to today has been seven
2016-12-04 - Nairobi, Kenya.
An arrogant buffalo was tossed several feet into the air after it decided to battle with a mother elephant. The buffalo, weighing more than 500kg did not survive the battle. These pictures were taken by a photographer who visited Kenya on vacation.
2016-04-30 - Nairobi, Kenya. Martin Oduor
Immediately after the 1974 elections, the Kenyatta family was linked to illegal ivory trade, which was earning the Kenyatta family and other close relatives $10 million (equivalent to about Sh100 million today) per year, as the country’s 120,000 elephants were killed at an annual rate of 20,000! – Source Charles Hornsby in his book, Kenya: A History Since Independence (1963-2011)
2016-04-27 - Nairobi, Kenya.
On Saturday, April 30, Kenya Wildlife Service will host the largest ivory burn in history — a bold statement against elephant poaching, and one we hope will mark the beginning of the end for the global ivory trade, which kills an estimated 33,000 elephants every year. WildAid will be bringing these historic events to a worldwide audience through social media, and we invite you to watch it live.
2015-11-16 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyas wildlife authority on Monday vowed to destroy the east African country´s vast ivory stockpile from several thousand elephants, nine times more than the largest pile torched so far. Kenyas stockpile, if illegally sold on the black market at current prices, could be worth some $270 million (over 251 million euros), but conservationists say sale of ivory only serves to fuel further poaching.
2015-11-08 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Last month, orphan elephant Wendy got a new baby---and they have a roaring relationship which is both clumsy as well as cute, according to HNGN. The birth of a baby elephant is great news for conservationists, who are trying to increase the strength of the species.
2014-05-03 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan wildlife authorities say two police officers have been arrested transporting illegal elephant ivory as the government cracks down on poaching of the country’s endangered elephants and rhinos. Kenya Wildlife Service said Saturday the officers were caught with six pieces of ivory at a road block while travelling from the central Kenyan town of Meru to the capital Friday night.
Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) said Saturday its rangers have launched a major manhunt for poachers who killed six elephants and carted off ivory in a poaching incident last Thursday. KWS spokesman Paul Mbugua said the six elephants have been confirmed poached and two - female adults, tusks’ chopped off at Dawida ranch in the periphery of Tsavo West National Park. “Four others were all tusk-less juvenile. All carcasses had gunshot wounds. The area is prone to livestock herding with a number o...
2014-04-30 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Three suspects will appear in court in Kenya next week after six elephants, including four juveniles, were found shot dead in a private reserve in one of the worst poaching incidents in several years. A wildlife official said that it is thought that the killings were at least partly motivated by revenge against officials because the calves, not having tusks, had no value to poachers.
2014-02-05 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has launched a programme to count the elephant population in both the Tsavo National Park and Mkomanzi Park in Tanzania. A total of 1193 elephants were counted in the year 2013 compared to a similar dry season in October 2010 count of 1065, a 12 per cent increase. In April 2013, the wet season count found 1930 elephants compared to 1420 in April 2010, a 35 per cent increase. Elephant population increased from 1420 to 1,930 while elephant carcass ratio declined fr...
2014-02-04 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and various stakeholders say they have finalized plans to carry out aerial census of elephants in the expansive Tsavo-Mkomazi ecosystem starting on Tuesday. KWS said Monday the results of the Feb. 4-10 exercise will help the wildlife officials establish the current elephant and other large mammals population size and distribution and compare these results with the results of past aerial counts
2013-11-10 - Nairobi, Kenya.
In an initiative backed by Prince Charles and Prince William, 25 soldiers from 3rd Batallion Parachute Regiment have been sent to train Kenyan rangers. Al Shabaab, a group linked to Al Qaeda, is said to be funding their training and attacks by selling elephant and rhino horns on the Somalian black market - a trade worth £12billion a year. In the past year, 60 wardens and 38,000 elephants have been killed by illegal poachers.
2013-10-19 - Nairobi, Kenya.
A joint week-long wildlife census carried out by Kenya and Tanzanian wildlife authorities have counted 1,193 elephants, a remarkable recovery from massive deaths, provisional results show. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said the figure is a 12 percent increase compared to a similar dry season in October 2010 when the authorities counted 1,065 elephants during the joint aerial count of elephants and other large mammals in the shared ecosystem of the Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro.
2013-10-17 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan and Tanzanian will jointly conduct a cross-border aerial count of elephants and other large mammals in the shared ecosystem of the Amboseli-West Kilimanjaro and Natron-Magadi landscape. Kenya Wildlife Service spokesperson Paul Udoto says the initiative is set to start from October 6 to 13, 2013.
2013-08-01 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Former US defence attaché in Nairobi David McNevin has been convicted of smuggling thousands of pounds worth of ivory. According to officials, McNevin was arrested with 21 pieces of ornately carved elephant tusks as he boarded a flight to Netherlands from Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
2013-06-04 - Nairobi, Kenya.
10 officers of the Kenya Wildlife Service, including a senior warden and company commander, in Tsavo have been suspended for working with poaching gangs. TCA Senior Assistant Director Julius Kimani told local media The Standard yesterday, “We have interdicted the officers for engaging in omission and commission of poaching activities. They have secretly been giving information to the poachers making it difficult for KWS to effectively deal with the poaching menace.
2013-05-14 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Authorities say that two employees of an elephant conservation group in one of Kenya´s most popular wildlife parks have been charged with ivory smuggling. The Amboseli Trust for Elephants confirmed the charges in a statement Monday. The group said it is confident that an investigation will exonerate the two, a mother and a son. Court records showed that the two Kenyans were arrested with six tusks.
2013-04-20 - Nairobi, Kenya.
An abandoned baby elephant whose mother was killed by ivory poachers has been saved after an animal rescue worker spotted it from an aeroplane. Tundani, a baby male calf, was seen trudging through the vast Kenyan savannah earlier this month. Alone in the wild and still dependent on its mother’s milk, it had no chance of survival. But since being found and taken in by a Nairobi orphanage, Tundani has been rehabilitated and grown in strength.
2013-03-12 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Elephant Trade Information System official Tom Milliken told the annual Convention on Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) conference in Bangkok, Thailand, that Kenya, Thailand, Uganda, Tanzania, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines and China had been identified as major players in the trade.
2013-01-10 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan police and wildlife service rangers have shot dead two poachers who had killed four elephants, authorities say, days after the slaughter of 12 animals sparked national outrage. "A team of rangers from the anti-poaching unit (of KWS) and police shot the two poachers and eight tusks were recovered," Isiolo police commander Daniel Kamanga told Reuters. They also recovered rifles and ammunition.
2012-12-09 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan officials say the country’s elephant and zebra populations have dropped sharply over the last four years, mainly due to poaching, demand for ivory, drought and climate change. Kenya Wildlife Service director William Kipkoech says the number of elephants fell from 7,415 to 6,361 during the period.
2012-11-01 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Sixteen pieces of raw elephant ivory were last night intercepted by Police from the special Crime prevention unit in Nairobi. It is not clear where the consignment was heading. Meanwhile, Kenya Wildlife Service rangers in Meru National Park have shot dead two poachers as two accomplices escaped after fierce exchange of fire that lasted for one hour. An AK47 rifle, 47 rounds of ammunition, two ivory tusks and two axes were recovered from them.
2012-04-15 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The large number of Chinese now working across Africa has fuelled elephant poaching on the continent, according to a BBC report. While traders were wary of being filmed by a BBC TV crew, a Chinese undercover reporter working for Panorama quickly attracted the attention of sellers using the Chinese word for ivory to good effect.
2012-03-29 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenya Wildlife Service rangers shot and killed three suspected poachers in Tsavo East National Park in the latest in a series of poacher killings amid a rise in elephant deaths, an official said Wednesday. Last week rangers shot and killed another three suspected poachers near Mount Kenya.
2012-03-17 - Nairobi, Kenya.
