Conflict resolution
Category: Travel | Date: Jan 11 2009 | By: elephantsofbotswana
On the 3rd January it was time for me to get back to work, having had a wonderful time getting some R&R in Tanzania following our charity trek up Mount Kilimanjaro. We (my partner Sim was with me) got the shuttle up from Moshi early in the morning. The journey should take 7-8 hours, but it was not until 10 hours later that we were dropped off in the middle of Nairobi. The road from Arusha to Nairobi is pretty much non-tarmac all the way and they are in a hell of a state. I managed to sleep most of the way, as I am prone to do on long car/bus journeys, but poor Sim got to witness the risks that our shuttle driver and every other driver took on the roads. Thankfully we made it in one piece and then had to get a taxi to my friends house - which is another story for another time.
We arrived in time for sundowners with Lucy and it was a huge relief to be out of a vehicle and on solid ground. Lucy is doing her PhD on the elephants up at Save The Elephants base camp up in Samburu Game Reserve in the north of Kenya, and so on the Monday, after Sim left on the Sunday we travelled up to Samburu.
Lucy is working on conflict issues with crop raiding elephants and I have been able to go out with her to the communities she works with and see her work. She works with the Tukana Tribe and after we had checked her experiment, looking at an bees as a means of keeping elephants out, we were invited to see an Orphanage School that they had set up and we were welcomed with singing and dancing - it was quite incredible. My work focuses on a wild population, so seeing this aspect of elephant research was very interesting, it was also great to see the community work which is something we, through the charity Elephants For Africa, will be doing in the future.
I came up to Save The Elephants to learn from Iain Douglas-Hamilton and his work, and I am certainly doing that. We scientist should meet up more often to exchange ideas and learn from each other and I hope that this is the start of many exchanges in the future.
Tags: Conflict, crop raiding, elephants, Save the Elephants, Tukana
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Hi, I am Kate Evans, or more commonly known as Elephant Kate. I am a zoologist whose great love is elephants. Since 2002 I have been living my dream by researching elephants in the Okavango Delta in Botswana. I decided I was going to be an elephant researcher when I was seven. I was living in Asia at the time and visited the elephant orphanage in Kandy, Sri Lanka. It was there that I made up my mind I was going to work for these majestic and intelligent animals. I made a promise to an elephant and we all know an elephant never forgets!!!! It took me 20 years to finally realise my dream and start my life as an elephant researcher. It was 20 years well spent and now I have to pinch myself most days to make sure it is true and I am living my dream.
I now head up a team who are researching the elephants and trying to work out the social and ecological needs of the largest remaining population of the African elephant. From time to time, other team members will add their thoughts and experiences. I love sharing my experiences - so I hope that this blog is a medium through which you will be able to join the elephants and I on our adventures in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. -
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