•Trouble became clear on July 27 when outgoing Tourism CS Balala announced enya had lost 179 jumbos due to drought in eight months.
•"The big elephant in the room is climate change. We cannot be protecting our elephants only to be affected by the drought," Balala said.
Image: ANDREW KASUKU:
Kenya has lost 200 elephants to the ongoing drought ravaging parts of the country.
A source with the Kenya Wildlife Service who requested anonymity told the Star on Tuesday that Tsavo is the most affected.
“The situation has been dire,” the source said.
The source said lack of both water and pasture was the cause of deaths.
In some areas, jumbos have been forced to destroy water pipes and tanks as they search for the commodity, heightening human-wildlife conflicts.
The trouble facing the species became apparent on July 27 after the Tourism CS Najib Balala announced that Kenya had lost 179 elephants due to the ongoing drought in the last eight months.
"The big elephant in the room is climate change. We cannot be protecting our elephants only to be affected by the drought," Balala said at Safari Park hotel, Nairobi, during the honorary warden's conference.
Balala said the impact of climate change is beyond their control.
The CS had said the government was intervening to avert more deaths by building water pans, particularly in the Tsavo area which is badly hit.
The deaths are however still occurring and many carcasses of nearly all wildlife species litter the expansive park.
Conservation Alliance of Kenya Board chairperson Lucy Waruinge told the Star the scale of drought affecting both human and wildlife is huge.
Waruinge said efforts are being scaled up by the government to secure lives of more than 4.35 million Kenyans affected by drought.
Livestock are also dying, she said.
The drought has not spared hardy jumbos.
For instance, a female elephant who survived being shot five times by poachers gave birth nine years later, but died in Northern Kenya of drought and old age.
Monsoon, estimated to be in her 60s, was found collapsed on August 31. Despite vitamins and intensive treatment that got her on her feet, she collapsed several times.
She was euthanised to end her suffering on September 26 in Buffalo Springs Reserve in Isiolo county.
Monsoon was the fearless matriarch of the Storms family and the mother of seven calves.
A team from Save the Elephants, who has been studying Monsoon for nearly 25 years, first found her on August 31. They called the Kenya Wildlife Service North Kenya Veterinary Unit (supported by Grevy’s Zebra Trust, Ewaso Lions and Save the Elephants).
It’s estimated her ill health was brought on by old age and exacerbated by the drought that has ravaged Northern Kenya for several years.
Monsoon was an extraordinary and resilient elephant that survived the poaching crisis of 2009 to 2014 despite being shot five times by poachers and losing two calves to poachers’ bullets.
In 2018, she surprised everyone at Save the Elephants by giving birth again for the first time in nine years in the safe haven of Samburu National Reserve.
The deaths of jumbos occur even as a new report shows that monitored wildlife populations such as mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish have dropped by 69 per cent on average since 1970.
The Living Planet report by World Wide Fund for Nature warns governments, businesses and the public to take transformative action to reverse the destruction of biodiversity.
WWF is concerned about this trend given that these geographical areas are some of the most biodiverse in the world.
The report shows that between 1970 and 2018, monitored wildlife populations in Latin America and the Caribbean region have dropped by 94 per cent on average.
Calf dies despite efforts
Starved and dehydrated, the calf is too weak to stand, and family members are taking turns trying to lift it to its feet.
But there is nothing the other elephants can do, and eventually the calf goes still, the life drained from its small body. The herd mourns but must slowly move off, leaving behind another victim of the drought in Amboseli
In a vivid and shocking description of what is happening in the greater Amboseli, Big Life Foundation’s co-founder Richard Bonham says the impact has been, and continues to be, devastating.
“There is a commotion on the bone-dry Amboseli lakebed, as a herd of elephants gathers around a small shape. From a distance, it looks like the celebration that follows birth. Getting closer, it is clear that it is the opposite. The small shape is an elephant calf in trouble,” he said.
Bonham says starved and dehydrated, the calf is too weak to stand, and family members are taking turns trying to lift it to its feet.
“But there is nothing the other elephants can do, and eventually the calf goes still, the life drained from its small body. The herd mourns but must slowly move off, leaving behind another victim of the drought that is currently sweeping the Greater Amboseli ecosystem,” Bonham said.
But even as the drought ravages various areas, Save the Elephants senior scientist Festus Ihwagi however said there is no cause for alarm as nature is taking its course.
“Since poaching has been contained, the numbers have been on the rise by about 20 per cent. And as the population grows, we expect higher natural deaths,” he told the star in August.
According to census results released last year, there are 36,280 jumbos in Kenya.
The elephants play a key role in tourism as well as in conservation.
(Edited by V. Graham)