An Elephant Baby Boom In Kenya Is Welcome News For Conservationists
- Thomas Nelson
- December 13, 2020
- Animals, Nature, News
- 0 Comments
David Attenborough once asked: “Are we happy to suppose that our grandchildren may never be able to see an elephant except in a picture book?” Thanks to a recent elephant baby boom in Kenya, we are a bit further away from the reality of an elephant-free world.
A welcome elephant baby boom
Officials in Kenya’s Amboseli National Park have reported that an elephant baby boom is currently underway. Kenya’s elephant population has more than doubled in the last 30 years, from about 16,000 individuals in 1989 to almost 35,000 individuals in 2019.
So far in 2020, 170 calves have been born, including two sets of twins – an extraordinarily rare occurrence. Only 113 new calves were born in 2018. The elephant gestation period is a full two years, so births are tallied every other year.
“The main reason the population is rebounding is due to the surplus rains we have had over the past two years,” Tal Manor, project manager for ATE, said in an email to NPR last August. “Baby booms are largely tied to ecological changes.”
“Overall in Kenya anti-poaching efforts are also high and elephants are generally safer, which means [fewer] get killed than in other parts of Africa,” Manor added. “And Kenya’s elephant population is slowly increasing.”
Anti-poaching measures in place
Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Tourism and Wildlife, Najib Balala, told reporters that the growth in elephant population also stems from rigorous anti-poaching measures deployed by Kenya’s government.
“In the last couple of years we have managed to tame poaching in this country,” Balala said.
Some claims circulated that the death penalty was being employed to punish poachers, but this is not accurate. Kenya’s Supreme Court actually outlawed making the death penalty a mandatory punishment in 2017, making this claim impossible.
However, Kenya has made changes to its laws regarding poaching. Kenya’s Wildlife Conservation and Management Act of 2013 states “Any person who keeps or is found in possession of a wildlife trophy or deals in a wildlife trophy, or manufactures any item from a trophy without a permit” will face a fine or prison.
At this rate, Kenya could be an important sanctuary state for elephants, but more work must be done to dissuade and end poaching as well as educate people about the reality that elephant-based medicinal cures are not effective.
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