As one of the world´s most beautiful women, all eyes are usually on Gisele Bundchen. But the 31-year-old Brazilian model found herself well and truly upstaged by an adorable baby elephant during a recent trip to Africa. The stunning star looks deliriously happy in photographs she posted of her January trip to Kenya on her Facebook page today.
2012-02-24 - Nairobi, Kenya.
For more than half a century Dame Daphne Sheldrick has rescued and looked after orphaned elephants and other animals in Kenya. Daphne Sheldrick´s elephant orphanage sits in a corner of Nairobi National Park. Every morning, for an hour, it is open to tourists who come from all over the world to watch the orphans, aged up to three years, play in their mud bath and drink bottles of milk fed to them by their keepers.
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) on wednesday launched a national elephant conservation and management strategy. Speaking at the launch, the Minister for Forestry and Wildlife Hon Dr Noah Wekesa noted that the world was witnessing increased illegal killing of elephants and that the sophistication and the level of organisation of illegal traders in ivory were also worrying.
2012-01-21 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Elephant poachers have shot dead an unarmed wildlife ranger in Voi, according to Kenya Wildlife Services. A statement from the KWS said Abdullahi Muhammed was killed by poachers in Rukinga Wildlife Works ranch last Friday night. Another Wildlife Works ranger, Ijema Funan, was also shot and is undergoing treatment at the hospital.
2012-01-18 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The Kenya Wildlife Services has translocated a rogue elephant and its calf from Ikanga and Caanan area in Voi. During the operation, business was interrupted along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway as the KWS helicopter hovered around before darting the elephant. It was moved to the Tsavo East National Park.
2011-12-22 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan authorities seized 727 pieces of ivory in a container at the main port of Mombasa in one of the largest hauls of tusks in recent years, officials said Thursday. "We had a suspicion of the contents, and that is why we invited the Kenya Wildlife Service, opened the container and we have elephant tusks," said Kenya Revenue Authority Deputy Commissioner Rose Gachiri.
2011-11-27 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan authorities have seized a container loaded with 87 elephant tusks and disguised as soapstone carvings destined for Hong Kong, a customs official said. The 20-foot container was impounded at a depot in Nairobi. As it was being inspected for clearance for shipment, officials scanning its contents became suspicious.
2011-09-26 - Nairobi, Kenya.
More than 3000 elephants may have been slaughtered in 2011 so far - and that´s just those we know about. In Kenya, Mary Rice from the Environmental Investigation Agency witnesses the bloody reality of the global ivory trade. since January 1, 2011 (worldwide): 11,493kg of ivory have been seized; representing at least 1,149 elephants (based on an average of 10kg per animal); � an additional 3,997 tusks (no weight recorded) were seized, so that�s at least 1,998 elep...
2011-09-20 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) will move about 50 elephants from Narok North to the world famous Maasai Mara National Reserve, about 80 km southwest of Nairobi to mitigate escalating human wildlife conflict in the area, said a statement from KWS on Wednesday. KWS said the 10-day exercise to be officially launched on September 22 will be the first phase of an exercise whose total cost is expected to reach USD328,000. The first phase will cost USD74,000.
2011-09-20 - Nairobi, Kenya. Usra Hussain
The Samburu National Reserve located in Kenya has experienced a high rate of elephant poaching this year in comparison to the past 11 years. Although, elephants do not have any natural predators other than lions, elephants are threatened by human beings. African and Asian elephants are hunted for their ivory tusks and illegally traded for money. The conservationists of the Samburu National Reserve have been actively fighting poachers in order to protect the elephants in their reserve.
2011-07-31 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Last Wednesday, Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki set fire to more than five tonnes of elephant ivory to bring attention to the problem of poaching. About 335 ivory tusks and 41,000 trinkets worth about $16,290,000 ( £10 million) were burned. It had been confiscated by officials in Singapore in 2002 and found to be from Zambia and Malawai, says the Guardian.
2011-05-06 - Nairobi, Kenya.
An official says Kenyan police have seized about a tonne of illegal ivory destined for Nigeria at the country´s main airport in Nairobi. Joseph Ngisa, the officer in charge of criminal investigations in the country´s airports, said they impounded 84 elephant tusks on concealed in metal containers on Thursday. Ngisa said Friday sniffer dogs led the policemen to the containers at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport´s cargo hold. He said no arrests had been made.
2011-05-04 - Nairobi, Kenya. Jason Straziuso
Four out of seven elephants fitted with satellite tracking collars have been killed on the slopes of Mount Kenya in recent months, only a short distance from the safari lodge where Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton. Scottish conservationist Iain Douglas-Hamilton said the animals were fitted with collars over the last year by his charity, Save The Elephants.
2010-12-23 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Three suspected poachers were shot dead in Kenya in the past week in two incidents for killing five elephants, Kenyan wildlife authorities said on Monday. Kenya Wildlife Service said its rangers shot dead two poachers in the southeast of the country, arrested another, and recovered two assault rifles and seven elephant tusks.
2010-12-11 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Two Singaporean nationals were arrested late Friday as they allegedly tried to smuggle raw elephant ivory out of Kenya, according to the Kenya Wildlife Service. The suspects were arrested with 92 kilograms of illegal raw ivory at the Jomo Kenyatta International airport while trying to board a midnight flight to Bangkok, Thailand. The K9 unit of the Kenya Wildlife Service made the bust, according to Paul Udoto, a spokesman for the KWS.
2010-11-27 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan wildlife rangers shot dead two poachers suspected of killing two elephants in one of the country´s top national parks, a park official said Friday. The pair, a Kenyan and a Tanzanian, were gunned down Thursday near the Amboseli National Park in the south of the country as they prepared to shoot a herd of elephants.
2010-10-18 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The trends of poaching in Kenya over the last three years are illustrated by a steep graph that defies gravity. The number of elephant deaths in that period has grown five times. The seizure of ivory and rhino horns coming from Kenya and eastern Africa region is at a record high, even before the year ends. Data from various sources show that while 47 elephants died in 2007 due to poaching, the number rose to 145 in 2008 and to 216 in 2009. This year, 28,000 tonnes of ivory have been seized.
2010-08-27 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan authorities have seized two tonnes of raw elephant ivory and five rhino horns bound for Malaysia at the country´s main airport, wildlife officials said Monday. Officials said the ivory, from an estimated 150 elephants, had likely been collected over a period of two decades and represented "the largest elephant ivory recovery in Kenya in the recent past".
2010-08-26 - Nairobi, Kenya. David McKenzie
Kenya authorities have sentenced a Chinese national to 18 months in prison for possession of illegal ivory, the country´s wildlife service said. The man was seized on Tuesday with hand luggage, containing 10 ivory chopsticks and two bangles, according to the service. The trade in ivory both raw and finished is illegal in Kenya. The man pleaded guilty to possession of wildlife trophies. It appeared the man was taking the finished products home for his personal use and is not an ivory...
2010-07-21 - Nairobi, United States. FRED MUKINDA and BENJAMIN MUINDI
Kenya has become a safe route for cartels involved in illegal ivory trade. Investigations have, however, cleared Kenya of being the source of elephant tusks and ivory products seized in parts of the world in recent months. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), working with Interpol, is now trying to identify key people running the cartels responsible for the dwindling number of elephants. The trafficking of game trophy through Kenya has exposed the relaxed surveillance at the country’s entry and e...
2010-05-28 - Nairobi, Kenya.
SEX AND THE CITY star KRISTIN DAVIS is the proud mother of a baby elephant she adopted in Kenya. The animal-loving actress came across the mammal during her travels in between shooting the hit Sex and the City films and she decided to pay for it to be housed in a local shelter. She tells Us Weekly magazine, "I adopted a baby elephant I found abandoned in Kenya. She lives at Kenyas Sheldrick orphanage now."
2010-05-24 - Nairobi, Kenya.
