The Secret Life of Endangered Elephants

I love seeing elephants be elephants in the wild!  This article and video remind me of the candid photos in my school yearbook that I received today!

Click here to watch the video if you cannot access it.

"We can only manage what we measure"—that is the key to a unique research project which is working towards scientifically proven, evidence-based, conservation of the Malaysian elephant. It is being done with the help of GPS collars, camera traps and hours spent searching through elephant dung.

The work is being carried out by MEME—the Management and Ecology of Malaysian Elephants—a research project being led by Dr Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz from The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (UNMC). The aim is to learn more about the Asian elephant, and crucially how to mitigate the growing problem of human-elephant conflict.

To help develop a long term strategy to protect the country's endangered elephant population Yayasan Sime Darby (YSD) has formally announced a RM3.36m (£700,000) commitment to support MEME's research. The grant will also help MEME build capacity within the Malaysian Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) and Malaysian academic circles to produce a knowledgeable generation of wildlife researchers and managers.

As well as helping to improve current management techniques, the project will also be developing its research into the immediate and mid-term behavioral response of elephants to translocation—when they are moved away from an area of human-elephant conflict (HEC).

YSD Governing Council Member Caroline Christine Russell said it was necessary to monitor what happens to these animals after they are translocated. She said: "In other parts of the world where translocation of elephants is practiced as a mitigating measure against HEC, scientists observed high death rates and competition for resources and space at the release site. Translocated elephants have also been observed travelling back to their capture sites or their original home range, hampering the original objective of translocating the animals in the first place."

Dr Campos-Arceiz said: "Peninsular Malaysia may become one of the last strongholds for Asian elephants in Southeast Asia. Approximately 40 per cent of the Peninsula is still covered by well-conserved forest and includes the protected Taman Negara National Park which is home to around 600 elephants, the largest elephant population in the region. With low human density, a very developed economy, and a functional Department of Wildlife and National Parks the long-term conservation of elephants in this part of the world depends completely on social and political will. With our project, we intend to contribute the know-how and provide data to aid the authorities to do an evidence-based elephant conservation."

~PHYS.ORG

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Go make a difference!