Elephant GPS

As the interface between humans and animals grows increasingly more transparent, not all encounters are peaceful. In Kenya, for example, bull elephants are known to ruin villagers crops (and thus their livelihoods) by raiding their harvests.

Now a new electronic collar equipped with a GPS is helping to protect both the crops and the almost-endangered bull elephants. Kenya's Save the Elephants Group equipped Kimani, one of the known crop raiding elephants, with such a collar and so far so good.

When Kimani decides to head for neighborhood farms, the SIM card in his collar sends rangers a text message about his location. They dispatch an armed guard and driver in a jeep loaded with spotlights to frighten the elephant back into the conservancy. Disaster averted.

So far, the rangers have intercepted Kimani about fifteen times since the project began about two years ago. He was once a nightly raider; he last went near a field about four months ago.

Needless to say, this system has been a huge relief to the farmers who used to drum through the night on pots and pans to frighten the elephants away. The program, however, is still in its infancy since only two virtual "geofences" have been established at Kenyan conservancies.

In addition, the batteries wear out after about a year and it is expensive both to replace the batteries and to respond to the messages they transmit. However, the general consensus is that the program has been an overall success. By controlling one marauding elephant, they are often able to control the rest, since, according to Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants, "elephants, like teenagers, learn from one another."

Basila Mwasu, a mother of two who used to worry about her daughter's safety, now lets them play out doors. "We can live together," she comments. "Elephants have the right to live and we have the right to live too."