A Korean who operates gambling businesses in Nairobi is in police custody in connection with illegal ivory trade. He was arrested hours after police impounded a lorry ferrying 48 elephant tusks and seven tonnes of sandalwood. The lorrys driver and a loader are also locked up at Kasarani Police station. The consignment in two containers was seized by Administration Police officers on Thika Road at around 6pm on Saturday.
2010-03-21 - Nairobi, Kenya. WALTER MENYA
Elephants were thrown a life line on Thursday after it emerged that Tanzanias proposal to be allowed to sell ivory is likely to be rejected. The rejection by conservation agency, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), would be a major victory for the Kenyan elephant, which is facing increasing danger from poachers. Elephants move freely between the Kenyan and Tanzanian game parks along the common border.
2010-01-14 - Nairobi, Kenya. Jason Straziuso
38-year-old Sharon Brown and her 1-year-old daughter were killed by an elephant on a nature hike in the Mount Kenya National Park. Sharon Brown was hiking with family and her 1-year-old daughter in a Kenyan nature reserve when suddenly their unarmed guide froze in his tracks. Around a corner was an elephant.
2009-12-07 - Nairobi, Kenya. WOLFGANG H. THOME
Information received indicates that in recent weeks over one and a half tons of ivory has been confiscated and recovered from poachers, smugglers and individuals found with it, across Eastern Africa in a concerted effort of the respective wildlife authorities, police and other security organs and customs.
2009-11-30 - Nairobi, Kenya.
African authorities raided shops, intercepted vehicles at checkpoints and used sniffer dogs to detect and seize over 3,800 pounds (1,768 kilograms) of illegal elephant ivory in a six-nation operation, Interpol and the Kenya Wildlife Service said Monday. During the three-month-long operation, authorities also seized leopard, crocodile and snake skins, among other illegal animal products, said Awad Dahia, Interpol's eastern Africa chief.
2009-11-10 - Nairobi, Kenya. James Pomfret and Tom Kirkwood
Tucked into a grimy building in Guangzhou, a small band of Chinese master carvers chip away at ivory tusks with chisels, fashioning them into the sorts of intricate carvings that were prized by Chinese emperors. A passion for ivory ornaments such as these is what helped decimate African and Asian elephant populations until a 1989 ban on ivory trade. Today, China's economic rise, and along with it a seemingly insatiable appetite for status symbols by its nouveau riche, has spurred demand for Afri...
2009-10-22 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The rains are finally here, heralding a new start for the agricultural masses. But welcome as they are, they came a bit too late for the country’s prime tourist attraction – the wildlife. According to the Kenya Wildlife Services, hundreds of animals died solely due to the drought. The country lost 40 of its 2,000 grevy’s zebra to the drought, which is two per cent of their population. “Losing 40 is a significant loss,” said Mr Patrick Omondi, a KWS Senior Assistant Director.
Lying in a crumpled heap in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, bony hips jutting into the sky, was a female elephant that had collapsed days before. “The elephants are dying a lot. The babies that were born last year are all dead,” said Norah Njiraini, of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, who has watched as nearly a hundred calves have succumbed to exhaustion and malnutrition in recent months.
2009-10-20 - Nairobi, Kenya. Rhishja Larson
Thanks to the controversial approval of a one-off ivory sale, illegal trade in ivory has been reinvigorated - and 100 elephants a day are being slaughtered. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) approved a one-off elephant ivory auction in 2008 of 119 tons (108 tonnes) - representing over 10,000 dead elephants - and this decision is believed to have stimulated the growing illegal ivory market.
2009-10-09 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Today, The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust reported Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher recently spent time visiting its elephant orphans. The Trust says elephants are at risk now more than ever. According to the WSPA member society, drought, poaching and habitat loss have put African elephant populations under serious threat. The organization is dedicated to the protection and preservation of Africa's Wildreness, with particular attention to endagered species such as rhinos and elephants.
2009-10-08 - Nairobi, Kenya. MUCHIRI KARANJA
Sir Richard Branson is giving a virgin gift for Kenyan jumbos — an Sh18 million underpass on the busy Meru-Nanyuki highway. Virgin Atlantic, his company, donated the money to put up the underpass through the Bill Woodley Mount Kenya Trust. Once complete, the six metre long underpass will be the first of its kind in East Africa, and the second in Africa. The South Africans have one, but it is much smaller than the one we are putting up, said The Bill Woodley Mount Kenya Trust CEO, Susie Weeks.
2009-09-30 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan authorities have seized almost 700kg of ivory worth millions of dollars in a night-time raid at the country's main airport. The Kenya Wildlife Service says a similar amount was intercepted in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. Both consignments - with a potential value of more than $1.5m (£938,000) - were reportedly headed for Thailand. The BBC's Will Ross in Nairobi says poaching is on the increase mostly owing to high demand for ivory in Asia. Our reporter says it is not yet cl...
2009-09-28 - Nairobi, Kenya. Lucy Thornton
A British holidaymaker has told how he survived a terrifying elephant attack by pretending he was dead as the giant beast gored him with its tusks. Jonathan, who was camping in the bush during a five week trip to Kenya, was forced to run for his life when the elephant came charging out of the undergrowth. He said: “It was going at full speed and making a loud trumpeting noise. I turned and ran but I could hear his feet thumping behind me, it was a thundering sound.
2009-09-21 - Nairobi, Kenya.
More than sixty African elephants and hundreds of other animals have died so far in Kenya amid the worst drought to hit the country in over a decade, conservationists announced. So-called "long rains" that usually fall in March and April failed this year, and some areas have now been in drought conditions for almost three years. No one knows why the drought has been so bad. Many attribute it to global warming, but others say it is simply part of the long-term weather cycle in East Africa.
2009-09-20 - Nairobi, Kenya.
One of the worst droughts in living memory is taking its toll on both people and wildlife in Kenya. Clashes over land and water lead to the deaths of 32 people last week, with community leaders warning there will be more violence. Meanwhile, in Samburu district at least 24 elephants have either starved or been shot by poachers looking for food. Peter Greste reports from northern Kenya.
2009-09-09 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Conservationists say more than 100 of Kenya's famous elephants have died in the country's north this year through poaching or drought-related hunger. Save the Elephants head Iain Douglas-Hamilton says the drought is Kenya's worst in 12 years. He said that elephants are malnourished and vulnerable to illness. He also says increased poaching could be related to last year's decision by an international regulatory body to allow Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to sell off their co...
2009-09-08 - Nairobi, Kenya.
A Chinese official Monday denied allegations that demand for ivory from Chinese workers is a main contributor to rising elephant poaching in Kenya. Wan Ziming, director of enforcement and training at the endangered species' office of the State Forestry Administration, said illegal ivory imports to China have declined significantly since 2000, despite smuggles from individual workers or travelers to Africa.
2009-08-23 - Nairobi, Kenya.
In the first six months of this year, more than 70 elephants have been killed by poachers, and last year, nearly 100 elephants in Kenya were found dead with their tusks missing. According to an official of the Kenya Wildlife Service, the surge in poaching can be attributed to criminal syndicates – mostly from China and Southeast Asia – which are aiding and abetting the poachers. The report warned that if poaching continued, the elephant population could die off within 15 years.
2009-07-24 - Nairobi, Kenya. ROB CRILLY
ELEPHANTS ARE destroying Kenya’s national parks, trampling woodland and putting other species at risk, according to a new report. The giant mammals need vast areas of land to graze and trying to protect them inside parks is putting a strain on the rest of the ecosystem. The finding is part of a study that discovered Kenya’s famous wild animal population is dying off at the same rate inside protected parks as outside – 40 per cent in 20 years.
2009-02-25 - Nairobi, Kenya. Michael McCarthy
There has been an "unprecedented" surge in elephant poaching in one of Kenya's principal national parks since a large-scale ivory sale late last year, which gave a renewed boost to the international ivory market. The sale was of more than 100 tonnes of legal ivory from four southern African countries whose elephant populations are not threatened, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.
