Elephant population on the rise in Kenya, says elephant census

The elephant population is on the rise in two national parks in Kenya. The number of elephants in the two park is gradually growing – and is almost to the same numbers before the poaching crisis.

A Kenya Wildlife Survey (KWS) to determine the impact of poaching on the elephant population in the Tsavo-Mkomazi and Mara ecosystems has shown that between 2014-2017 the populations have increased.

In Tsavo the elephant population has increased by 14.7%, showing an annual increase of 4.9%. During the elephant census in 2017, a total of 12,866 elephants were counted; 12,843 in the Tsavo ecosystem and 23 in the neighboring Mkomazi national park.

In the Mara (including the Maasai Mara National Reserve and the Mara Triangle) the elephant population has increased by 72.2% (from 1,448 elephants in 2014 to 2,493 elephants in May 2017). The Mara covers an area of 22,681 square kilometres.

The KWS report, released on 21 June 2017, attributed the increase to the containment of poaching that has been rampant in Kenya for decades. However, experts warn that poaching was not the only threat to elephants. The researchers said there was pressure on elephant habitats as human populations increase and more land is used for farming and infrastructure development.

The KWS director-general, Kitili Mbathi, said, ‘This is a very good result, considering the threat Mara elephants were under due to poaching for trophies and spearing due to human-elephant conflicts.

(Daily Nation, 22 June 2017)

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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