KWS Launches Elephant Census Exercise

The exercise is set to kick off today, Wednesday and is aimed at knowing the exact number of elephants in the parks to help preserve them

Tsavo Chief Conservationist Fredrick Lala said that during the exercise, some of the other big five animals like Rhinos and leopards will also be counted.

“We expect the number of animals to have increased this year despite the challenge of poaching as well as drought,” Lala said.

In the last census that took place in Kenya, Tanzania, provisional results for elephants and other large mammals showed a remarkable recovery from massive deaths occasioned by the devastating drought between 2008 and 2010.

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.

There was a general increase in the number of large herbivores between the years 2010 and 2013.

Elephant population increased from 1420 to 1,930 while elephant carcass ratio declined from 3.7% to 1.8%.

Wildebeest increased by over 100% from 7,240 to 14,728.  Similarly, zebra numbers more than doubled from 13,740 to 29,867 while buffalo population increased by about 72% from 334 to 575.

The population increases can be attributed largely to  the recovery of the populations after the severe drought experienced in the area between 2007 and 2009 and to a lesser extent the increase in survey area more specifically for  elephants.

By Beth Nyaga