2009-02-25 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenya's major wildlife park has seen a surge in elephant poaching, an increase officials attribute to last year's large-scale ivory sale -- authorized by the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in the face of fierce criticism. Five elephants were killed in six weeks at Tsavo National Park, home to 11,700 elephants, Kenya's largest single elephant population. Officials fear the sale and subsequent spike in poaching could lead to the return of slaughter on the scale witnesse...
2009-02-24 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The Kenya Wildlife Service has arrested two suspected poachers and a middleman from their hideout in the park for allegedly killing five elephants in the last six weeks in Tsavo ecosystems of Kenya, a government wildlife official has said. The poaching incidents come barely three months after the auctions of 112 tonnes of ivory stocks from South Africa, Bostwana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Five elephants have been poached in the last six weeks in the Tsavo ecosystem of Kenya, alarming authorities and conservationists alike. The elephants, whose tusks had been hacked off, were found in three separate parts of the protected area. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) rangers arrested two suspected poachers and one middleman from their hideout in the park, and recovered two AK-47 rifles and 38 rounds of ammunition. The middleman had already sold off the tusks to other dealers in the illegal i...
2009-02-07 - Nairobi, Kenya. Claire Wanja
A Chinese national was Saturday morning seized with four bangles of ivory at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi. Mr Zhang Zhong, 37, who was on transit from Guinea to Uganda's Entebbe Airport, was arrested at 8am by Customs and Kenya Wildlife Service officials. The suspect is being held at the JKIA police station and is expected to be charged with possession of wildlife trophy without a permit at Makadara Law Court on Monday morning.
2009-01-17 - Nairobi, Kenya. Mike Pflanz
A female elephant is seen shoving her naughty son with her tusks for being mean to his little sister in extraordinary new BBC documentary footage showing behaviour never before witnessed. The everyday tale of family jealousy was captured on camera by a team of animal experts filming elephants in Kenya for a new documentary to be shown on the BBC tonight. The matriarch of the herd Harbattan had lost a calf soon after the birth and her only other son Buster had reached the age of six with no sibli...
2009-01-16 - Nairobi, Kenya. AMANDA CABLE
Harmattan is living on the edge of her nerves. Her teenage son Buster is straying away from home and picking fights with local gangs. Younger daughter, Breeze, is desperate for more independence, but Harmattan is still haunted by the death of her middle child, and is fiercely over-protective. She has an awful instinct that something terrible will happen, which may threaten the survival of her children. And she isn't wrong. It sounds like the same stresses faced by mothers the world over. But Har...
2009-01-03 - Nairobi, Kenya. DANIEL WESANGULA
For the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the official custodian of the country’s wildlife, 2008 has been a year of mixed fortunes. Despite the violence that the country experienced at the turn of the year, KWS officials were optimistic that the wildlife population would increase with most of the national parks and game reserves not negatively affected.
2008-12-21 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Can you imagine an orphanage that's a happy place? 60 Minutes couldn't, but then we found one. The kids don't arrive here smiling. Like orphans all over the world, they've been abandoned. They're hungry, sad and desperate. But after a few years, they're healthy, well-fed and happy. As correspondent Bob Simon reports, this orphanage is for elephants, located outside Nairobi, Kenya. They've been orphaned because their parents - their mothers mainly - have died, or more likely, been killed in the b...
2008-11-17 - Nairobi, Kenya.
A tonne of ivory items and 57 suspects were netted in a four-month operation billed Africa's largest-ever crackdown on wildlife crime, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said Monday. The crackdown -- code-named Operation Baba -- also seized cheetah, leopard, serval cat and python skins as well as hippo teeth at several markets, airports and border crossings in Congo Brazzaville, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. "All the participating countries simultaneously struck at the illegal domestic markets ...
2008-11-05 - Nairobi, Kenya. Richard Leakey
I am deeply concerned about the ongoing one-off ivory auction that started on 28 October in Namibia and ended on Wednesday, 6 November 2008 in South Africa. I have spent many years looking at issues of elephant conservation and ivory trade and played a major role in successfully eliminating the massive ivory poaching that characterized what is considered the darkest period for African elephants in Kenya in the late 1980s, I believe that auctioning the ivory stockpiles would cause poaching to inc...
2008-10-08 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Baby elephants follow a keeper enroute to their watering place at a wildlife trust in Kenyan capital Nairobi Oct. 2, 2008. Visitors are allowed only about an hour each day at the trust, an elephant orphanage founded in the 1970s to take in baby elephants orphaned by ivory poachers.
2008-09-19 - Nairobi, Kenya. Richard Leakey
I am incredulous that the Centre of International Forestry Research (CIFOR) would suggest bushmeat hunting be legalized, giving the local people the task of policing themselves. This position shows remarkable naïveté and totally fails to understand the realities on the ground. A hungry population is never going to practice conservation of food, especially where it can be had free from the forest.
2008-08-31 - Nairobi, Kenya. Daniel Stiles
The "to be or not to be" question of selling ivory has been the subject of a heated debate for 20 years now. Kenya has been leading the charge in the debate with its resounding "Not to be" answer. Kenya banned the domestic use and sale of ivory and other wildlife products in 1978, and it was instrumental in promoting the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) ban on international ivory sales voted in 1989. Everyone remembers the huge bonfire of elephant tusks in the Nair...
2008-08-30 - Nairobi, Kenya.
For close to a decade now, Kenya has been in the forefront in crusading against the push by a few countries seeking to have a worldwide ban on trade in ivory lifted. As a country, Kenya has had a chilling experience with poaching which justifies this trepidation. In 1973, our elephant population stood at 135,000. The next decade saw wanton poaching almost wipe out the entire elephant population. By the time an international ban on the trade in ivory was in place and the jumbos brought under the ...
2008-08-18 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The Kenya Wildlife Service officers in collaboration with the Kenya Airport Authority have arrested three Chinese Nationals with 2.2 kilograms of processed ivory at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), Nairobi. The three Chinese, who were travelling to Harare, Zimbabwe, were arrested and taken to the JKIA police station when they failed to produce any valid CITES permits allowing them to travel with the carved trophies.
2008-07-29 - Nairobi, Kenya. Isaac Ongiri
The decision by a global arbiter on endangered species to allow China to import backlog stock of ivory from Africa may be the death knell for Kenyan elephants. The lives of the country’s more than 40,000 elephants spread across national parks is now on the line. Sitting in Geneva, Switzerland, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) ruled that China and Japan would buy 108 tonnes of ivory stocks in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Namibia.
2008-07-17 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan authorities have detained three Chinese nationals at the country's main airport on suspicion of smuggling ivory, an official said. "The three Chinese nationals - two women and a man - were arrested at the airport in Nairobi while in possession of 2.2 kilograms of ivory," Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) spokesman Gichuki Kabukuru said. "Since they did not have a permit, we take it as smuggling of ivory." The trio, who had stayed in Kenya for four days, were en route to the Zimbabwean capital ...
2008-07-17 - Nairobi, Kenya. Alphonce Shiundu And John Ngirachu
Three Chinese nationals were on Wednesday arrested in possession of 2.2 kilogrammes of ivory at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. The three were arrested on the same day that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) relaxed the ban on ivory trade, to allow China import stocks from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The measure has alarmed conservation groups, which believe the huge Chinese demand for ivory will result in an increase in poaching of the...
2008-07-16 - NAIROBI, Kenya.
Kenya's wildlife service says two Chinese women are being questioned at Nairobi's international airport after being found with 36 pieces of ivory. The women were stopped at the airport Wednesday morning, said Kentice Tikomo, a spokesman for the Kenyan Wildlife Service. They were booked on a flight to China. Kenya's elephant population has grown from 16,000 to 27,000 since the U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species banned the ivory trade in 1989. But that is far fewer than t...
2008-05-20 - Nairobi, Kenya. Solomon Mburu
Modern technology may soon come to the aid of farmers living under the constant threat of elephants from Mount Kenya forest. Tests on a new GSM technology that seeks to enhance communication between local communities and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) are at an advanced stage. Dubbed ‘Push to Talk on Cellular’ (PoC), the technology has brought together Safaricom Ltd as the lead organization, Groupe Spéciale Mobile Association (GSMA) Development Fund, Wireless Zeta Telecomunicaciones (Wire...
2008-05-16 - Nairobi, Kenya. TOM ODULA
Police charged a Chinese man and woman with illegally possessing about 240 pounds of ivory and trying to fly it out of Kenya, an officer said Thursday. Shubo Liang and Tao Gu pleaded not guilty after the charges were read in a magistrate's court, said Joseph Mumira, chief investigator at Kenya's main international airport where the pair were arrested. A routine screen of the suspects' luggage Wednesday showed they contained elephant tusks, cut into pieces, Mumira said, adding that the origin of ...
2008-04-16 - Nairobi, Kenya. Solomon Mburu
The building of a corridor meant to ease the movement of elephants around Mount Kenya is set to start by the end of the month. The corridor will help elephants safely cross between Ngare Ndare Forest and Mt. Kenya National Reserve. The aim is to have this done without obstructing traffic flow along the Nanyuki - Meru road and other access roads in the area. The project that has attracted the support of Virgin Atlantic CEO, Sir Richard Branson, the Dutch government and Safaricom, is expected to c...
2008-04-02 - Nairobi, Kenya. Henry Neondo
“Some of the most important decisions in wildlife management in Africa revolve around elephants, but a lot of the information is not readily accessible to conservation authorities. Much of it is scattered in diverse reports and scientific papers or as part of the body of unwritten expert knowledge,” Holly Dublin, Chair of IUCN’s African Elephant Specialist Group and the Species Survival Commission says in a recent report.
2008-03-17 - Nairobi, Kenya. Richard Leakey
It is too soon for conservationists to ring the alarm bells over South Africa's elephant management plan that includes culling, argues Dr Richard Leakey. In this week's Green Room, he says the measures are necessary and based in animal welfare concerns. The issue of culling is highly emotive
2008-03-17 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The eminent conservationist Richard Leakey has given qualified backing for South Africa's plan to cull elephants. In an article for the BBC News website, the former head of the Kenyan Wildlife Service says culling is "a necessary part of population management". But Dr Leakey says there is also a responsibility to curb human activities that impinge on elephant habitat. South Africa plans to allow culling after a gap of 14 years because of growing numbers of elephants. The population is estimated ...
2008-03-17 - Nairobi, Kenya. Mike Pflanz
Four elephants including two infants have been killed and 10 others wounded during a series of spear attacks close to a Kenyan game park. Among the dead was a four-month-old female calf who had been speared 14 times. Conservationists were today still searching for two other older males spotted with head wounds including one who had a spear still embedded in his skull. The pair have disappeared into the bush since the attacks.
2008-03-17 - Nairobi, Kenya. Steve Bloomfield
In Chad, Janjaweed militia from Sudan killed 100 elephants in one afternoon; in Kenya, Somali warlords armed with rocket-propelled grenades killed four wildlife rangers during a bloody raid on herds in the Tana Delta; in Democratic Republic of Congo, a whole host of rebel groups have turned the country's dwindling elephant population into a new cash crop.
2008-03-06 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Tourism can play a key role in restoring economic activity and employment in Kenya and in doing so play its part in bringing peace and stability to the East African country, the head of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said today. Achim Steiner, UNEP's Executive Director was speaking in Berlin, Germany which this week is hosting one of the world's biggest tourism fairs. Mr Steiner said: 'Indeed it is an overall measure of KWS's success that elephant populations in Kenya have risen recently by...
2008-02-20 - Nairobi, Kenya. George Obulutsa
Hungry refugees in Tanzania are eating chimpanzees and other endangered species in order to supplement their meager diet, international conservation group Traffic said on Tuesday. It said refugees living near national parks in northwestern Tanzania were also illegally hunting buffalo, topi, eland, elephant and waterbuck. In neighboring Kenya, aid and conservation groups said refugee camps housing thousands of people who fled violence after disputed December 27 were damaging the environment, as d...
2008-02-18 - Nairobi, Kenya. Elizabeth Miranda
International bans on the ivory trade and efforts to control poaching have helped Kenya's elephant population rebound, wildlife authorities say. In the Tsavo/Mkomazi area a conservancy in the larger Tsavo area in southern Kenya the elephant population grew from 10,397 in 2005 to 11,696 in 2008, according the Kenya Wildlife Service.
2008-02-11 - Nairobi, Kenya. Philip Mwakio
Seventeen African countries, including Kenya, have signed a document for the establishment of a coalition to save the elephant. It was also agreed that a global elephant action plan that will fight illegal killing and trade in ivory be implemented. It also paved way for an elephant conservation fund to be known as the African Elephant Coalition, says Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Assistant Director for Biodiversity, Research and Planning, Mr Patrick Omondi. He said Mali, where the meeting was hel...
2008-02-08 - Nairobi, Kenya.
A shimmer of light over much of the gloom shadowing Kenya at the moment is the heart warming news that elephant population in the country has been on the rise in the last several years. Breaking the news early this week, the Kenya Wildlife Service said a four per cent growth of elephant population was an indication that the state of the country’s wildlife is healthy. This follows successful anti-poaching measures and internationally supported bans on ivory trade.
2008-01-25 - Nairobi, Kenya. Charles Wanyoro
Residents of the larger Meru Central region, many of them farmers, live under fear of elephants. While the beasts pose a general security threat to all locals, the farmers have been affected more since the animals have been feasting and trampling on acres of crops just before harvest. The lush green farms in Ruiri Division of Imenti North District suggest bumper harvest this season but the presence of destructive elephants dictate otherwise. The farmers have for a long time been grappling over m...
2007-11-15 - Nairobi, Kenya.
IT SOUNDS too cute to be true — orphaned elephants learning to love again under the gentle guidance of Kenyan keepers on the plains of Nairobi. And while there's plenty to coo over in Elephant Diaries (baby elephants playing football, chasing wart-hogs and nuzzling their keepers), the program doesn't shy away from the reality of wildlife in peril. Co-presenter Michaela Strachan, who hosts a variety of British wildlife and children's programs, says the adorable antics of the show's stars are an...
2007-09-25 - Nairobi, Kenya. Karen Allen
British soldiers training in Kenya, accused of frightening wildlife, say they did not overfly the game reserves. The soldiers, it was claimed, had been flying helicopters so low that they were scaring off the wild animals. Game wardens in the Samburu district complained that the British forces were hampering Kenya's conservation efforts. The allegations sparked an urgent investigation and the British High Commission now says none of the alleged incidents took place.
2007-07-17 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Vice President Moody Awori says Kenya will continue to oppose the trade in ivory products as a means to conserve the dwindling elephant population. Mr. Awori noted that in the past the elephant population in the country stood at about 100, 000, regretting that the number had since reduced to about 30,000 only. He said that to demonstrate its commitment to fight poaching and illegal ivory trade, Kenya burned thousands of ivory worth US $50 million that were confiscated from poachers.
2007-06-15 - Nairobi, Kenya. Coastweek
In February an aerial wildlife count was undertaken in the Shimba Hills Ecosystem with special intrest on the pachyderms. The main aim was to counter check the elephant numbers still in the ecosystem in preparation for the forthcoming translocation, tentatively scheduled for August. Approximately 100 elephants, mainly problem bulls will be targeted for relocation.
2007-06-06 - Nairobi, Kenya. CHRIS TOMLINSON
The markets in the Central African Republic offer all of the jungle's delicacies, including monkey, chimpanzee, antelope and, if you have the cash, even elephant. A typical forest elephant, which weighs 5,000 to 6,000 pounds and produces 1,000 or so pounds of edible meat, can earn a poacher up to $180 for the ivory and as much as $6,000 for the meat. The average income for an African in the Congo Basin is about $1 a day.
2007-05-19 - Nairobi, Kenya. Bonny Apunyu
Kenya is being backed by some seven African countries on its proposal for a 20-year moratorium on ivory trade. However, southern African states, including Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa have opposed the proposal. Since the last Cites conference in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2004, more than 40 tonnes of ivory have been seized.
2007-04-25 - Nairobi, Kenya.
African states called on Tuesday for a 20-year ban on trade in ivory to protect the continent's elephants from poachers and possible extinction in the wild. Kenya and Mali, which spearheaded the moratorium along with Togo and Ghana, are seeking to have the measure adopted at the June meeting of the 169-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), their representatives said at a meeting in Paris.
2007-04-15 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Joachim Kagiri, the Kenya Wildlife Service deputy director is in charge of wildlife and community conservation. Kagiri dedicated his MBA thesis to the graceful African elephant, an unusual expression of his admiration and respect for the African Jumbo, and Kagiri made his bones fighting renegade Somali soldiers fleeing a collapsing Siad Barre regime and militia outfits setting up banditry and poaching careers in the wild vastness of Meru National Park.
2007-03-11 - Nairobi, Kenya. Hadas Kroitoru
Retired Israel Air Force planes are being given a second opportunity to defend the countryside, but this time around, it’s in Africa and it's wildlife they are protecting. Two restored Israel Air Force planes are getting their second wind above the national parks of Kenya, fighting illegal poaching on the countrys porous border with Somalia. It is estimated that some 20,000 elephants are poached every year across the elephant-range countries of Africa, says Elizabeth Wamba, communications and ...
2007-03-06 - Nairobi, Kenya. Paul Redfern, The East African
International wildlife organisations say there has been a surge in elephant poaching across East Africa and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa over the past 18 months.At least 20 tonnes of ivory were smuggled into African and Asian countries this year by poachers, almost doubling the amount seized in previous years. Experts believe that as many as five per cent of Africa's elephants are now being killed for their ivory each year, amounting to around 23,000 elephants.
2007-02-08 - Nairobi, Kenya.
A British woman, trampled and left for dead by an elephant in Kenya, is suing the luxury lodge that she says failed to warn her of the dangers posed by wild animals. Il Ngwesi lodge stands amid the acacia dotted splendour of the Lewa Downs Conservancy, which is run by Ian Craig, a member of one of Kenya's most famous white families. Prince William is a frequent visitor after dating Jecca Craig, his daughter. Wendy Martin, 46, had to be airlifted to the UK after being gored by the elephant during...
2007-02-07 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Pachyderm is a bi-annual international peer-reviewed journal that deals primarily with matters related to African elephant and African and Asian rhino conservation and management in the wild. It is also a platform for dissemination of information concerning the activities of the African Elephant, the African Rhino, and the Asian Rhino Specialist Groups of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC).
2007-02-02 - Nairobi, Kenya. Beatrice Obwocha and Winnie Chumo
Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) plans to experiment with contraceptives to control a surging elephant population. KWS Director, Dr Julius Kipngetich, said the experiment would be conducted on elephants at Shimba Hills in the Coast. "The use of contraceptives on elephants has worked in South Africa and we will borrow the idea to control the number of elephants," he said.
2007-01-10 - Nairobi, Kenya. Wittemyer G, Ganswindt A, Hodges K. Save the Elephants
This study investigates the relationship between Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI), an ecosystem surrogate measure of primary productivity, and fecal progestin concentrations among wild female elephants. Matched fecal samples and behavioral data on reproductive activity were collected from 37 focal individuals during the two-year study.
2006-12-15 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan wildlife authorities killed a notorious elephant poacher near one of its famed national parks, officials said on Friday, as neighbouring Uganda reported a huge seizure of illegal ivory. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said its wardens shot dead Somali poacher Hussein Ture in a fierce gunbattle at Tsavo East National Park late on Thursday after tracking him and two colleagues in the bush for three months. "We have been chasing him and his group for about 20 years," KWS spokesperson Connie...
2006-10-24 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Three people were trampled to death by elephants in different incidents in Kwale and Laikipia districts at the weekend. Villagers claimed the elephants is among those that the Kenya Wildlife Service was moving from Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary. In Laikipia, Thuo Kariuki, who was driving away a herd of about 20 elephants which had invaded their village, was attacked and killed.
2006-10-02 - Nairobi, Kenya. Philip Mwakio
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has embarked on the second phase of the elephant translocation programme. Mr Patrick Omondi, the KWS Head of Species and Management Conservation, told The Standard that yesterday a family of five elephants and one bull were moved from the Shimba Hills National Reserve to Tsavo East National Park on Saturday.
2006-09-29 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenya's biggest elephant relocation resumed on Friday after it was suspended last year because of heavy rains. The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) began the translocation of 250 elephants from a crowded coastal reserve to the country's biggest nature park, Tsavo National Park, in the country's ongoing attempt to reduce confrontations between elephants and humans.
2006-09-14 - nairobi, Kenya.
The Kenya Wildlife Service has begun moving 150 elephants from a small reserve to its largest national park because of overcrowding with rhinos, a spokesman said Wednesday. The first 40 elephants were tranquilized and moved by truck earlier this week from the Ngulia Rhino Sanctuary, about 185 miles east of Nairobi, under the program. The remainder were to be moved by Friday.
2006-09-01 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenyan wildlife rangers in choppers killed a pair of rogue elephants this week after a series of fatal attacks on people in incidents highlighting growing human-animal conflict, officials said on Thursday. The rampaging bulls, blamed by locals for leading larger groups of jumbos onto farms to raid crops, were shot dead on Sunday and Wednesday near the famed Maasai Mara National Reserve and a ranch in central Kenya, the officials said.
2006-07-24 - Nairobi, Kenya.
African savannah elephants avoid climbing even minor hills because it costs them so much energy, say scientists. A four-ton elephant that climbs 100 metres would have to forage for food for an extra half-hour to replace the energy it burned, the study indicates.
2006-07-05 - Nairobi, Kenya. Nancy Akinyi
A Nairobi court has indefinitely put on halt the Governments intended plan to export elephants to Thailand pending the hearing and determination of a case filed by the Nairobi CBO consortium. The NGO opposed the intended move terming it a waste of the countrys few natural resources.
2006-05-14 - Nairobi, Kenya. Philip Mwakio
The historic elephant translocation exercise that was stopped last December is expected to resume in July. The exercise, billed the largest ever in the world, seeks to move 400 elephants from the Shimba Hills National Reserve to Tsavo East National Park. The second phase of the translocation exercise hopes to move 250 jumbos. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Head of Elephant programmes, Mr Patrick Omondi, told The Sunday Standard that plans were still on for the exercise.
2006-02-13 - Nairobi, Kenya. JEFF OTIENO
Kenya has been singled out as one of the leading transit points for the illegal animal trade destined for Europe and Asia. According to a recent report titled Ivory Markets of Europe, most of the ivory originates from war-torn countries of sub-Saharan Africa where laws against the killing of wildlife are almost non-existent.
2006-02-12 - Nairobi, Kenya. RODRIQUE NGOWI
Elephants, buffaloes and other wild animals drink water on one side of a swamp. On the other, Maasai warriors watch hundreds of cattle graze as the tropical sun sears the parched land of this wildlife sanctuary. Balancing the needs of both sides is becoming more complex, and environmentalists fear the wildlife are gradually losing out.
2006-01-12 - NAIROBI, Kenya.
Elephants in Kenyan national parks and reserves are leaving their drought-stricken sanctuaries to search for water and food near human settlements, where they have attacked starving people trying to protect their crops. U.N. agencies have warned of hunger across the region because of drought and say the situation in eastern Kenya is particularly serious. People reportedly have died of hunger during what officials say is the country's worst drought in 22 years.
2005-12-31 - Nairobi, Kenya.
The burial of a man killed by a rogue elephant in Kenya`s Tausa village on the country`s border with Tanzania, was Thursday disrupted by a herd of marauding jumbos, that invaded the ceremony forcing hundreds of mourners and residents to flee the scene. Kenyan news agency (KNA) reported that Haggai Kisombe, 79, who was trampled to death by the elephant last Friday while grazing cattle, was later buried after the charging jumbos had left the scene.
2005-10-15 - NAIROBI, Kenya. RODRIQUE NGOWI
The struggling parks where Kenya's largest elephant and rhino populations live will get trucks, communication equipment and better roads in a $1.25 million anti-poaching program. "The challenges are huge and they need help," said Elizabeth Wamba of the U.S.-based International Fund for Animal Welfare, which is funding the program.
2005-09-29 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenya's biggest elephant relocation involving about 400 of the animals has been suspended until next January because of upcoming rains, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said on Thursday. "Apart from the short rains that have started, we will also take this opportunity to monitor the resettlement of the animals already in Tsavo and service our vehicles," said Patrick Omondi, who heads the KWS elephant programme.
2005-09-22 - NAIROBI, Kenya. RODRIQUE NGOWI
The struggling parks where Kenya's largest elephant and rhino populations live will get trucks, communication equipment and better roads in a $1.25 million anti-poaching program unveiled Thursday. "The challenges are huge and they need help," said Elizabeth Wamba of the U.S.-based International Fund for Animal Welfare, which is funding the program.
2005-09-16 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Researchers in Kenya and South Africa are using cellphone technology to gather information on elephants, cheetahs, leopards and other animals. The relatively cheap tracking device includes a no-frills cellphone that is put in a weatherproof case with a GPS receiver, memory card and software to operate the system. The unit, placed on a collar, is then tied around the neck of a wild animal.
2005-09-06 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenya's wildlife authorities said here Monday its rangers have seized 22 elephant tusks and arrested three suspects who tried to sell them in Garsen town in southeastern Kenya. Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Communications Director Connie Maina said the trio who were looking for buyers were arrested by KWS rangers who posed as buyers following a tip-off on Monday.
2005-09-05 - NAIROBI, Kenya. TOM MALITI
Kenya has resumed its largest ever relocation of elephants, moving 50 of 400 pachyderms expected to make the trip on flatbed trailers from an overcrowded national park to a more secure reserve. The Shimba Hills park has 600 elephants, or three times what it can comfortably handle, so the animals move into populated areas, destroying crops and injuring people. Elephant-human encounters have been increasing as Kenya's population grows and more people move to once-empty land to farm, at times close...
2005-08-22 - Nairobi, Kenya. Tom Maliti
The Kenya Wildlife Service will relocate 400 elephants to Kenya's largest national park, from a smaller national reserve in the country's south-east that has too many elephants, a spokesperson said on Monday. The $3,2-million exercise will begin on Thursday and involve transporting elephants more than 350km to the northern part of Tsavo East National Park, from Shimba Hills National Reserve, said Edward Indakwa, a corporate communications officer with the Kenya Wildlife Service.
2005-07-14 - Nairobi, Kenya. Jackson Mwalulu
Assistant Minister Danson Mungatana wants his constituents to kill all the rogue elephants straying into Garsen. This makes perfect sense. Wildlife should never take precedence over human beings. The importance of wildlife to this country cannot be gainsaid. Increasingly, however, it would appear the Government supports the Kenya Wildlife Service's antipathy towards striking a balance between taking care of wild animals and protecting people.
2005-07-12 - Nairobi, Kenya. Jonathan Manyindo
Tourism minister Morris Dzoro and his assistant, Mr Boniface Mganga, have differed over plans to move 400 elephants from Kwale to Tsavo East National Park. The minister said last Friday that the transfer would go on despite resistance from the local community. But Mr Mganga is opposed to the move without local people being consulted and being told how they would benefit from tourism earnings.
2005-07-07 - Nairobi, Kenya. Solomon Laboso and Isaac Ongiri
Suspected poachers have killed several elephants at Namnyak and Sarara wildlife conservancies in Wambaa and Waso divisions of Samburu District. An official, Tom Letiwa, said Kenya Wildlife Service rangers found some of the elephants without tusks. He blamed poaching in Samburu, Isiolo, Marsabit, Laikipia and Meru North districts on illegal firearms.
2005-06-21 - Nairobi, Kenya.
A Tourism assistant minister has opposed plans to transfer 400 elephants from Kwale District to Tsavo East National Park. "Both Tsavo East and West parks have about 10,000 elephants and adding some more will be adding insult to injury," Mr Boniface Mganga said yesterday. According to him, a leaders' meeting to discuss the transfer of the elephants failed to take place on Saturday because a Kenya Wildlife Service director did not inform the Ministry of Tourism on time.
2005-06-16 - Nairobi, Kenya. Margaret Oganda
Did you know that baby elephants like to play with sticks and stones? And that they can even play with rubber tubes and balls? These calves are also very friendly, and can become friends with girls and boys. Once one becomes your friend, it will remember you for a long, long time. One sunny morning, pupils from Rosamystica Academy in Mathare, in Nairobi had a special treat: A trip to a place where nine baby elephants live. Their names are Kora, nine months, Buchuma, 12 months , Ndomot, 17 months...
2005-03-15 - Nairobi, Kenya. Tony Dennis
A RELIABLE SOURCE informs the INQ that conservationists in Kenya have been fitting elephants with mini mobile phones. The phone gives away the elephant's location via a text (SMS) message. The purpose of the exercise is to stop the elephants trampling valuable crops. When the elephants start to move towards the planted fields, the farmers are alerted and can head the herd off before any damage is done.
2005-03-15 - Nairobi, Kenya. Wangui Kanina
SUDAN'S army has illegally slaughtered thousands of elephants and exported the ivory to China, where it is made into chopsticks, a conservationist said today. The army was responsible for the slaughter of elephants in southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic before transporting the ivory to dealers in Khartoum and Cairo, said Esmond Martin, who is based in Kenya. Mr Martin said a 20-year civil war in southern Sudan had made it difficult to d...
2005-03-10 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenya's elephant population has jumped by about 10% in the past three years due to a strict clampdown on poaching in the east African nation, the country's wildlife authority said on Thursday. "In 2002, we estimated there were 27 000 elephants, now we estimate that the elephants have increased to about 30 000," Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) spokesperson Edward Indakwa said. "Due to improved monitoring and surveillance, we have managed to cut down on poaching of eleph...
2005-02-12 - Nairobi, Kenya.
For over 10 years now, Salome Gachago has been counting elephants and finds few things in life as exciting. For her, writes Edward Indakwa, the thrill of being up in the air, the rush of adrenaline as the pilot navigates through aerial bumps is simply beyond description. On a normal working day, Gachago — the Kenya Wildlife Service’s tourism development manager — is all serious and businesslike. But once every other year, she trades her business suit for khaki pants and heads into Tsavo Na...
2005-01-27 - Nairobi, Kenya. Nixon Ng’ang’a
No deal has been agreed yet between Kenya and Thailand governments to donate a collection of wildlife species to the Asian country. Acting Tourism Minister Raphael Tuju dismissed reports that the Government had offered Thailand 300 animals, including some rare species as "speculation and rumours from busy bodies." The minister said the matter was still under consideration and details over the agreement would be made public when a decision is arrived at.
2005-01-26 - NAIROBI, Kenya. Marc Lacey, The New York Times
Animal welfare groups have condemned plans by the Kenyan government to send 300 wild animals, including rhinos, cheetahs and lions, to Thailand, where they are to be placed in zoos and safari parks. Kenyan officials portray the transfer as part of an effort to increase tourism to Kenya and ultimately to help the country's animal population. Kenyan tourism has been on the rise over the last year, and Asia is viewed as an important source of new visitors. While it has...
2004-12-19 - Nairobi, Kenya. IPP Media
Since the pioneering behavioural studies of Iain Douglas-Hamilton in Tanzania and Cynthia Moss in Kenya, the Wildlife Conservation Society has provided major support to elephant research and conservation throughout Africa. WCS scientists have developed new techniques for elephant research and monitoring, including forest elephant census methods, aerial videography, genetics, acoustics, and the first satellite telemetry of forest elephants.
2004-12-15 - Nairobi, Kenya. The East African Standard
The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) yesterday advised farmers within the elephant migrating corridors to plant crops not preffered by wild animals. Laikipia deputy game warden Nixon Korir said farmers could also erect electric fences around their farms since it was impossible to control the movement of elephants during the migration season.
2004-12-07 - Nairobi, Kenya. Isaac Ongiri, The East African Standard
Who is killing Africa’s elephants and encouraging the trade on ivory? With the global ban on ivory trade still in place, the precious elephant tusks are increasingly becoming marketable worldwide, further endangering the lives of the African elephant, mostly targeted for elimination by poachers. And with ready and secret markets in some Asian and European countries, the population of the African elephant is endangered today as it was when the ban was put in ...
2004-12-02 - Nairobi, Kenya. Mail and Guardian
A project to clear landmines along paths used by elephants in a wildlife sanctuary in Angola during migratory periods was launched at a conference on landmines in Nairobi on Thursday. The project, to clear mines along the migratory paths in Luiana Partial Reserve in eastern Angola linking them to parks in Botswana and Zambia, was launched by Nobel Peace Prize winner Jody Williams.
2004-11-02 - Nairobi, Kenya. Peter Lemeteki, The Nation
An activist yesterday asked the Kenya Wildlife Service to control the killings of elephants. Saying the animals could soon become extinct, the Samburu Wildlife Forum chairman, Mr James Lenges, said last month, more than 100 elephants were killed by poachers in different areas of the district.
2004-11-01 - Nairobi, Kenya. Muchiri Gitonga, The Nation
Government departments have been blamed for the delay in erecting an electric fence to ward off wild animals at Mt Kenya National Park. Aid Kenya, an NGO, called for an end to the delay, saying herds of elephants had destroyed acres of crops in Kieni, Nyeri, and as a result many residents were relying on relief food.
2004-10-07 - Nairobi, Kenya. Richard Leakey, The Guardian
Fifteen years ago, the world's television screens relayed images of Daniel arap Moi, Kenya's then president, and myself setting fire to 2,000 elephant tusks. Kenya could have earned millions of pounds by selling the stockpile. But I believed we had to illustrate graphically the impact of the ivory trade, and show that the only way of saving Africa's elephants was to destroy the trade. Throughout the 1980s, ivory trading - most of it fed by ...
2004-03-27 - Nairobi, Kenya.
Kenya plans to move 400 elephants away from a reserve where jumbos are breaking down fences and trampling crops in its biggest animal relocation exercise, wildlife officials said on Friday.
2003-12-20 - Nairobi, Kenya. The East African Standard
More than 50 people from Kinna Division in Isiolo District have been detained after suspected poachers killed five elephants. The tusks of the slaughtered animals, which were apparently shot with poisoned arrows, were all missing. Kinna, an agricultural area, borders Kora and Bisanadi game reserves and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS)-managed Meru National Park.
2002-03-20 - Nairobi, Kenya. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, STE
At Save the Elephants (STE) our mission is to secure a future for elephants, sustain the beauty and ecological integrity of the places they live, and foster a tolerant relationship between humans and elephants. We have pioneered a GPS tracking system that allows an almost continual stream of data on elephant movement.
2024-07-10 - Dublin, Ireland.
Dublin Zoo has confirmed that a third elephant has tested positive for a virus which has left two other elephants dead over the last ten days. Eight-year-old Avani and seven-year-old Zinda died from E...
2024-06-18 - Houston, United States. Houston Zoo
Tess, a 40-year-old Asian elephant at Houston Zoo, has been given the first-ever dose of an mRNA vaccine created by virologists at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) to prevent the deadly elephant endot...
2024-04-26 - Blackpool, United Kingdom.
The latest round of pregnancy tests at Blackpool Zoo has revealed that two of its elephants are expecting babies. Mother and daughter Noorjahan and Esha are both pregnant and due to give birth in late...
2024-04-02 - Sen Monorom, Cambodia.
There was sad news from Mondulkiri Province, with the death of 2 year old elephant “Chi Pich” being announced. Sources from the Elephant Livelihood Initiative Environment Organization (ELIE) said ...
2024-03-26 - Kochi, India.
Popular tusker Mangalamkunnu Ayyappan, 55, 55, died at Mangalamkunnu in Palakkad on Monday. The elephant owned by M A Haridasan had been under treatment for the past few months.
2024-03-23 - Kegalle, Sri Lanka.
The 76th elephant calf was born at the Rambukkana Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage on March 20.This baby elephant was born to 32-year-old she-elephant Shanthi and 19-year-old Pandu at the Pinnawala Elepha...
2024-03-23 - Pretoria, South Africa.
In the ongoing efforts to curb poaching and snaring of animals within the Zimbabwe and Mozambique borders, South African National Parks (SANParks) is working to create more partnerships with neighbour...
2024-03-15 - , United States.
After weeks of voting and thousands of submissions, the Toledo Zoo has officially chosen the name of their precious baby elephant and we're personally thrilled about the news! Ladies and gentleman, Ki...
2024-03-09 - Tucson, United States.
A baby elephant was born at Reid Park Zoo. The zoo said Semba, the facility’s African elephant matriarch, gave birth to a 265-pound calf around 3:31 a.m. Friday, March 8. Reid Park Zoo said the calf...
2024-03-04 - Copenhagen, Denmark.
A female baby elephant in Copenhagen Zoo has been named Chin after the Tha Chin river in central Thailand. The elephant was born last week in the Danish zoo. The zookeepers, who take care of the young...
2024-02-29 - Alappuzha, India.
Evoor Kannan, the elephant known for his murderous rage and with a history of killing two mahouts is in a bad mood these days. He had been gentle under the care of his former Mahout Sharath Parippally...
2024-02-20 - Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands.
African elephant Punda has become the mother of a healthy elephant calf after a 22-month pregnancy. This is the third calf born in the Safari Park Beekse Bergen k in four months. Never before have thr...
2024-02-15 - Pittsburgh, United States.
The zoo said Tsuni died Thursday after a sudden, brief battle with elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV). Her EEHV was detected through routine blood testing on Feb. 8, even though she presente...
2024-02-15 - Seoul, South Korea.
The oldest female elephant in South Korea passed away Tuesday at a zoo in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, at the age of 59, zoo officials said Thursday. The female elephant, named Sakura, had suffered fr...
2024-01-30 - Bangalore, India.
The Bannerghatta Biological Park is brimming with excitement as it welcomes a delightful new addition—a baby boy elephant calf. This adorable arrival brings the elephant count in the Bannerghatta zo...
2024-01-27 - Guruvayur, India.
Elephant Kannan, of the Guruvayur Devaswom Elephant Camp, a nine-time winner of the festival-related elephant race, has passed away. His demise was around 5:30 pm on Saturday. The tusker's age at the ...
2024-01-27 - Koh Nhek, Cambodia.
Villagers found a baby elephant dead in Koh Nhek district, Mondulkiri province in the middle of the forest on January 26, 2024, suspected of being shot. Mondulkiri Provincial department of environm...
2024-01-13 - Beijing, China.
A recent study published in the journal eLife has uncovered new findings on the development of dextrous trunks by indigenous elephants. According to Dr. Shi-Qi Wang, a senior author of the research, t...
2024-01-13 - Pekanbaru, Indonesia.
The Tesso Nilo National Park in Pelalawan District, Riau Province, again lost one of its Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) after a poacher allegedly killed it for its tusks. The 46-year...
2024-01-11 - New York, United States.
In a narrow but sprawling curatorial space at the uptown museum, The Secret World of Elephants, now opened, tells the story of elephant species and their relatives through life-size models, videos, gr...
